Unable to delete old backup

I’ve just bought a new iPhone and set it up using my backup from my old phone.

Now I have 2 backups, my old phones backup and a backup of my new phone.

when I select my old phones backup and select “turn off and delete from iCloud” I get an error saying “this backup cannot be deleted at this time”.

I’ve tried all the suggestions I can see online.

sign out of iCloud/turn off/on/sign back in

performed multiple restores

tried to delete on iCloud on laptop.

Turned off backup and deleted new phones backup before trying to delete old one again.

none of these have worked.

I’ve had to increase my storage plan because of this, it’s not the end of the world it’s just driving me mad that I can’t delete it.

can anyone offer any other suggestions please (anyone had same issue)

Posted on Feb 11, 2026 12:12 AM

Top-ranking reply

BurkieBaby Author

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Feb 11, 2026 5:33 AM

Fixed in case anyone has same issue -

I did a restore on my old phone using the old backup I wanted to delete, once that completed I was able to stop/delete that problematic backup on the old phone, and that cleared it from my account completely.

Never goes easy when changing iPhones, seriously considering another brand next time.

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Unable to delete old backup

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