iPhone 6 "Restoring from iCloud Backup" forever

For information purposes only, I suggest you also check the photos section. Mine was taking quite a bit as well (over 5 hours and counting), and all Apps appeared as downloaded. However, then I checked the photos section and it turns out all the photos that were in the iCloud backup where also downloading and it took forever for each one. However, once that was done, the message about the phone still being restored disappeared. May not solve or help everyone with the problem, but once I discovered this I thought I should share!

The following things need to download from my understanding:

1) Phone settings

2) Photoss and videos

3) Apps

4) App documents and Data

I think there is a possibility that the issue relates to photos and videos. I think as we are able to buy more space, we will will find ourselves requiring more time to finish. I'm sure though that at some occasions restoration does stop because of an error either on the user or Apple's side. With that being said, there has to be a better way to know the progress of the restoration. Maybe Apple should show a box with every item category that is restoring and its progress. At least that way users know what is restoring or not. And if it is not restoring properly, so they know and they can do something about it.

To everyone with this problem: just wait it out. My iPhone was restoring from backup for about two weeks and I tried everything on this thread except for stopping the backup. Then, finally, one day it stopped on its own. I guess the download speed from iCloud was compromised (perhaps by the amount of people buying new iPhones and restoring from backups). If only there had been a way to see the restore progress, then I could have been able to tell that it was working but just slow. But anyway, just let it run its course if nothing else works.

We can't be waiting for two weeks to see if my files suddenly appeared. It is much easier to just do an iTunes backup. For now everyone should just do an iCloud and iTunes backup. In case iCloud fails, then go for iTunes. Also, before running backups, make sure to transfer photos and videos to your computer and then erase them from your iOS device. Once you do that, run another iCloud backup and then use that backup on your new device.

I do think iCloud is more buggy, but I also think we are transferring photos and videos less often as we become more dependent on iCloud. The problem with iCloud it does not yet support video photostream and not all photos will be added to photostream. Therefore it is very important for users move their photos and videos to a more stable location that is less likely to be changed on a yearly or bi-yearly basis such as a computer. An alternative solution is to use Backup apps such as Dropbox, Google+ or OneDrive. These apps will automatically backup your photos and videos to a cloud location. This can be done directly from the phone without involving any computer.

I had this problem going from a 4 to a 5S.

I fixed by doing the following:

1. Could not find anything that was still restoring.
2. New phone had yet to do a backup to iCloud
3. Stopped current restore
4. Acknowledged warning
5. Started a new backup.
6. Everything seems right, screen no longer says restoring from backup.

That puts files at risk to be lost. It is a solution if you don't mind that.

Same problem with new iPhone 6 plus. After over a week of 'restoring from icloud' message came here for a solution. Never backed up from iTunes so was looking for another way. Tried solution suggested in a post here to turn off 'find my phone'. It worked. Then turned 'find my phone' back on and everything is fine. No more restore message.

For anyone currently experiencing this, you can go into settings >> icloud >> backup and tell it to stop restoring.

I agree with a previous person that it would be nice to know if something is still in the process of being restored. I cannot tell and can only hope that if something has not yet been restored, it's in the cloud and still retrievable. My pictures are the only thing I can imagine taking this long.

Turning off Find My Phone worked for me, too. Thanks!

ok guys,

step by step solution.

1)check out all the apps(if anything stopped or not downloaded completely)

2) now photos(anything missing)

3)and now music, this step is important if you don't purchase all your music from itunes, icloud will try to pair or find the song with itunes store one if you'r using somebody's music. See they'r grey? Dont try to download them because you cannot.swipe and erase them. And now go to the bottom of music section check if anything downloading. download all the music you purchased from itunes by the way.

4) check out ibooks, if you'r done restart your iphone.

thats it.

All - thanks for the instructions on how to cancel the iCloud Backup Resore, that worked for me. All my apps were there, so I can't tell what was still restoring except maybe pictures (none were there, but I had them all from my old phone).

To ensure I had all my data before cancelling the restore, I reviewed the app sizes in Usage (Settings > General > Usage > Manage Storage). This told me that most of my apps were back to about their full sizes and I was good to go! Hope this helps a few.

I had the same issue and the only thing that solved the problem after 3 days of churning was to to do a soft reset of the phone (power button and home button held for several seconds and released to reboot) - is now fixed. Any reason why Apple cannot comment on this feed after 7 pages of postings and suggest a solution as simple as this?

If you have a problem that needs addressing, you can go to radar.apple.com and file a bug report. They generally don't respond to comments here because ... their engineers need precise information about all aspects of the device, and forum discussions (present one excepted, of course! :-) do not tend to produce that. When you go to radar.apple.com they have you fill out a form, attach screenshots, etc. Then they (at least in my experience) have you run diagnostic tools on your device/computer to help track down the issue.

Michael

TThanks Michael - great tip.

I just got the iphone6 and was restoring from icloud (an iphone4 backup). I had same problem described above: taking "forever" (almost 3 days on fast wifi) unnecessarily long because backup file was only 8 gigs. I tried turning off FindMyPhone and powering off. This didn't work. I then opened all my apps and logged in on them, i.e., user names and passwords, to get them up and running. Then I closed them all and powered off. This worked. The "restoring from icloud" message is now gone (and it allowed the long pending ios update to install). Thanks for all the tips.