How do I restore an iPhone X with an iPhone XS backup?

Question

How do I restore an iPhone X with an iPhone XS backup?

Hello everyone.

The screen of my mother’s iPhone XS is broken to the point where it occasionally blacks out for some time (it will still react to touch). Until she can buy a new phone I offered her my old iPhone X that I’m not using anymore. She backed up her XS on her iMac and we tried setting up the X using said backup. But after a day of trying it still hasn’t worked. All it copied is the device’s name.

Both the XS and X have 64GB storage so that shouldn’t be a problem. Both are on their newest iOS versions.

How can I make this work? My mother is worried her XS might stop working altogether.

iPhone XS

Posted on Feb 3, 2024 1:17 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Axel Foley

Level 10

151,560 points

Feb 3, 2024 1:56 PM in response to SniperHusky_1

You may be experiencing an iOS version mismatch. You cannot restore a backup file created by a newer iOS version on a device with an older iOS version. Backup created by a device running iOS 17 cannot be restored by a device running iOS 16.

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You have stated the iPhone X and the iPhone XS are on their newest iOS versions. The thing is that the iPhone X can only be updated to iOS 16 and nothing further. The iPhone XS can be updated to iOS 17. I, therefore, think that you may have iOS 17 on the iPhone XS that created the backup file, and you may be trying to restore that backup on your iPhone X that has iOS 16 installed on it. If this assumption is true, then the mismatch of iOS versions is preventing your iPhone X to restore from the iPhone XS backup.

Axel F.

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