Specific iCloud backup to restore to?

Hi anelawings!

I understand that you’d like to know if you can restore a specific backup to your iPhone, and I'm happy to help. If there are more than one backups available, you will have the option to choose one at the time of restoring.

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup

Cheers!

iCloud only ever keeps a single backup file per device. So the only backup file you can restore from is the most recent on that is there. There is no iCloud backup archive to select older backups from. Every 24hrs the most recent backup replaces the previous one.

Demo, that’s what I am saying though. Since people keep mentioning archival backups, I have looked for them when restoring devices from iCloud or setting up new devices. There isn’t one. It is not there. I have only ever seen the option to restore a single iCloud backup (by device name) when executing a restore.

The only way I know to get an archived iCloud backup is to rename the device, to keep the older device-named backup file saved to iCloud.

And give how large some device backups (especially newer large storage devices) can be, and the default iCloud account of 5GB (for everything - data sync, email, and backup) I would be stunned if Apple had implemented any archival iCloud backup system or setting.

Even iTunes (or finder now with 10.15) doesn’t create archived backups - it replaces the last with the most recent, unless one manually archives a backup.

And I appreciate that as I had not seen that thread before. But it just does not jive with all the actual backup/restore and set up from new I have experienced over the years. I just see no actual evidence that iCloud keeps anything but one, most recent backup file available for restore or setup (based on device name, so that trick of just changing the device name is one way to make an archival backup).

It would be so nice if the support doc on restoring from iCloud would just include a definitive statement about this whole thing to put it rest, one way or the other.

The only way I can envision the second or “B” backup would be accessible or visible is when you are actually in the process of restoring the backup. As you said, you can’t see it anywhere in the settings on any device or in iCloud.com. Whether it’s a new device being set up, or an existing one that you erased, the second backup may only be visible when you get to the point in the setup where you can select a backup to restore.

I just got a new iPad Air 3 and never thought to look for a second backup when I set it up. I wish that I would have thought about looking for it, but I didn’t. One of the things that I was dealing with when I set up the iPad was having to update the iOS software to iOS 13.3 because my backup was a 13.3 backup. I don’t remember what else had just transpired when I OK’d the software update.

So how, when restoring, does one access this mythical alternate backup file? I have restored many an iOS device from iCloud - never, ever had any option to chose but one, single, most recent backup file to restore from.

I have 5 iOS devices - I see a single, most recent backup file only for any of them, no matter how I view my backups (from iOS, iPadOS, or MacOS).

I’ve been hearing this for years, but have never once seen anyone mention then how to actually choose anything but the most recent file when restoring from iCloud.

So quite bluntly I remain as yet unconvinced that iCloud keeps anything but the most recent backup. Otherwise, there must be some way to chose the next older one when restoring? If iCloud is automatically backing up once every 24hrs, where is this supposed “backup B” file and how would I get access to it when restoring from backup?

I certainly take your word for it. It has been a year since I restored a previous backup until I set up the new iPad several days ago. The last backup that I restored was when I bought my iPhone XR in December of 2018. I didn’t think about looking for another backup in either instance.

I directed you to the lounge article because according to Joe and anypats, iCloud does store two backups per device. I found it to be of some interest even though I haven’t been able to confirm it.

You will find this interesting. Unfortunately, the OP will not be able to get in since it is a lounge discussion.

Number of iCloud backups per device question

I agree. I believe that I made the remark to Joe that I wish Apple would document this one way of the other.