iOS 8.4 - Restore from 8.1 possible?

Question

Level 1

4 points

iOS 8.4 - Restore from 8.1 possible?

So I decided to upgrade to the new iOS 8.4 just released and make a backup of my 5s that was on 8.1.2

Having updated the OS successfully, trying to restore from my backup fails every time with error message about backup being incompatible or corrupt. I'm pretty sure it's not corrupt.

I've searched around the internet and couldn't find anything about this except modifying 'info.plist' to trick iTunes into thinking it is compatible. However, 24 hrs into the restore progress and it hasn't even reached half way.

Why is iTunes so stupid as to not support their own backup files made from a prior OS version? It's not a huge leap in OS version like going from 6.x or 7.x

Can anyone help?

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.4

Posted on Jul 1, 2015 2:14 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

263,793 points

Jul 1, 2015 2:18 PM in response to trung5s

You have made some big and likely incorrect assumptions.

Indeed iTunes does support restoring backups from previous versions of iOS.

What is likely is that the backup file you created is indeed corrupt as stated.

If you need help restoring from an iTunes Backup - Apple Support

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Answer 2

trung5s Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2015 2:38 PM in response to sberman

I only just created the backup just before the update process. If it is indeed corrupted, then iTunes is still stupid to allow me to even create a corrupt backup without the slightest error or warning...!

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Answer 3

trung5s Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2015 5:37 PM in response to trung5s

Can anyone else comment or offer some assistance?

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Answer 4

Jul 2, 2015 5:48 PM in response to trung5s

Reboot your computer and reset your iPhone, disable your antivirus and try again. If your backup is corrupt it could be a disk problem with your computer. Or it could be that your antivirus has corrupted it because it thought there was malware in it. Did you also enable automatic daily iCloud backups? If you did you can restore from that.

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Answer 5

trung5s Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 5, 2015 8:07 AM in response to trung5s

I had the anti-virus on whilst making the backup. I didn't think to turn it off as I've had it enabled before and made backups no problem. Guess this time I was unlucky to have a file(s) that anti-virus wasn't happy with.

Accepting the fact that iTunes was not smart enough to detect this problem, I'm guessing it thinks upon restoring the backup, that it is corrupt because it's perhaps missing a file that is catalogued in info.plist file of the backup.

I've managed to get some of the data back using iBackupBot and Deciper Backup Repair was helpful to suggest what type of 'corruption' was causing the problem. I didn't think it was worth paying for the latter to repair the backup as I've managed to get most of the important stuff I needed.

Still, it would be nice if there was a sure solution (free) to fix my backup file so that it could be restored in its entirety.

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