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Not enough free space on iphone 5 to restore from backup

I got a new PC and installed the latest itunes. I followed this thread (https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141) to set up my devices (16gb ipad 2 and 32 gb iphone 5) on the new PC. The ipad worked great. However, I'm running into a problem restoring the iphone from backup. It's telling me there is not enough space on the iphone to restore from backup. According to the itunes summary I have 3 gb of space left on the iphone so I don't understand why it's saying this. I'm wondering what my next step should be. Should I try a restore? Or reinstall itunes? Since I was able to restore my ipad from backup I suspect it must be an issue with the phone. I've tried backing up the phone several times and then restoring but always get the same error message. Thanks for any suggestions.

iPhone 5, iOS 6

Posted on Oct 29, 2012 8:59 AM

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Posted on Oct 29, 2012 10:28 AM

What is the exact wording of the message? I've personally never seen a restore generate an "insufficient space" message.

15 replies

Oct 29, 2012 11:27 AM in response to diesel vdub

After I choose restore from backup and select the most recent backup it first gives me the "Restoring phone from backup" window, but then about 5 seconds later a second window comes up that says "iTunes could not restore the iPhone "Mike's iPhone" because not enough free space is available on the iPhone."


After which the phone immediately reboots. I probably done this a dozen times, always creating a new backup first then immediately trying to restore from backup. Just following the instructions in the document to set up syncing on a new PC. My iPad 2 worked fine using those instructions. For some reason the iPhone is having a problem with the restore from backup.

Jan 22, 2013 11:39 AM in response to diesel vdub

Thanks for the reply, but I know that my contacts have not been synced to a supported application on my computer because I do not have Outlook on my computer. I did not have my notes, contacts, or calendar synced for this reason. Am I screwed? Or is there a way to find out why it won't put my backup on my phone?


Why is the backup that I created immediately before I did the restore suddenly too big for my phone?

Jan 23, 2013 5:56 PM in response to wrayswife

Outlook is not required for syncing contacts to a computer.


You can sync your contacts with:

  • Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7)
  • Windows Address Book (Windows XP)
  • Windows Contacts (Windows Vista / Windows 7)
  • Address Book (Mac OS X)
  • Microsoft Entourage 2004, Microsoft Entourage 2008, or Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac
    Note: If using Microsoft Entourage, use Microsoft Entourage 2008 12.1.2 or later if syncing with Mac OS X v10.6 or later. If you would like to sync data on your Mac with Entourage, enable syncing between Entourage and Address Book.

Without using the device as designed, it is entirely possible that the information is lost.


There are programs that claim to be able to extract information from iPhone backups. A google search will reveal these programs. No support is provided by Apple or via these forums for those programs.

Feb 21, 2013 11:11 PM in response to wrayswife

Hi,


I am having the EXACT SAME issue you were having and it is driving me insane! I do not understand now that I have back-up my iPhone and when restoring it tells me my iPhone doesn't have enough free space available. My question for you is, since you had this issue a month ago, did you ever get it resolved???? And if so...could you PLEASE email me back and let me know so I can resolve this issue as well....I wish there was some way we could review our info that is on our "back-up" and delete some stuff that is on there so it will restore back up on my phone.


my email: courtnithomas@gmail.com


Thanks in advance!

Mar 10, 2013 11:42 AM in response to inmyrvm

Did anyone ever figure out this problem? Same thing happened to me and now i am back to a factory reset iphone, I noticed when I looked at the backup file in the folder location it says that the file size is 17.7 GB but yet my iphone is only 16 GB and can only really hold about 13.4GB. So I do not see how this could happen? If any help please let me know I am at a lost.

Mar 14, 2013 11:43 AM in response to mdn57

It turns out my problem wasn't actually the phone. It was my PC. The error message I was getting incorrectly identified the iphone as running out of space when it was in fact my computer. I had recently gotten a new computer with a 60 gb SSD. Each backup was taking 1-6 gb so it wasn't taking long to fill up. Once I moved the backup folder (in c:\users\[name]\appData\Local\iTunes\Backup) to my 2TB storage drive everything was fine.

Jan 1, 2014 10:08 PM in response to inmyrvm

Hey, after trying to figure this out for a long time with the same issus I could not even just do a regular restore because it was still saying there wasnt enough space. There was 8gb free on the phone and 2tb free on my hard drive where the back up saves.


I went to settings on my iphone and reset it through there, the reset without deleting data. Then I went restore through iTunes and it worked. I was able to restore my phone to factory.I was then able to restore my iPhone from back up.


Alot of weird work for no real reason but it worked this way for me. Hope this helps anyone else having similar issues.

Not enough free space on iphone 5 to restore from backup

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