Cannot restore iPhone backup ?

Hi Frank

I am having the same issue with my iphone. I was updating my software to iOS 6 and during the restoration process, everything was only restored until the 16 August, even though I did a backup just prior to updating the software to iOS 6.

I am trying to follow your instructions and am able to find the folder "Apple Computer" but there is nothing in there called "MobileSync" and so cannot proceed with the rest of your steps.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you for any assistance 🙂

Hi Sheetal555,

Are you using Windows 7 ? Vista ? Or Windows XP ?

My original post was for XP.

In Win7/Vista the location of "Apple Computer" folder are multiple, in the user space.

You can find "Apple Computer" folder in :

• C:\Users\my_user\AppData\Local\Apple Computer
• C:\Users\my_user\AppData\LocalLow\Apple Computer
• C:\Users\my_user\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer

Try in all of those folders.

NOTE : I remember it is same locations for MS Vista, if this is your OS ?

Another suggestion would be to unhide all invisible files and system files using the following procedure, and then do a search "backup" using "Agent Ransack" tool :

1. Open the Control Panel (icons view).

2. Click on the Folder Options icon.

3. Follow "option 1" of the following URL : http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

Agent Ransack tool can be found here : http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home

Cheers,

Franck.

Hi Franck

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I am running on Windows 7.

As it turns out, the problem is not with locating the backup, but that when iTunes was performing the backup, it did not complete it in full, I received an iTunes error (-50). So it only backed up until 16 August 2012 instead of 23 September 2012. Not sure why this happened. Tried to find other online solutions to this particular error but nothing has worked so far.

If you have any suggestions that would be great, if not, no worries and thank you for your help

🙂

Hi everyone..

I have similar problem and have attempted many times to fix it but failed.

I have just updated my iPhone 4S to iOS6 yesterday. It was iOS5.1.1 and was in jailbreak mode before the update.

I did sync my iphone and did the 'Backup' as well before the update by using my latest iTunes via my laptop.

The iOS6 update was successful.

However, the 'Restore from backup' failed.. many times!! Everytime I tried to Restore from backup, i lost internet connection towards the end of the 'restore in progress' process so it was never complete. I had to pull out the iphone cable or restart my pc every single time that happened. Because i cannot get an internet connection after that happened. I cannot connect to any wireless network, so I had to restart the pc!
(the iPhone says 'Restore complete' as soon as I pulled out the cable. But phone stays as NEW phone, none of my backup data was restored).

During the 'restore from backup' attempts (via iTunes 10.7 on laptop), I have tried:

- Restoring to factory settings first and then restore from backup = tried many times and still failed.

- Uninstalled Apple mobile device and iTunes and re-installed them = still failed.
- Switched OFF the phone and hold the Home button while connecting to the laptop. Restored to factory settings, then tried to restore from backup = still failed!!

- switching to different USB ports on my laptop including USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 = no luck, still failed.

NOTES:
-Laptop is on Windows 7 and have had NO such problems so far. I have been using iPhone since 3GS.

-Internet connection is via wireless router, steady connection.

-My 3GS was on jailbreak mode before. I bought iPhone 4S and successfully restored from my '3GS backup' without any problem.

Hi Sheetal555,

OK, I understood you were not able to locate backup as you wrote :

[...]

I am trying to follow your instructions and am able to find the folder "Apple Computer" but there is nothing in there called "MobileSync" and so cannot proceed with the rest of your steps. [...]

I am sorry but do not have any other ideas.

Regards.

Franck

Nevermind.. I just found the solution to MY problem.

I copied the Backup folder into my mate's laptop and did the 'Restore from backup'.
All is good now.. Only need to re-install my apps, soon after all will be back as per normal! 😀

@ Stea7th

Could you please let me know the exact location you put the back up file ?

Also did you login with your apple ID in Itunes on your friend's laptop ?

What did it exactly sync ? contacts, notes, photos/videos ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Actually, it did try to load the backup but the backup did not work. Long story short, you can restore to a specific backup but it requires very specific orderly process:

1) Return your IPhone to a brand new state (freshly installed IOS).

2) Uninstall iTune from your PC (keep your backup around) and remove the directory after uninstall to ensure no files are left behind.

3) Reinstall iTune onto your PC. Then copy your backup (folder) to the iTune backup directory (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup).

4) Lanucn iTune, connect your IPhone to your PC via USB.

5) Onces iTurne recognize the IPhone and you should be able to restore your backup.

Good luck!

I am actually trying to sync to a corrupt backup as i dont want/cant delete it

i did a backup with my iphone 4, then i programmed the nano sim for iphone 5, then i turned the iphone 5 on, then sync from backup, it was transfering the files then at the end it stopped and said sync could not finish due to corrupt backup

silly me i had already wiped out what was in my ihpone 4 so my only hope is to try and find a way to sync with the corrupt backup

i was able to sync with the iphone 5 by doing it as a new iphone, it synced my apps and music, but the important stuff like contacts sms notes are still in the corrupt backup

any toughts ?

if i go to the apple store with my laptop will that help?

thank you!

i'm having the EXACT same problem, if anyone could give me instructions on how to fix this using a mac and iphone 4s, it would be much appreciated... i tried searching Volumes/<your_Macintosh_HD>/Users/<your_user>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

in the go finder but nothing... any help before this iphone goes skimming across the river would be fantastic

Hello,

I suppose you have the latest MACOS and Itunes releases.

What is the date of your last iphone backup on this MAC ?

Did you sync your iphone already after the full restore ?

Are you sure you have activated the option in Itunes to backup your iphone on the MAC (and not on Icloud) ?

Just try the go in finder to : /users/<your_user>/library and go step by step into folders :

-Application Support,

-Support,

-MobileSync

-Backup.

Do you succeed go in each of those folders. Backup is empty or contain something ?

Are you using an admin account ?

Franck.

Hey Franck,

Thanks for your reply, I followed your steps and all the data is there exactly like in the pic you put on your post, in itunes the setting is to back up on the mac not icloud. i have the latest itunes and i am running ios 6.0. I am using an admin account, so it looks like all the data is there, it just wont let me put it on my phone?

the latest back up was on the 19th Dec 2012

do yu nohow to find the backup folder on a PC?

I had this same error message today. Running a jailbroken on version 5.1.1. I tried restoring multiple backups and they all failed with the same error message. I then noticed I had hardly any freespace left after checking in Settings/General/Usage. I deleted a few large apps until I had about 1GB free. Then I repeated the restore of one of the files that had failed twice before and VOILA!

So, clean off some apps, photos, music or other data to clear space on your phone and then re-try the restore. It may be just as simple as that.

The bigger question for Apple is: Why couldn't there be better error handling here? Or at least some better information online that states the various causes of this error.

By the way, this restore was required because my iPhone spontaneously lost all it's Contacts but now I wonder if that was due to a disk space issue as well??? But same thing happened to my wife on her NON-jailbroke phone 5.1.1 and she hardly uses her phone at all. Her restore worked fine first time so beware all you 5.1.1 iPhone users at least....backup your phone often or at least your Contacts. Apple is also no help in that area. Their recommendation was that your phone isn't meant to be storage and that users should backup to iTunes on a regular basis. Horse hockey! Do they REALLY not know their customers that much and do they REALLY follow their own advice?? Simply Admitting that they have a bug and are working to improve their platform every day with every release would go so much farther than trying to spread fertilizer on the weeds!!