Cannot restore iPhone backup ?

i also had this problem. I was actually trying to restore a backup taken from iphone 6plus (on IOS 10.2.1) into a new iphone 7 plus (which was on ios 10.2 which i didnt realize t the time).

After an update i tried again and then it went through. backups should have the target ios on the same version as backup source. They should really mention this error message when backup restore fails instead of just mentioning either the backup is corrupt or incompatible.

Hi Franck CA,

I'm trying to follow your steps and so far I have found my latest backup and copied it to a new location. But I don't understand where to go from there? What do you mean by "Then I create a new iPhone with iTunes after restoring ipsw file"? Just not sure where to go from here.

I FOUND A SOLUTION!

I know my message below is long but I wanted to explain how I ended up wasting so much time
for something that could have easily been avoided.

I did a backup of my iPhone 6 because I was having some problems with my
audio (My problem was not even related to backups in iTunes!) and after I called apple support they told me it looked like it was a software related issue. They recommended for me to reset my iPhone 6 to apple default
settings so everything would basically be erased from my iPhone.

They told me to make sure I did a BACK UP FIRST! After I erased everything from my
iPhone but going to iTunes and clicking on “Restore iPhone” (keep in mind this will erase everything
from your iPhone) and the iPhone was ready they told me to select “Set up as new iPhone” first.

I tried restoring the backup and this is where my nightmare started! I got the following error: “iTunes Could Not Restore The iPhone Because The Backup Was Corrupt Or Not Compatible With The Iphone that Is Being Restored”.

I called apple support several times and talked to different reps hoping someone will help me get my info back and neither of the reps was able to help me at all! They
said to restore an older copy but I did not have a recent copy at all! Last
time I backed up was 1 year ago! I did not have iCloud turned on either so I didn’t
have any contacts, calendars, text messages, notes, pictures, videos, etc. I
was very frustrated! I was really screwed!

NOTE:
Also I ran into an additional problem: I did not realized my backup was encrypted ALSO
and iTunes required a password to restore the backup. I forgot the password
than I ended up remembering after 2 hours of trying so hard. SO PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU
EITHER BACKUP YOUR PHONE WITHOUT A PASSWORD PROTECTED OR MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER
IT IN THE FUTURE! The backup password has NOTHING to do with the iTunes account
password or computer login, password or your iphone 4 digit pin, etc you currently use. This is set
up BY YOU at the time you decide to choose to do a protected/encrypted backup
from iTunes. You would have prompted at that time to enter this password of your choice twice. Every backup you do after that WILL BE password protected unless you decide to remove it from iTunes for future backups.

I WOULD HAVE DONE AT LEAST 2 OR 3 BACKUPS IF I KNEW THE ONLY BACKUP I MADE WILL
BECOME CORRUPTED FOR NO REASON! I spent 7.5 hours trying and getting same
iTunes error!

A LOT OF FORUMS I READ RECOMMENDED TO DELETE THE CORRUPTED BACKUP AND CREATE A NEW
BACKUP BUT I COULD NOT!!! BECAUSE I ALREADY HAD ERASED EVERYTHING FROM MY
PHONE!!!

Anyways after 7.5 hours of trying to restore the ONLY backup I made I found this
website https://deciphertools.com/decipher-backup-repair.html and I purchase a software for $29.99 that repairs corrupted iTunes backups! Is the best $29.99
I have spent in years! There is a video in youtube with instructions on how to
repair a backup at: https://youtu.be/hRrjbCPiy5c

One of the nicest thing about this repair tool is IT DOESN’T MODIFY THE ORIGINAL BACKUP YOU MADE! in iTunes. This software makes a COPY and REPAIRS THE COPY ONLY so the original backup remains intact! When you restore from iTunes, the file will be named: “Decipher Repaired “Your iphone name”

The 1^st time I tried it did not worked. I tried 2 times because I did not realize that you can not touch your iPhone while in restoring mode, you must wait until iTunes is COMPLETELY DONE! That’s why they recommend to put your iPhone on airplane mode so it doesn’t get interrupted with a text or a phone call.

I had to share this info with all of you because I tried everything and nothing worked.

I hope you don’t have to waste so much time like I did and this feedback from my awful experience can help you 🙂

that was the worst experience that I had about any apple device. I prefer to use apple simply because for the user friendly software. however, that software was almost killing me. It was just simply unable to backup my iphone without a warning!?!

I did whole process as I've always done. But this time, it let me down. I spent 3 hours by trying to restore the backup file without spending money. However, I failed about that. The cheapest solution was the 'deciphertool'.

But, I believe that apple has to pay us that expense. Because, it was not the fault of my actions to have a corrupted backup file. If the 3rd party developer is able to recover the apple's backup file, apple itself has to recover too!!!

From now on, I have trust issues with apple. I think I won't be an apple fan boy anymore.

http://deciphertools.com/download-decipher-backup-repair.html

Thank you very very much for this.

I try to do all the right things: I backup the phone every few days, I encrypt as much as possible, I take good care of my devices. So when @#$% iTunes told me that it couldn't restore the backup I made the night before, I was livid. You had ONE JOB, iTunes. When I click "Backup", and don't get any errors, I should assume the backup was fine and will be able to be restored.

I found this thread while searching for any solution. Downloaded the software, it found (and fixed) some errors. I paid the money, crossed my fingers, and restored the (repaired) backup.

It went perfectly.

I'm rapt.

Thank you.

(iPhone 6s, iOS 10.3. MacBook Pro 15" 10.12.4)

What probably happened there was a problem backing it up and it got corrupted. You may be out of luck unless you had an earlier backup that you can chose from.

If the backup you did before the restore is corrupt you could try to restore from your last sync. When selecting which backup to restore from your last sync will just show the device name without a date/time stamp. it may be out of date but it will be better then starting over.

Same Problem , no Luck

even the when used the icloud backup it only restores an old copy not the most recent one and i don't know why

Same problem, all important notes is gone must be bugs within iOS

When I sync my iphone to iTunes, it shows backup completed and how come it was corrupt during restore.

Hello,

I solved it !!

I had the same problem : can't restore a previous backup, even using right click on my iphone in Itunes.

I had a good backup in the directory :

C:\Documents and Settings\myuser\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

but Itunes didn't detect it.

So I copied the full "Backup" directory in another location (copied, not moved)

Then I create a new iphone with Itunes after restoring ipsw file, given the same name as it has previously.

I did a sync+backup.

At the end I checked the "Backup" directory and saw that Itunes recreated the same folder as the one I had copied earlier.

This time in Ituens when I right click my iphone, I have the menu "restore from backup". But before select this option, I just renamed the new created directory in Backup to xxx.old , and copy back the saved one (the one with same name) into the C:\Documents and Settings\franckca\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup directory.

When the restoration was done, I recovered my last backup.

Hope this helps.

Franck.

i'm having a similar problem with a new iPad on a Mac -- i can't get older backups to restore any better than new ones, and it typically takes half an hour to fail, while maxing out all available RAM (on Mountain Lion).

I am trying to restore from backup in order to clear off 11GB of phantom ("Other") memory use on the iPad that is probably left over from apps dying with large undeleted work file data remnants.

anybody get the above solution to work? i haven't gone to the level of restoring to factory defaults if i can't be assured of getting back the several hours of preferences that would be lost if i can't restore from backups. i have about 1GB of data free on a 64GB iPad -- i can start deleting music or movies to free up space, but that's really beside the point when there is more than 1/6 of the available space lost to garbage, which is growing every time i sync the device....

the latest restore attempt just failed with the same error message as before

any help?

Hi Franck CA I'm having the same problem there has just been an update to iTunes so it appaers the problem hasn't been dealt with as it's still occuring.

Where abouts do i go/click to get to the location:-

C:\Documents and Settings\myuser\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup ?

Thanks

P.S do apple themselves read these pages anyone know?

P.s i use a Mac.

thanks

Hello Simon,

I do not use Mac to sync my IOS device. But did you try into the following location :

/Volumes/<your_Macintosh_HD>/Users/<your_user>/Library/iTunes/

or

/Volumes/<your_Macintosh_HD>/Users/<your_user>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

To go into those folders, use the "Go" menu in Finder (while your press the "Alt" option key). You'll see the Library icon appearing in the list, and just click on it, and navigate to subfolders.

Hope this helps.

Franck, you are the MAN!