iTunes could not restore the iPhone, because the iPhone refused the request

"My solution:

Restore the phone to default, make the fresh backup and copy newly created Status.plist (not NULLed) into your non-working backup (make the backup of this backup before).

If this doesn't help, check the other files *.plist, . if are corrupted and try replacing one by one from the new backup. Having *.mbdb and *.mbdx files and replacing *.plist, you could lost some application (which you can transfer again), but at least you should have all your contacts, messages, etc."

Sorry to sound silly but how exactly do I do any of this?

I'm not too bothered about the apps but could really do with at least my contacts back,

just some sort of step by step simplified guide would be SO helpful thanks 🙂 x

right click and open with notepad

This fix worked for me as well. It said it errored but I ended up getting back all my texts, photo, phone history even though it said it errored up 're' restoring. I had to resync my apps and songs, but that's easy. Kind of a pain re-organizing, but I guess my apps could of used it. Thanks for posting. Apple needs to fix this.

im sorry i dont want to sound dumb or anythingbut how exactly would i do that?

Thanks to kenorb for finding this. Some more detail for anyone who is not as techie-minded and has this issue (I just experienced it with iTunes 10.3.1.55)

This happens because the status.plist file in your iPhone's backup files becomes corrupt. This happened to my system following the upgrade to a new version of iTunes. When I spoke to Apple support, they did not provide the following solution, even though it seems to have been around for a long time in these forums!

The way to fix this is by logging on/creating a new user profile on your PC and replacing the corrupted file.

Log onto your computer as a different user account (create a new user if necessary)
Start iTunes
Connect your phone
Create a backup of the phone (right click the phone and select backup)
Log off and log back on as the user you are having problems with
Navigate to the new user profile's itunes sync folder (most likely c:\users\[otheruseraccount]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup on a PC)
You will see a backup folder like this "d4a766c4caa043ffe5ff857d1b85cb480430287c"
Inside that folder is a file called status.plist
Copy that file and replace the existing one into the equivalent folder in your own user profile
Start iTunes and plug in your phone
Now you should be able to restore your previous backup to your phone without any problems

i am so stuck and so fustrated right now and have a simlar issue. i jumped the gun and installed itunes beta 10.5 so i could update to ios 5.0 early. it had some errors when i went to restore from a backup . it refuses to acknowledge a spefic backup file which im hoping still contains my more recent contacts and all my most recent text messaging. this folder is missing mainfest .plist, satus.plist, manifest.mbdb. and info.plist. ive tried copying from other backup folders but it seems not to work or im doing it incorrectly. is there a progam i can use to read the files within the corrupted backup folder. what can i do to read or even make itunes read this speficific folder once again. i updated to the stable 10.5 itunes and im still running ios 5.0 on a older backup that it did restore from. i just want my recent contacts and recent text/sms history. dont really care i can readd my music apps and photos i took on the phone . any suggestions woudl be most appreciated thanks!

Thanks so much! My phone is restoring using the older back up.. I'll have to wait and see if it restores app data... I would have thought it should do.

THANK YOU!

This worked!!

When I set up the iPhone as a new phone it would not even back up succesfully, it failed. So i simply used a Status.plist out of a working back from several years ago.

Miricle, thak you so much.

Is a terrifying and huge bug in iTunes.