iPhone Backup Cannot be Saved Because of Not Enough Space on Computer

I have been having this same issue, and it took me awhile, but I figured out what was going on (at least in my case):

1. I tried deleting old backups and lock files etc, and none of that worked.

2. According to CMD-i on my HD, I had plenty of space for the backup.

3. Console was giving -36 error

I went to terminal and typed "df -g" and the free space on the main Filesystem ("/dev/disk0s2" in my case) showed a different and significantly smaller amount of free space than cmd-i on my "Macintosh HD".

The difference turns out to be something called "local snapshots" for timemachine. (see here for more information on the concept: Time Machine MobileBackups and here for how to turn it on and off: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/85805/how-to-wipe-huge-mobilebackups-f older ). These have nothing to do with your phone, but they do have to do with time machine lying to you about how much disk space is "actually" free. iTunes should be able to access all the space reported by "cmd-i" on your HD, but it seems that it can only access the space reported by "df -g" in the terminal. I am going to file this as a bug in the morning.

I turned off mobile backups at the command line as shown, waited a minute or two for the file deletes to finish, and then turned them back on. At that point both "cmd-i" on my HD and "df -g" reported similar free space. I then restarted iTunes (just to be sure nothing was cached) and my backup proceeded without a hitch.

I think folks who were making files to "fill up space" to make their iTunes backups work were just causing timemachine to fall below the 20% threshold of free disk space and delete the mobilebackups incidentally. I think anyone who has seen that work, this will work for as well.

I hope this is helpful, but I obviously can't make any guarantees, YMMV, etc.

TL;DR:

1. open a terminal

2. type "df -g" in the terminal and compare free space of largest filesystem with "cmd-i" on "Macintosh HD". If they are (nearly) the same, STOP, the below won't work for you.

3. type "sudo tmutil disablelocal" in the terminal and then your password (if/when prompted)

4. wait a couple of minutes (for files to delete in the background)

5. type "sudo tmutil enablelocal" in the terminal and then your password (if prompted)

6. Compare "df -g" and "cmd-i" on "Macintosh HD" again, and see that the free space values are almost the same.

7. (re)Start iTunes, and do your phone backup.

Thanks,

Harry

Not sure how helpful this will be, but this worked for me! I was being told that I couldn't restore my Itunes backup due to not enough storage on my PC, when I had JUST restored it with no problems a few weeks before. I had plenty of storage on my PC. So after trying. early everything suggested, I went ahead and paid $30 to Deciphee tools fk repair the backup (assuming maybe if had been corrupted somehow). Well it said it was repaired (removed some corrupt files) but then I got a different error message simply saying it could restore due to some error (generic), and the storage thing. I emailed Decipher, and this worked..

I copied the backup to a flash drive, and skipped files that were reported as not able to copy (about 10). Then I went to a different computer, pasted the backup in the folder where Itunes backups are stored, then ran Decioher again on that computer to make sure it was good. Ran the restore through ITunes, and it worked!

I think my issue was an error with my hard disk or computer in general because days later my laptop died :(

You may try just the simple copy to another computer thing, but I found the Decipher program well with the cost and the support team emailed me back promptly and worked with me u too we got it fixed, bc they claim 100% refundable.

Hope that helps.

https://deciphertools.com/

While this bug occurs when there really is enough space - I put in a request to Apple one time:

There should be an option to back-up everything except for media files (which are already on iTunes, and presumably backed up from there). A restore will need a synchronize to get everything, but that's no big hardship.

(Someone who doesn't use iTunes wouldn't use this option).

Great that this worked for you, but I don't think this is the general solution to the problem.

It doesn't address iTunes on Windows. I run iTunes on Windows7, and have the same 'no space' problem (even though there is 6x free space vs the usage on the phone.

Your solution may point to an underlying bug in iTunes where it uses a bad way of computing the free space on the drive volume it is going to back up its data to. I don't have Time Machine running (obviously) but if iTunes is using a bad way of computing free space on a Mac's OSX it may well be doing something equally invalid on Windows 6.x (Vista/7/8/10).

Certainly when one has a 128GB phone, that has 50GB of used space, and 300GB of free space on the root drive where iTunes is installed and user data is stored, there is no lack of space (my case).

When you say 'on itunes' do you mean on/in the itunes client running on a personal computer to which the phone is synced? Or the itunes service? Because many media files (eg music) I have on my computer to which the iTunes application has access, but it only exists on that computer as an MP3, and wasn't purchased through the iTunes service.

Sorry if my post was unclear:

1. My solution (getting rid of the Time Machine local snapshots) is only applicable to folks on Macs, using Mountain Lion or later (the version local snapshots were first introduced). It does not apply to issues with iCloud or Windows.

2. My solution is only applicable to folks using the iTunes app on the Mac to backup their phone. It does not apply to iCloud or other backup mechanisms.

3. My solution is only applicable to folks getting the "not enough free space" error when they use iTunes to back up their iDevice, despite finder reporting plenty of free space.

The original poster referenced both iTunes and Finder (so Mac), so I thought my response fit well in that context, but hopefully, the above helps further clarify it. I know at least several folks in this thread meet those criteria, and wanted to share what worked for me. I wish I had answers for the Windows folks and iCloud backup users, but I don't use either of those, so haven't troubleshot those issues.

Thanks,

Harry

I went to macPaw.com and to the how to's section and find why is start up disk full. It will give you several things to do to free up memory and it works. Of course they want you to buy their program but you can do it by hand as well but it does take days. How ever I did the clean up by hand for 3 things so far they have worked but literally took several days.

How much room do you have on the hard drive of the computer? You say you tried a new one, what is the setting in your iTunes for sync/backup? Do you have it set to backup to the computer or iCloud? On the new computer, was the error the same, that there was not sufficient room on the computer?

What troubleshooting have you done on the phone? The current user steps are restart (power the phone off/on), reset (hold the sleep/wake and home buttons until you see the Apple logo and release), restore from a backup and restore as new. The first two steps will not affect any data.

I could understand a sync causing an error if there was not enough room on the phone, but not on the computer. I cannot think of a reason you would see that error if you have sufficient room on the hard drive of the computer. Don't take this wrong, but you sure the error is stating not enough room on the computer, and not something else?

Sounds like it could be a permissions, or security issue on the computer. Check out this support document and see if anything there helps. iOS: If you can't back up or restore from a backup in iTunes

I cannot make any further recommendations. Have you tried to backup the device without trying to sync, just clicking on backup? Does that not work either? Since you have restarted and reset the device, unfortunately the next step is a restore, first from backup and then as new. Since you do not have the data backed up, you would lose it. However, if you have been syncing, the loss would be minimal, such as SMS, app data. Photos would already have been imported, and apps and music are already in iTunes, and calendar and contacts should already be synced to a supported application. If you do not want to try this, you can try making an appointment at the Genius Bar to see if they could help. I would be sure to explain to them that you have not been able to create a backup.

Can you successfully complete a backup to iCloud, yes or no? I mean, connect to external power while on a Wi-Fi network and manually initiate an iCloud backup (Settings/ iCloud/ Storage & Backup/ iCloud Backup/ ON).

If iCloud backup will not work, perhaps your backup is quite large due to many photos in your Camera Roll. If you have a large Camera Roll start there by transferring photos that you want to keep to your computer, then emptying Camera Roll. In my experience, those with backup issues are carrying around way too many photos.