Had a phone set up to back up to iCloud. That phone went dead, and was returned to Apple and exchanged with a new one. Because the screen went dead -- thus rendering the phone inoperable -- I was unable to shut off iCloud backups and delete the old backup.
Right now, I can't delete the old phone's iCloud backup, and I don't have enough space to start backups on the replacement phone. How can I resolve this?
Are you signed into the same iCloud account on your replacement phone? If so, you should see your old backup appear in Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup>Manage Storage on the Backups list. If it's there, tap the name of your old phone under Backups, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Backup.
Yes, same iCloud account on the new phone. The old backup is visible, but cannot be deleted. Says something to the effect of "can't delete -- this backup is being used or is restoring from this backup." The new phone shows as well, but it can't begin backing up as the old backup is using up all the remaining space in my account.
If you registered your old phone with Apple, try unregistering it by:
This may take a day or two but hopefully will then allow you to remove the backup.
If it doesn't, then one option is to create a new iCloud account and migrate your data to the new account. To do this, go to Settings>iCloud and turn all data that is syncing with iCloud (contacts, calendars, etc.) to Off. When prompted choose to keep the data on the iPhone. After everything is turned off, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account. (This will only delete the account from this phone, not from iCloud, in case you ever want to re-use the account in the future.) Next, set up a new iCloud account on this phone using a different Apple ID and turn iCloud data syncing for contacts, etc. back to On. When prompted, choose Merge. This will upload the data to this new account.
I thought about that, but the old phone is already unregistered. The new phone has taken its place, so if I attempt to unregister, it'll unregister the new phone.
This is annoying. I assume Apple will wipe the old phone at some point, thus eliminating the link to my iCloud account, right? It still shows in Find my iPhone, and I sent an erase command to it.
I haven't seen any documentation on if or when a device would be removed. You can remove it from Find My iPhone though as described here: http://help.apple.com/icloud/#mmfc0eeddd. Your best bet might be to just set up a new iCloud account, which will give you another 5GB of space. Note: you can only set up 3 iCloud accounts on a device. Once you've reached that maximum all you can do is re-use an existing account.
Well, it looks like the problem fixed itself. After about three days, the old backup disappeared, and the new iPhone could resume backing up to iCloud.
I am currently having this exact same problem. I exchanged a phone in an Apple Store a few days ago, and I can't delete the old backup saved in iCloud from my phone. So, every time my new phone tries to backup, it says I'm out of space. Very annoying. Waiting for a few days doesn't seem like a good fix for the problem. Anyone have any suggestions?
My only guess is that my initial restoration from iCloud on the new phone was interrupted at the Apple Store. When I got home, I just restored from a backup in iTunes. I'm thinking that the iCloud backup still thinks it's in use because the restore never finished.
Hi Congress,
You did not mention whether you tried to delete the old backup from your device?
GB
Hi,
I have the same issue right now. I tried deleting the old backup but it didnt work. I did back up my new phone to my computer though. Will 'Erasing all content and settings' on the new phone and then restoring it from the old iCloud backup (like they try to do in the store) help?
Thanks
Thanks, Gail. That worked for me. I had previously tried to delete my incomplete iPhone backup from iCloud on my Mac, but got the message that the backup is being used or is restoring, despite the fact that iCloud backup was turned off, and I couldn't delete it...
Doing it on the iPhone as you advised, it worked and is now creating a fresh backup. It had previously failed at least 10 times.
Thank you.
Note: previous backup failures were not due to limited storage, as I had over 35 GB available in iCloud. The phone simply would not complete a backup, and kept giving me failure messages.
I had the same problem when I upgraded to a 5S from a 4. what you need to do is
1. After restoring your new iphone using your old iPhone iCloud backup, back up your new iPhone with iTunes.
2. Go to your new iPhone's settings - General - Reset - Erase All Content and Settings
3 Once your phone resets completly go through regular activation and AGAIN (this is important) restore using your old's phone iCloud backup AGAIN!!!!.
4. After your new iPhone is back on BUT, BEFORE backup completes go to your new Iphone's settings - iCloud - Storage & Backup - Scroll down and at the bottom tap on STOP RESTORE!
5. After thats done go to iCloud - Storage and backup - Manage Storage - tap on your old iphone's back up and delete! VOILA!
6th and Final step. go to itunes with your new iPhone pluged in, click on restore backup and choose the most recent backup and DONE!
NOW YOU CAN FREELY CHANGE YOUR BACKUPS TO ICLOUDS INSTEAD OF ITUNES!
this has not worked for me!!!
I used INathanS instructions and it worked perfectly! THANK YOU!!!! You rock!
I just had this problem with my new iPhone 6 and iOS 8 when switching from an iPhone 5 running iOS 8. INathanS solution worked perfectly! I had even spoken to 2 different senior advisors who could not figure this out. Thank you!!!
Can't delete old iCloud backup
