iCloud backup taking over 24 hours on iPhone 12

Question

Buzzerooni Author

Level 1

18 points

iCloud backup taking over 24 hours on iPhone 12

Why is iCloud backup taking so long on my iPhone?

Using an iPhone 12 with 64GB

iOS: 26.3

ICloud account capacity 200GB

Amount of data to be backed up: 3.9GB

iCloud backup has been working fine for this phone since I bought it new.

I got a notice the other day that backup had not been performed for over 2 weeks (weird), so I accessed iCloud Backup and clicked on "Backup Now".

Backup started and took a long time to analyze before displaying "About 15 minutes remaining.

And then the time remaining began climbing and climbing to an hour, 5 hours, 18 hours, and now it says "About 1 day", but it has already been running for over 24 hours.

What could be causing this?

How do I resolve it?

iPhone 12, iOS 26

Posted on Mar 3, 2026 9:39 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 3, 2026 10:04 AM in response to Buzzerooni

Wow-- that's a long time to wait!

How much free storage do you have on your iPhone? At Settings>General>iPhone Storage, my phone says 50.5 GB of 128 GB used. What does yours say? Do you have more than 10% free storage on your iPhone?

If you have less than 10% free, less than 6GB free, then simple things can take a long time, or they may not work at all.

Since syncing uses the battery, and since lots of people are very anxious about battery drain, the iPhone will avoid syncing when not plugged in. And since syncing uses processing power, and people hate slow-downs, the iPhone will avoid syncing while you use it. And since syncing requires bandwidth, the iPhone will avoid syncing when the internet connection is weak.

So, if you want faster syncing, then find good wifi, plug the phone in, and leave it alone.

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Answer 2

Mar 4, 2026 6:34 AM in response to Buzzerooni

Buzzerooni wrote: …Is this really the only solution to a 4GB backup?

I'm not sure what you've tried. And again, I don't have the problem, myself.

Have you checked at the Collections account icon

to see the if the syncing is paused, or if you should un-pause it?

Have you tried a Forced Re-start?

Force restart iPhone - Apple Support

This is different from a simple Power Off. I had to continue holding the button down 5 or 10 seconds past the "slide to power off" message, and then I released the button only after the Apple Logo appeared indicating a re-start.

Have you tried turning wifi off and on?

Have you tried turning iCloud off and on?

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