"Never been backed up" but no error

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Level 4

1,142 points

"Never been backed up" but no error

I have an iPad Pro 12.9". I have the latest version of iOS on it and the latest version of iTunes on my Windows 10 PC. Ever since I did a restore to factory settings a few weeks ago, iTunes insists that my "iPad has never been backed up to this computer," This despite the fact that I set it to back up to the computer. It syncs fine and the backup steep takes a while and then it moves on. No error messages. When I manually click "Back Up Now" the backup runs for a while and seems to complete. No error message, but iTunes still says never backed uo and there are no stored backups to restore. Any ideas? Thanks!

Home Built, Windows 7

Posted on Aug 12, 2016 10:08 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

272,868 points

Aug 12, 2016 10:26 PM in response to sallenmd

You have two interesting and possibly informative comments above.

First (with my underlining added for emphasis):

sallenmd wrote:

Ever since I did a restore to factory settings a few weeks ago, iTunes insists that my "iPad has never been backed up to this computer,"

So you are implying that presumably before you did this restore, your iPad backed up to iTunes just fine.

But next, the following contradicts that hypothesis:

sallenmd wrote:

No error message, but iTunes still says never backed uo and there are no stored backups to restore.

So where did these backups go? (The above implies the restore has nothing to do with the answer.)

Might they be in some other user account on your Windows computer?
Might they be in iTunes on some other computer?
Might you have changed Apple ID, or some other critical identifying information, in either iTunes on your computer or your iPad?
Might they be in iCloud? (This does not seem likely, based on the information you provided.)

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Answer 2

sallenmd Author

Level 4

1,142 points

Aug 12, 2016 11:07 PM in response to sberman

Thanks. I should have clarified. I deleted those backups because I feared that what I wanted to get rid of was in them, so that's why I decided to start over as if it were a new iPad. I did so again tonight to see if restarting from scratch with a new name for the iPad might help somehow. Again unable to backup. Everything runs as if it were and there is no error message when that stops. But there's no backup either.

Additional information: There is and always has been only one user account. No one else ever uses my computer. I do not sync the iPad with any other computer. I've been using the same Apple ID for nearly ten years and have changed nothing else. (Not even my password--shame on me, but at least it's a very complicated one. I synced to iCloud for a while but stopped and deleted those backups.) Again, as far as Apple, iCloud and iTunes should be concerned, this iPad is brand-new as of tonight.

Oh, and iTunes thinks my iPhone has never been backed up either. I'm wondering if something weird happened when I stopped backing up to iCloud.

Very puzzling.

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Answer 3

sallenmd Author

Level 4

1,142 points

Aug 12, 2016 11:13 PM in response to sberman

I just found this old thread: Your iPhone has never been backed up to this computer.

I'm going to try what eventually worked for that OP and see what happens,

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Answer 4

sallenmd Author

Level 4

1,142 points

Aug 12, 2016 11:39 PM in response to sallenmd

That worked. The backups were all in the directory, but stupid iTunes could not find them. I renamed the backup directory, did a program repair via Control Panel, and the first backup worked and can now be seen in iTunes. Sheesh.

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