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Q: iTunes says iPhone backup is corrupted, but I can't locate corrupt backup to delete it.

When I sync my wife's iphone 5 with iTunes I receive a message this message, "iTunes could not backup the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone.  Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again."  When I go to iTunes--->Preferences--->Devices there is no backup for this particluar phone listed.  How do I locate the corrupt backup so I can delete and backup this phone?

iMovie '11, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Aug 22, 2013 5:38 PM

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Q: iTunes says iPhone backup is corrupted, but I can't locate corrupt backup to delete it.

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  • by Kelly Wilkerson,

    Kelly Wilkerson Kelly Wilkerson Nov 19, 2014 8:21 AM in response to bradleyfrommontgomery
    Level 1 (63 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 19, 2014 8:21 AM in response to bradleyfrommontgomery

    Hi Bradley,

     

    It's interesting that all three different backups are corrupted, this would lead me in the direction of one of the handful of bugs in the backup process, rather than one of the one-off glitches that can cause a corrupted backup. Have you tried using the link above to Decipher Backup Repair? Our free trial will scan the backups and at least tell you what kind of issues we see in the backups. Alternatively, if your wife is only interested in contacts, there are some third party programs that will extract contacts from the backups so you can get them back onto the iPhone -- we offer one (Decipher Backup Browser), as well as other companies. Usually though, I would recommend trying to repair the backup rather than going for the salvage operation right away.

     

    Here's a link to Decipher Backup Repair:

    http://deciphertools.com/download-decipher-backup-repair.html

     

    As well as a link to our testimonial page as well If you're logged into Facebook on your browser, you should see many Facebook comments about Decipher Backup Repair.

    http://deciphertools.com/testimonial.html

     

    One more link, and that is to our support page, in case you want to contact us directly about your corrupt iPhone backup:

    http://deciphertools.com/support.html

     

    (Note: As I mentioned above, I am affiliated with the company that I am posting links for, so I stand to benefit, financially or otherwise, from the links I am posting.)

  • by rfgteeten,

    rfgteeten rfgteeten Jan 17, 2015 6:20 AM in response to ckuan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2015 6:20 AM in response to ckuan

    Hi,

     

    I'm using an iPhone 5S. I have the latest versions of everything (iTunes, Mac OSX, iPhone 5S) and this error occurred when I tried backing up. After I deleted the backup, the error still popped up.

     

    Any ideas how to fix this? Any help will greatly be appreciated.

     

     

    Thanks!

  • by offroadguy,

    offroadguy offroadguy Apr 28, 2015 9:02 AM in response to rfgteeten
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 28, 2015 9:02 AM in response to rfgteeten

    I'm having the same problem.

     

    I tried getting support from Apple but they want to charge me $30.

     

    This happened right after I updated to iOS 8.3.

     

     

    I've deleted the backups from within iTunes as well as manually by navigating to the AppData folder.

    I've updated iTunes and restarted my PC and iPhone.

    Nothing is working.

    When I make a backup it pops up with an error at the end saying the backup is corrupt. When I navigate to the backup it says it was created 12/31/2000 at 6pm according to iTunes.

    Even trying to backup on my 2nd computer gives the same exact error.

  • by Kelly Wilkerson,

    Kelly Wilkerson Kelly Wilkerson Apr 28, 2015 10:46 AM in response to offroadguy
    Level 1 (63 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 28, 2015 10:46 AM in response to offroadguy

    Interesting, if it's happening on multiple computers, it is unlikely to be an issue stemming from a broken backup sitting on the computer.

     

    You're welcome to send me a note from the link further up in this thread to my company's support page if you want to have us take a look more personally, but here are my thoughts off the cuff:

     

    • If you were using the same USB cable at both computers, I would try swapping out the cable. Likewise, if you're using a USB hub to connect the iPhone to the computers, try connecting directly with no USB hub. (Keyboards with USB ports count as a hub )
    • If you're willing to purge your settings (which you may not be), you can try a Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Settings (NOT erase all content!), but honestly, I'd rather take a look at the phone logs before we start resetting things.

     

    What OS is your computer running? I've seen a lot more Windows 7 and Windows 8 connection problems lately that I'd love to chase down and get resolved.

  • by jfp48,

    jfp48 jfp48 Jul 28, 2015 2:53 PM in response to nahhani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2015 2:53 PM in response to nahhani

    Deleting my last iPhone back up on iTunes under > Preferences>Devices  helped. It removed the "corrupt back up", pop up window.

     

    Thank you

  • by Epic1234,

    Epic1234 Epic1234 Aug 14, 2015 8:50 AM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 14, 2015 8:50 AM in response to skiingnow4376

    This helped me alot. Thanks!!

  • by Woo,

    Woo Woo Aug 17, 2015 11:30 PM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 2 (200 points)
    Aug 17, 2015 11:30 PM in response to skiingnow4376

    Weird but my iPhone 6 Plus wouldn't backup for the last two months, even after deleting the backup. But tonight checking the box to 'encrypt iPhone backup' worked. Got a full backup to my computer.  Hope it restores correctly though. :-o

    YMMV

  • by scuba Sy,

    scuba Sy scuba Sy Oct 10, 2015 5:50 AM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 10, 2015 5:50 AM in response to skiingnow4376

    This issue has been with me for months - Today I removed the Encrypt tick box and the backup has been successful

  • by Jennifer12345! ,

    Jennifer12345! Jennifer12345! Nov 4, 2015 7:18 PM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 7:18 PM in response to skiingnow4376

    You guys are truly amazing; I broke my iphone 6 ios 9 two days after I had backed up my phone on itunes. Because my LCD was messed up I couldn’t do much and it would press the screen on its own completely disabling my iphone to the point where I couldn’t get into it said "iphone is disabled connect to itunes". Once I got my replacement iphone 6 I tried to restore my backup but a message saying "back up is corrupted or uncompitable" would pop up, I tried to restore several times but I wouldn’t work. I began freak out because my whole life was in that backup 8,000 pictures of family, homework assignments, research notes, everything. I couldn’t find any way to get my data back. I literally was panicking until I decided to Google was to fix my backup, I came across this website but it was skeptical to me I dint know whether to trust it or not so I kept googling the name to see if it was real and it was. I went to apple and of course they couldn’t do anything about my corrupted backup. they basically said there was no way they can fix my corrupted file because something went wrong, and there’s no way to get into my old iphone because it was disabled, so I emailed this company and Jay responded less than 30 minutes later. I became a little more confident in the website two days later after panicking about my data being lost I decided to download the software and pay the $30. Once I downloaded the software they scanned my backup and showed me what was wrong, after I paid they fixed it. Less than 5 minutes later my backup was fixed and 20 minutes later my iphone was completely restored as if I didn’t get a new phone. All 8000 pictures were restored. It was unbelievable I honestly can say I was jumping around my heart was extremely happy I couldn’t believe they fixed my back and I had everything back. THEY FIXED SOMETHING THAT APPLE COULDNT FIX! APPLE SERIOUSLY NEEDS TO HIRE THIS COMPANY TO FIX THEIR IPHONE PROBLEMS BECAUSE CLEARLY THEY NEED THESE PEOPLE!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR FIXING MY BACK UP YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW YOU HAVE SAVED ME SO MUCH! THE BEST $30 I SPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • by Kimster73,

    Kimster73 Kimster73 Nov 9, 2015 6:48 PM in response to Kelly Wilkerson
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 9, 2015 6:48 PM in response to Kelly Wilkerson

    Your software is a lifesaver!!!  Five hours on the phone with Apple tech support and 2 hours at the Apple store only left me more frustrated that I couldn't restore my iPhone 6 because the backup was corrupt in iTunes.  High praises for Decipher Backup Repair!!

  • by tlyter,

    tlyter tlyter Dec 18, 2015 5:05 PM in response to glxtokyo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2015 5:05 PM in response to glxtokyo

    This worked...so simple. Thanks for the input!

  • by njssnjss,

    njssnjss njssnjss Jan 23, 2016 11:11 AM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 23, 2016 11:11 AM in response to skiingnow4376

    In special cases, on Windows, you need to go to: AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync and delete a shortcut file, called backup!!!!!

  • by nekeeyab,

    nekeeyab nekeeyab Mar 31, 2016 9:01 AM in response to nahhani
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mar 31, 2016 9:01 AM in response to nahhani

    Thanks.  This really helped.

  • by ijamessaxon,

    ijamessaxon ijamessaxon Aug 30, 2016 8:53 PM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 30, 2016 8:53 PM in response to skiingnow4376

    So it turns out that the "corrupt" message could be very inaccurate, at least on OS X.

     

    In my case, I had previously moved my backup to another location.  While Apple says don't do that, there are many websites that show you how once you find your backup as described here:  Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support


    The instructions are to symlink the moved folder back into the MobileSync directory.

     

    In my situation, some time after symlinking the backup, I had migrated my system (including iTunes) to a new hard disk.  My symlink was then pointing to a nonexistent directory!

     

    Trying to backup, iTunes would spin and look like it was doing something for 30 seconds and then come back with the fact that the, nonexistent, backup was corrupt!  That was painfully misleading.

     

    But, once I retraced my earlier steps, I was able to find the original backup and then repoint the symlink to the correct place.

     

    And once that was done, the backups reappeared in the iTunes Preferences list and the backups started working again!  Why?  Because they weren't corrupt in the first place, they were simply missing via the bad symlink!

     

    iTunes should have immediately complained that the files were missing.  That would have made more sense.  But it's an unsupported "feature" so, it's on me.

     

    At least I can help others who've run into this problem and haven't found the root cause!

     

    Good luck.

  • by WalterHeape,

    WalterHeape WalterHeape Sep 13, 2016 1:59 PM in response to skiingnow4376
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 13, 2016 1:59 PM in response to skiingnow4376

    THANK YOU

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