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"the last backup could not be completed"

I noticed my iPhone 3GS has stopped backing up (It is connected to a power source and has WiFi connection).


I tried to manually back up to iCloud, but I get the following message after several minutes; "the last backup could not be completed."


Today, I restored my iPhone and downloaded iOS 5.1. I still have the same issue. I deleted the old backup in iCloud and tried it again - and still the same message.


Any ideas how to solve this?

Posted on Mar 7, 2012 7:29 PM

Reply
109 replies

Nov 2, 2014 9:40 AM in response to seasickstig

Wow, I didn't realize this thread was still alive. Nothing that I did worked and I finally wound up calling Apple support for help. They wound up having to open a trouble ticked, assign an engineer and a temporary password to my account and attach a diagnostic routine to my iCloud account to figure out what was wrong. I never did find out what was wrong but it suddenly started working about 48 hours after they initiated diagnostics.


It has worked fine ever since and I was recently upgraded to the $10.99/year for 20GB plan.

Aug 18, 2015 9:52 AM in response to AWArea51

After following the suggestions offered:

1) Backup to computer, and then turn iCloud backup on.

2) Powered phone via AC outlet (2.1 amps), not computer

3) Reset iPhone

4) Deleted previous iCloud backups

5) Increased iCloud storage


I had no absolutely joy - same message about not completing.

However, after doing all that AND moving away from my office network, connecting to another network and powering the phone via an AC outlet (2.1 amps), iCloud backup worked - finally.


Whether it was the network switch alone or all of the above combined remains to be seen. The next question after enabling the iCloud backup is why can't Apple provide better documentation regarding the problem/solution instead of leaving it to the user community to figure it out?

Sep 16, 2015 2:31 PM in response to MooneyMark

I was having the same issue: could not back up to either iCloud or iTunes. I tried the suggestions in this and every other thread I came across with no luck. It was pretty frustrating! What finally worked for me was to look at Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage. In the list of apps, there was one app that I had deleted recently, but it still showed in the list, although with a generic target-looking icon instead of the app's usual icon.


I deleted the app from there, and did a hard reset. After the hard reset (this step is essential), I re-downloaded the offending app from iTunes and tried to back up. It worked right away on both iCloud and iTunes!


After the backup, I was able to delete the app, and backups still work.


Hope this helps someone else!

"the last backup could not be completed"

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