Q: iPhone backup corrupt or not compatible

I can't thank you enough.  I had spent over 16 hours. Yes, 16, trying to trouble shoot this problem.

I've spoken with two tech support reps (Ian McCracken and Tamara London) and spent over 4 hours dealing with my local Apple Store.

I HOPE TO SAVE SOMEONE ELSE SOME TIME.

For the issue being discussed, it's practically pointless to try and get help through Apple regular suppport or store.  They are given a script "restart the phone", "reinstall iTunes", "its your service provider" etc.  And while everyone I've dealt with was competent for the most part, they have no clue what to do regarding this error message. 

Why does Apple iTunes only recognize a corrupt file when trying to restore and NOT WHEN SYNCING OR BACKING UP?! The latter would seem most logical.

I went to the Apple store because my iPhone 6 128gb had the following issues:

• headphones were unplugged but the phone still registered them as plugged in
• phone shutdown despite having fully charge battery
• phone eventually powered up but touch screen was unresponsive
• screen eventually became responsive but both camera and flash were not responsive

Regarding these issues, a beyond helpful Apple rep at the Genius Bar (Nick at Saddle Creek, Germantown, TN) immediately replaced my phone.

From there I went home on his advise and began to restore my phone to my most recent backup. I did two backups as soon as my phone became operable assuming the worse prior going to the Apple store.  From there I ran into this:

Problem -> the iPhone they gave me wasn't "updated to the most recent version of iOS", so I had to update it before restoring. Additionally, the new phone was by default set to automatically backup/sync to iTunes, overwriting my previous (valuable) backups. Afterwards, I was down to only one back up. Then the phone went  into a permantent "Searching" mode for cellular signal.

From there, I tried to backup my phone over 9 times (it was a 65gb backup; taking roughly 1 hour 15 minutes each time).  Each time I was greeted with the same ominous message: "this back is corrupt or incompatible with this iPhone" when it was ~15 minutes from completion.

At this point I had reached nightmare scenario.

I went back to the Apple Store, flagged down Nick from the previous day, and he replaced my phone.  I took the new phone home. Spent $30 dollars and got the Decipher program.  During this process I got a call back from Tamara and told her about my progress.  Amazingly she was unaware of the 2 or 3 programs "iPhone Back Up Extractor", "Decipher" etc that specialized in repairing damaged iPhone backup files.  I told her about this one and proceeded to restore my phone.

DECHIPHER TOOLS -

The first restore went exactly like my previous 6 restores - same error message after an hour and 15 minutes.

The advanced restore method however, scanned each individual file on the back and identified the corrupt files, and was SUCCESSFUL.

I cannot exaggerate how big of a lifesaver Decipher Tools was for me.  I literally begged Apple to provide a solution to granting me access to my backup file to no avail.

TLDR:  pay the ~30 dollars and get your files back. Don't waste your time repeating your situation to Apple Support ad nauseam that simply isn't equiped to handle your problem.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR THIS ISSUE:

1. Allow customers to take both phones (new and defunct phone) home to ensure files are successfully transferred to replacement. At the time I was forced to surrender my phone with all my data in order to receive the new phone. Had I had my old phone, I could have done an additional error-free backup

2, Alllow reps to recommend 3rd parties/proprietary companies like Decpher/iPhone Backup etc.

3.  Buyout Decipher or another company that has figured out a way to fix this issue.  It's ridiculous that I had to pay some obscure software company $30USD to backup/restore my iPhone successfully after paying over $1000USD for a phone.

It's a lot easier to delete the most recent backup and then restart the iTunes to iPhone backup.

To delete a corrupt backup use these directions Find and manage your iTunes backups - Apple Support

Delete the most recent backup (probably the backup just prior to 8.4.1 OS update).

The backup file was 65gb and the only copy I had.

If I deleted my most recent backup, I would be backing up the the new phone with no data on it (pointless).

In order to get the replacement phone, Apple had me turn in my defunct phone with all my data.

The only possible solutions I can think of I listed above, but I'm surprised that Apple doesn't have its own tool to sort out corrupt files. Not storing the corrupt files or rejecting the backup initially would have prevented me from assuming I had a valid backup.

Additionally, as I mentioned above, allowing me to take my phone home or storing it "locked" at the Apple Store until I could verify I had a functional backup should have been an option as well, IMO.

I hope that makes sense and thanks for the suggestion regardless.

C.Court!  Thanks for posting this.  This worked perfectly!

When the first scan didn't work, I thought, "Great... here we go.  I'll never get my $30 back."  (despite the guarantee)

But then the message came up telling me not to give up hope, click next for the advanced scan and BOOM!!  I had a 81GB back up, took about 30 mins, but everything is all fixed with three corrupted files removed.  Honestly, I don't know files they were, but I'm grateful I didn't lose everything.  There is nothing more disheartening knowing you did everything you could have done but somehow the backup was damaged.  Thanks again!  Best $30 bucks I ever spent!

While restoring, got the same corrupt file message as others. Tried deleting corrupt backup and recreating backup; didn't help. Tried Disk Utilities and fixing permissions; didn't help. Tried reloading iTunes; didn't help. Saw the post about Decipher Tools and BINGO; it fixed the corrupt backup. Agree with others here, that we should not have to pay a third party $30 to fix an Apple bug. The new iPhone costs $1000 and the Apple Company is worth nearly $1 Trillion.  Apple fix this bug. Hats off to Decipher Tools for having developed their software.  And, there are lots of other bugs in the restore process that we consumers have to endure. Files in the Notes app get dropped, some apps get dropped, some apps are not restored to their previous state. I'm a Software Engineer here and all these bugs are just unacceptable.  These are not little bugs. These are huge BUGS. Dear Apple spend more $$$ on testing iTunes!!!

I had the same issue with my daughter's iPhone.  I, too, tried Apple phone support and nobody could help me.  The Decipher download program for $30 immediately fixed the problem on its first run with my daughter's phone.  The $30 was well spent to see her relieved to retrieve the countless pictures she thought she had lost, but it is frustrating that Apple support had no idea how to help with this issue (at not cost).  I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I wonder if Apple owns Decipher and is making an extra $30 off all of us?????????

This helps if you have done a recent backup before the corrupted backup.  However, in my daughter's case, she hadn't backed up in quite some time and would have lost a bunch of pictures and videos had she deleted her most recent backup.  The Decipher program was the better fix for her, even though it was $30.

No. Apple doesn't own Decipher.

An older prior backup dIdn't matter in my case. Actually by using the Decipher Tool, this was the best restore ever. All the backed up data, photos, music. calendar and contacts came across fine. Usually there is data dropped and the lost data has to be manually.  This leads be to believe that there are a lot of bugs in itunes. If this small Decipher Company can fix the problem, so could Apple.  The Backup and Restore process is a huge part of the new iphone purchase process. These iphones hold tons of data now, so it's imperative to have a clean backup/restore function. Hats off to Decipher for solving this problem for us Apple users.

"It's a lot easier to delete the most recent backup and then restart the iTunes to iPhone backup.

To delete a corrupt backup use these directions Find and manage your iTunes backups - Apple Support

Delete the most recent backup (probably the backup just prior to 8.4.1 OS update)."

THIS WORKS. After I deleted the old backup, i was able to back up my phone again. Thank you. YAY NO MONEY SPENT

Tried deleting the old backup file several times and creating a new backup. This still resulted in a corrupt backup file and error message in my case.  Even when you don't get the corrupt error message, the Decipher Tool results in a much improved restore.  Generally, the normal restore process drops files from my Notes App, drops music albums, drops music lists, drops Album Art work, mixes up your App pages or other irritating issues. All of which take a lot of time to fix. For $30 you get 2 file fixes, so for $15 a pop it saves you many hours of frustration and work. I suppose that the corrupt file problem may depend on how complicated or large your data is on your iPhone. Less data probably means less bugs; just an educated guess.

This was super helpful. I got the corrupted back up message today while going to restore my new 6s from a back up. Prior to my most recent back up my others were about a year old. I tried Decipher and worked instantly. Very appreciative of your post.

It's a tedious process but if your backup isn't deleted, you can open the photos in the MobileSync folder. Just look for files that are around the size of a photo (1-3 Mb or so). If you are using a PC, you will need to add the extension .jpg first. Open with an app that views photos.

Videos will be larger in size. If you are using a PC, you will need to add the extension .mov first. Open with an app that views photos such as QuickTime.

N.B. I would recommend making a copy of the MobileSync folder before doing this.

Howard

this worked really great. Not 16 hours but probably 5 minutes. After I did it I realized I was just Following the iTunes instructions in the error message. Just got to preferences on iTunes.

Before going to the store back up your phone. if finding the same problem, DELETE the corrupt back up AND THEN back up your phone (the one you have in your hands before going to the store). Then take to the store, exchange bring back and restore.

Thank you, you saved me $30 and a lot of wasted time or the paranoid thoughts that would surely come for allowing a 3rd party scan my data in any possible way.

==================================

Original message:

MacbookProSupport

It's a lot easier to delete the most recent backup and then restart the iTunes to iPhone backup.

To delete a corrupt backup use these directions Find and manage your iTunes backups - Apple Support

Delete the most recent backup (probably the backup just prior to 8.4.1 OS update).

=====================================