iPhone 6s / iOS update / iTunes woes

Question

iPhone 6s / iOS update / iTunes woes

Dear everyone,

i feel compelled to start a post after encountering what I feel like was a very disappointing moment in my Apple user experience.

I needed a new phone and I intentionally bought a 6s with iOS 9.2.1 preinstalled, because I knew that my installed MacOS/iTunes version only supported up to iOS 9.

My previous phone (iPhone 5) for which I had numerous backups on my iMac was running iOS 9.3.5.

When I connected to my iMac to restore the 6s from existing backup i got the message that the phone couldn't be restored from this backup because the installed iOS version was older. Fair enough. I researched a bit and came upon this article: Restoring from an iTunes or iCloud backup when a later version of iOS is required - Apple Support

It recommends allowing the iPhone to update to the latest iOS version in order to allow the backup to restore. I researched a bit more about how to do a minor upgrade, but found no information. Obviously I wanted to start using my new phone and I dimly recalled the iOS also being part of an erase and restore. So I updated to iOS 10.1 thinking that afterward I could connect to iTunes and restore from my 9.3.5 backup. This wasn't possible

Unfortunately for me my iMac is running 10.8.5 (very, very well btw) and my iTunes version was maxed out at 12.4.3. iOS 10.1 requires iTunes 12.5. My restore option was blocked!

Fortunately my wife's MacBook has iTunes 12.5.1. I took my backup and transferred it to her computer and did the restore in her iTunes. Now I can at least use the phone with my data. I still need to update my OS and iTunes if I ever want to backup/restore this phone again.

I have a phone which was shipped with 9.2.1 and I simply wanted to update to 9.3.5. I'm pretty sure this was impossible. At least I couldn't find a way to do it. Now I have a new phone that I cannot even restore let alone sync to my desktop without updating my OS. Surely this is all possible, but I wasn't planning on updating my OS any time soon. I guess now I have to.

Posted on Oct 24, 2016 4:33 PM

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Answer 1

gdgmacguy

Level 7

21,891 points

Oct 24, 2016 6:53 PM in response to daniel santucci

What is the technical support issue you're having that we fellow users can help you with? The system requirements for iOS 10 are quite visible on Apple's website.

Best,

GDG

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Answer 2

Oct 25, 2016 12:20 AM in response to gdgmacguy

Thanks for your reply GDG. But I fail to find the system requirements for IOS 10. I actually looked before I posted here. On the main iOS 10 site I see compatible hardware (iPhone, iPad, etc). For me this is part of the problem.

Update to iOS 10 - Official Apple Support

If you see an error when you update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod - Apple Support

At any of those links I would expect there to be information about iOS 10 requiring iTunes 12.5 and then also a list the supported OS version iTunes 12.5

So, i guess my question is: can i restore the iPhone 6s to "factory" conditions, i.e. 9.2.1?

I would prefer to do that than to update my iMac (early 2008) to Sierra or El Capitan, which, even if compatible with my desktop, would very likely require a RAM upgrade.

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