Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Unable to Restore iPad Air With iPad 2 Backup

Hello All,


I just purchased an iPad Air 128Gb Wi-Fi version to replace my iPad 2 64 Gb Wi-Fi version. I tried to restore the iPad Air with the iPad 2 backup through iTunes, but each time it aborts with a message to effect that the iPad 2 backup is either corrupted or not compatible. I tried backing up the iPad 2 again and then restoring iPad Air with the newer backup - but get the same message.


The result of this is that it is trying to sync all my old Apps but without their data - i.e. no previous game saves and the like. It also is not maintaining the folder structure that I previously had on my iPad 2.


Is there some kind of compatibility problem with restoring from an iPad 2 backup? This seems strange since my iPad 2 is only 2 years old. I've seen that other people had similar problems but with different devices. I'm just wondering if anyone has had this problem trying to restore to an iPad Air from an older iPad backup, and how do you get around this problem?


Any help would be tremendously appreciated. I really need to get my old App data and App folder structure from the old iPad backup.


FYI, I made sure that both the iPad 2 and the iPad air are both using iOS 7.0.3 in case that matters.

iPad Air Wi-Fi, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 8, 2013 9:33 PM

Reply
32 replies

Dec 22, 2015 9:49 AM in response to rajatmital

Had this same exact issue. Discovered the root cause of the problem seemed to be the new iPad Air 2 was on ios8.4 while my most recent iPad2 backup on icloud was version 9.2.

I know I had a recent icloud backup (ipad2 on ios 9.2) from last night, but didn't seem to have that as an option to restore FROM while setting up new ipad.


So,:

  1. chose setup as new ipad on new ipad air 2
  2. updated to ios 9.2 on new ipad air 2
  3. erased all content and settings on new ipad air 2
  4. this brings me back to set up steps on new ipad air 2, after setting up icloud, I now have my most recent ipad2 backup as an option
  5. Restored from desired backup, all is good!


Hope this helps someone.

Unable to Restore iPad Air With iPad 2 Backup

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.