iPhone keeps disconnecting during restore

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iPhone keeps disconnecting during restore

I have recently sent my iPhone SE (1st generation) 128GB to Apple to perform a battery replacement. Before doing this, I backed my iPhone up to my computer using iTunes (unecrypted). I don't have the iCloud storage capacity to back it up there.

I got my iPhone back, connected it to my PC using a general Lightning-USB cable, ran iTunes, requested to restore the phone with the saved backup. It started, but then in the middle of the restore, the following error message comes up:

"iTunes could not restore the iPhone "<Phone name>" because the iPhone disconnected."

Tried again. Same issue. Freed up space on my PC hard drive, as I heard that this can cause backup restore issues. Same error. Tried connecting with the Apple Lightning-USB provided when I bought the phone. Same error occurs.

I'm not sure what the issue is.

iPhone SE, iOS 13

Posted on Jul 11, 2020 5:11 PM

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Answer 1

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DonPraveen Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 18, 2020 10:46 AM in response to MichelleT18

Hello!

So I managed to restore my phone software by going to the Genius Bar at an Apple Store. From the looks of it, the phone was not the issue, as it underwent the factory reset process as expected. I took the phone home and tried the restoration from a back-up again, and it still failed - suggesting the fault was with iTunes and the ports of my PC.

I then found where the backup was saved to in my PC, and copied it over to the backup location of my MacBook Pro (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204215). I connected my iPhone up to the MacBook Pro and ran iTunes there. After some software updates to allow my MacBook to connect with the phone, iTunes detected the backup and allowed me to choose to restore the phone with the backup. The restoration was successful!

Strangely, backing up the phone afterwards to my PC, I didn't get the same disconnect issues that I did with the restoration. I'm not sure if its an issue with iTunes on my PC or the ports on my PC. I also know that I was lucky to have a MacBook Pro (not usually used for backups due to space constraints) to run the restoration on. I'm not sure what I could have done if I didn't have it. Maybe use another PC / laptop instead?

tl;dr - I fixed the problem by locating the backup in Windows, copying it over to a MacBook Pro and running the iTunes restoration procedure on that.

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Answer 2

Jul 15, 2020 2:00 PM in response to DonPraveen

Hi DonPraveen,

Thanks for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're trying to restore a backup to your iPhone using iTunes but you're encountering an error in the middle of the restore process. We know it's important to be able to restore a backup to your device; we'd like to help. It sounds like you've done some great troubleshooting on your own so far. We'd recommend using the steps in the following resource that you may not have tried yet: If you can't back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup

Let us know if you continue to have trouble.

Best Regards.

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iPhone keeps disconnecting during restore

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