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how to retrieve an earlier iphone back up to icloud

How can I download an earlier back up to the cloud. my phone got wiped today

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 13

Posted on Feb 20, 2020 6:51 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2020 7:14 PM

When setting up your phone you should be prompted to restore from an iCloud backup:


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204184#icloud


Generally 2 backups are maintained.

7 replies

Feb 21, 2020 4:56 AM in response to duschoolboy

When you restore from iCLoud, only the most recent backup will be available. ICLoud does not keep or archive past backups. Each new backup replaces the previous one, so only the most recent ever remains. ITunes operates the same way.


The only way to archive backups in iCloud would be to rename the device inbetween backups as each uniquely named device gets its own backup file. In iTunes, it is possible to manually archive backups to keep past copies if you wished to do so.

Feb 21, 2020 5:04 PM in response to picas

Where was that screen shot from? I have not seen anything like that on any of my iPhones, IiPads nor Macs. My devices always only ever show a single iCloud backup listed per device (I backup 5 devices to iCloud every day), and when I have restored them from iCloud I have only ever had the option of selecting a single backup for any given named device.


Here on my 2018 Mac Mini - I see a single iCloud backup per device (all updated with then last 24 hours as they should be), just as I do from any of those 5 devices (3 iPads, 2 iPhones, all running iOS 13) under "manage storage" for iCloud so I would love to learn what I am missing here.


Yours is the first post I have ever seen here stating there are older backups that actually can show such a thing listed, so I am honestly just asking to be informed here. Where should I be going to see the older backups listed like that?

Feb 21, 2020 5:12 PM in response to picas

Cool thanks, I have my old iPhone 5 around in a drawer somewhere so I will try a restore with it to see it. This must be something relatively new though, since I’ve been restoring from iCloud since it rolled out in 2011, I have never seen anything but one, most recent backup to restore from for any given named device.


(well, not strictly true as I’ve made archived backups before too, by just changing the name of the device and keeping the previous named file around, but that’s cumbersome and only useful for really long term archiving of a particular backup state).

how to retrieve an earlier iphone back up to icloud

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