I just backed up my iPhone. I then erased it. Now, when I go to restore from backup, i get this message "Could not restore the iPhone "iPhone" because not enough free space is available on iPhone.
A backup from the iPhone i just erased, is bigger than the actual iPhone.
So, how do I restore my iPhone now?
iPhone 17 Pro, iOS 26
This is unusual, it must have been almost full. Apart from getting or borrowing a phone with a larger capacity to restore it to temporarily, there are no options.
I also assume you were not using iCloud sync for data and photos if it was that full?
Advice is to always have 20% spare memory
kanaks wrote:
I had been freeing up space, and it would quickly creep back up. My System Data was at 50gb! My plan was to restore from backup in order to get that System Data down.
Hard to believe that "there are no options".
And that should have worked. System data is not backed up.
The other explanation is that the error message is misleading and you are very close to a full iCloud plan, please check that. The solution would be to buy more monthly iCloud data.
I had been freeing up space, and it would quickly creep back up. My System Data was at 50gb! My plan was to restore from backup in order to get that System Data down.
Hard to believe that "there are no options".
Unable to restore iPhone from backup: Not enough free space
