iTunes says iPhone backup is corrupted, but I can't locate corrupt backup to delete it.

Thanks!

Preferences>Devices>Backup this worked for me because i could not reset my phone due to broken unlock button. thanks! P

Thanks, skiingnow. Your solution worked for me:
"...All I had to do was determine the UDID for the phone in question, trash the corresponding folder, and then back up that phone. "

For Windows users, the folder is in the path:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

You can open the file 'info.plist' in notepad and on about line 8 it will show the device name.

Thank you skiingnow & ckuan. For over month, I wasn't able to backup my phone. (Wondering if it's because my previous backup was under the previous IOS?)

Anyway, in iTunes (mine's the latest version 11.1.3), I went to EDIT -> PREFERENCES -> DEVICES and selected my last back-up (I only had one - which must have been the corrupted one). Then I clicked DELETE BACKUP.

After that, I successfully backed-up my phone.

Thanks again!

Thank you for your answer bc I had the same problem and your info resolved my issue also! I had to look up how to find my UDID and check out the tutorial about how to find the library but after that it was a breeze. Thank you for all for your posts because I learned 3 new pieces of information about my Mac/iPhone. Cheers! 🙂

You're welcome.

worked like a charm!!! u saved me. thnx man

Thank you so much- had same problem and this was much easier to work on than the earlier ones suggested. All power to you!

I just want to follow-up to post a little bit of specific directions about finding your backups, in case anyone needs them:

On a Mac your backups are in /Users/<your username>/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

(Open Finder, hold the Option key, and select "Library" from the Go menu to get to your user's Library folder.)

In Windows, the fastest way to get to your backup folders is:

- (Windows 7 and below) Start -> Run -> type %appdata% (with the percents) and press return.

- (Windows 8) Search -> type %appdata% (with the percents) and press return.

From Application Data, navigate to Apple Computer, Inc. -> MobileSync -> Backup.

You can match your device identifier with the backup folder name by clicking on the Serial Number field in iTunes (which will switch it to your device identifier.)

I know this thread is about a corrupt backup blocking updating the backup process, but in case anyone is having a corrupt backup blocking a restore (a much scarier problem,) and you don't have the original device/data to make a new backup, I hope you'll take a look at the information I've been writing about fixing backups on my company's blog:

http://deciphertools.com/blog/2014_07_11_itunes_could_not_restore_backup_corrupt /

We have been looking at fixing the corrupted backups, which may be helpful for you!

(Note: As I mentioned, I work for the company I'm linking to above, so I stand to benefit, either financially or otherwise, from the links I'm recommending.)

Can you help me? I'm having the same issue and I wasn't technically inclined enough to extrapolate the info out of that link that you did :S

Hi Medabu,

We can help, but we'll need to know what operating system you are using on your computer (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8? or Mac OSX?) The directions vary depending on the operating system, like in my post above.

Hi Kelly,

I was so tired and posted in the wrong forum... it's actually saying my RESTORE is corrupt or incompatible... pretty sure it does...

But my operating system is Mac OS x 10.9.5...

I backed up my phone, did a factory reset, and now I can't restore my back up.

Hi Medabu,

All good. I certainly understand how tiring fiddling with repeated broken restores can make a person 🙂

You may have already seen this in the various threads I've posted in, but I work on a program that fixes a lot of these corruption errors.

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

I hope it helps -- if not, you can contact us via our support page (linked from the page linked above, or from the program itself) to talk to us directly about the program. Feel free to mention my name directly so your messages get to me asap!

(Note: As I mentioned, I work for the company I'm linking to above, so I stand to benefit, either financially or otherwise, from the links I'm recommending.)

I've read through this post and just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing:

I had an iPhone 4 and got the iPhone 6.

I backed up my original phone and then plugged in my new phone.

I can see in the backup folder on Windows that there are two backups for that date. The first one is clearly my old phone, and the second one is the new one. But, in iTunes preferences, I only see the backup for the old phone.

Anytime I try to back up the new one, it gives me the "corrupt backup" message.

So, I was going to delete the backup from my new phone on my computer since that's the one that's not showing up in iTunes, but I wanted to ask:
1. Is that the right thing to do to resolve this issue? And do I just delete the whole folder that has that UDID number?

2. If I delete the backup, does that mean I lose anything on my phone? It's not an iCloud backup, just to the computer. I don't use iCloud, so I'm worried that I will lose anything I've changed on my phone since I started using my new phone.

Thanks!

1. Is that the right thing to do to resolve this issue? And do I just delete the whole folder that has that UDID number?

2. If I delete the backup, does that mean I lose anything on my phone? It's not an iCloud backup, just to the computer. I don't use iCloud, so I'm worried that I will lose anything I've changed on my phone since I started using my new phone.

1. Yes, as long as you're happy with the data on your new phone right now, you can delete the folder for that UDID. You should immediately be able to make a backup of the new phone in iTunes. And yes, the correct way to delete the backup for that phone is to delete the folder named with that phone's UDID.
2. Deleting the backup will not affect your iPhone, except that iTunes will likely try to make a new backup ASAP, which is what you want 🙂