"Could not back up the iPhone because an error occurred while reading from or writing to the iPhone."

Question

9GAG_user Author

Level 1

13 points

"Could not back up the iPhone because an error occurred while reading from or writing to the iPhone."

iPhone 13 mini with 16.1.1
Macbook Pro retina late 2013 running Big Sur 11.7.1

This happened while backing up iphone on finder.

I'm able to edit iPhone content and backup via iCloud.

Have restarted both devices and have reseted privacy and location settings on iphone to assign trust on mac, again.

Apparently, iphone starts backing up for 1 second (rotating arrow appears on upper right corner) and immediately disappears. Within 10 seconds, the message shows on macbook.

Nothing happens on iphone, after.

iPhone 13 Mini

Posted on Nov 17, 2022 4:16 AM

Reply

Answer 1

ArmMan1016

Community Specialist

Nov 19, 2022 3:42 PM in response to 9GAG_user

Hi 9GAG_user,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. You've some great troubleshooting on this so far. We suggest trying these additional steps found in the Apple Support article: If you can't back up your iOS or iPadOS device to a computer or restore it from a backup - Apple Support

Try again after each step

1.Make sure your Mac or PC is up-to-date. If you're using iTunes, make sure that you have the latest version of iTunes.

2.Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable, and locate your device on your computer. If your device doesn't appear in Finder or iTunes, learn what to do. If you forgot your passcode or your device is disabled, learn what to do.

3.Restart all your devices.

4.If you use a Mac, skip this step. If you use a Windows PC and iTunes won't respond or your backup never finishes, you might need to update, change, disable, or uninstall your security software.

5.If you own more than one computer, try to make a backup on your other Mac or PC. Or, use iCloud to back up your device and restore from your iCloud backup.

6.If you see an alert that says an error occurred, your backup is corrupt or incompatible, or there's not enough disk space, find your error message below to learn what to do next.

If this issue persists, get in touch with Apple Support for further assistance:

Apple Support

We hope this helps you.

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Answer 2

9GAG_user Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 28, 2022 4:11 AM in response to Chris_C1

for those interested:

the solution was deleting all "iOS files" (which were backups) in this menu, specifically:

Explanation:

Before backing up my phone in finder, I've erased all previous backups (in finder) and then tried the backup, which failed.

Apple support lead me to this menu (image above) where 18GB of "iOS files" were shown; firstly we've left them there and tried several manoeuvres, to no avail; secondly I decided to erase them and alas the elusive back up was consummated.

Hurray to us!

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