Can’t restore to 6

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Level 1

8 points

Can’t restore to 6

My iphone SE got destroyed. I got an iphone 7 and switched to that. Turns out it’s too small (it’s already maxed out on storage), so I’m going to get rid of it and use a hand me down iphone 6. I tried to set up the iphone 6 but i can’t restore from the icloud became the 6 isn’t running ios 14, and it can’t because it’s not offered. It’s restoring from an old backup from when I had the SE (old SE to be clear), which definitely wasn’t using ios 14. How do I fix this? Is this apple just forcing me to upgrade against my will and turning the phone I have into a piece of garbage? what can I do?

iPhone 6

Posted on Nov 26, 2020 8:17 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

230,377 points

Nov 26, 2020 8:23 PM in response to xyx_abc911

You cannot update the iPhone 6 past iOS 12.4.9. You cannot fix that except to get a phone with the newer iOS. You can only restore a backup to a device with the same or higher iOS on it. Same with size. You cannot restore an iPhone with a higher capacity to a phone with a lower capacity.

Also, Apple did not destroy your phone, so they haven't done anything to force you to upgrade.

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Answer 2

Chris0107

Level 9

51,851 points

Nov 26, 2020 8:21 PM in response to xyx_abc911

not really enough info to say for sure.. but I'd suspect that the iPhone SE was running iOS 13?

you can never restore an iPhone backup that was made on newer iOS to a device running older iOS. has nothing to do with Apple forcing you to upgrade. same 'issue' would apply to a brand new phone. making something forward compatible is far different than making something backward compatible.

You can set the iPhone 6 up as new and manually download your apps?

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Answer 3

Nov 26, 2020 8:41 PM in response to xyx_abc911

If you synced photos, messages, contacts, etc. with iCloud, as long as you sign into the new phone with the same Apple ID as you used on the now destroyed phone, you go to Settings > Your Name, Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store. Tap iCloud and turn on all the services you had turned on on the destroyed phone and your photos, etc., will sync to the phone you're setting up.

If you didn't sync these features with iCloud, and all you have is an backup on iCloud, you're going to have to get a phone capable of running at least the iOS version which was running on the now destroyed phone in order to restore the new phone from the backup of your old phone.

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Answer 4

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

230,377 points

Nov 26, 2020 8:49 PM in response to xyx_abc911

What do you mean you can't use their services? If the backup you have is of a higher iOS than the phone you are trying to restore to, that has nothing to do with Apple forcing you to do anything. That is just how backups and iOS work. Trying to restore to an iPhone 6, which cannot handle iOS above 12.4.9 is not the way to go. That backup restrictions has been in place since day 1. You have never been able to restore an iPhone backup to a phone that has an older iOS than that backup.

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