Restore Incomplete icloud Backup

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Restore Incomplete icloud Backup

Hello,

The only backup I have is an incomplete backup which is almost 40gb on my icloud of my 64gb Iphone X, so its more or less the entire backup of my device.

I have no other backup of my device since I had recently paid for a 200gb subscription of icloud space a few days before my iphoneX crashed (was running low on space since some time) and had to be restored to the factory settings as there was no other option - tried almost everything.

I regret not taking timely backups but I want to restore the backup into my factory reset device as it has tons of photos.

Icloud doesn't let me do that and it doesn't even give an option to download the 40gb backup so i can use it at a later date when there is technology to retrieve data from it.

I have been informed that eventually the entire backup will be deleted in 180 days...that's about 40gb.

I am merely left with no option but to be a silent observer witnessing a slow death of all my memories over these years, knowing the engineers at apple could help me if they want since the data is still there on the cloud.

I would be happy with 40gb of incomplete data on my phone rather than no data at all.

Folks, please help me on this.

Thanks

iPhone X

Posted on Jan 2, 2020 9:39 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

CarlAVII

Community Specialist

Jan 6, 2020 12:42 PM in response to DocMalik

Hello DocMalik,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities! I understand from the information you provided that your only backup is incomplete. You need to set up your iPhone again, and you’re worried about restoring your photos; I'd like to help.

If you had iCloud photos enabled, your photos can be synced to your device without restoring the backup.

You can check if your photos are backed up by logging in at iCloud.com on a desktop browser and then go to Photos.

Depending on what you had enabled in your iCloud settings, you may also have your Contacts, Calendars, Notes, Reminders, and more.

During the set up process of your iPhone, sign into your iCloud account and all the content you have at iCloud.com will sync to to the iPhone. Make sure while your iPhone is syncing to iCloud that you stay connected to a stable Wi-Fi connection.

After you get your iPhone set up again, this article can help you back up your iPhone.

About backups for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support

Hope this helps.

Best Regards.

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Answer 2

Jan 8, 2020 7:30 AM in response to DocMalik

An incomplete backup is essentially by definition a corrupted backup as well, so there will be no way to restore it to any device. The restore will fail. And you cannot download an iCloud backup and pick through it for individual pieces since it is an encrypted file and only gets decrypted when restored to an Apple device.

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Answer 3

DocMalik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 15, 2020 4:49 AM in response to Michael Black

Hi,

Thanks for trying to help out however I believe the level of encryption of the backup should be similar in an iCloud backup and an itunes backup, and there are softwares which assist in recovering files from an encrypted itunes backup (I'll attach some pics for reference). I am not looking for restoration of the backup but only downloading the huge file so I can get something out of it as you can imagine the number of photos a 38GB backup would be holding in it.

I was just wanting to know a way to download an incomplete backup to my pc, which technically shouldn't be difficult since the file it out there in the cloud and it being quantified in terms of its size, but I guess there isn't a way.

The only way is to forget about clicking those 10K+ snaps and take backups in the future.

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Answer 4

DocMalik Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 7, 2020 7:26 AM in response to CarlAVII

Hi,

The icloud photos wasn't enabled, thus the size of the backup is huge as it also comprises of tons of photos.

This is how my icloud account shows up, as you can see the backup is taking the maximum space. There are hardly any photos backed up to icloud.

I haven't been able to find any help till now, even from the apple customer support on the phone.

I would at least want to download the incomplete backup on my computer as there are few softwares online which claim to retrieve files even from an incomplete backup however they cannot access an icloud backup.

Any help is appreciated regarding the matter.

Thanks!

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Answer 5

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Jan 8, 2020 6:30 AM in response to DocMalik

DocMalik,

Thanks for getting back to us. You won't be able to restore an incomplete iCloud backup. I know you mentioned you don't have any other backup, does this mean that you never bade a backup on a computer? That would be your only other option.

Best Regards.

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Restore Incomplete icloud Backup

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