You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

💡 Did you know?

⏺ If you can't accept iCloud Terms and Conditions... Learn more >

⏺ If you don't see your iCloud notes in the Notes app... Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: judy's trouble
judy's trouble Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

how to fix backup was corrupt or not compatible?

Went to apple yesterday because my phone "might" have some software issue, staff help me to extract and reinstall the iOS system to IOS 10.2


went home and couldn't restore my back up ! UGH !!!

it said backup was corrupt or not compatible, called up the customer service, they guided me to copy my mobile sync back up onto an external drive and try to restore my phone with the other computer.


since I don't have another computer, went back to apple store, it failed.....



other than restore my phone from the cloud , what other option do I have ?


I checked on the forum , and this issue is pretty common since last year.


I even checked out the third party repair software , but skeptical about it....


what other option I have ?

iPhone SE

Posted on Jan 7, 2017 1:13 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: frose.osfs
frose.osfs
User level: Level 1
20 points

Posted on Sep 18, 2017 6:35 PM

Not sure what you were doing before you had this problem, but I found this question due to buying a new iPhone. When I went to "restore backup" (which I had just created an hour before I got the new phone) I got the "corrupt or not compatible" message.

What I discovered, is that my new iPhone had an older iOS than the one I made the backup from. Once I updated my new phone to the latest iOS the restore from backup worked fine!

Hope this helps.

View in context
10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: frose.osfs
frose.osfs
User level: Level 1
20 points

Sep 18, 2017 6:35 PM in response to Crymizur

Not sure what you were doing before you had this problem, but I found this question due to buying a new iPhone. When I went to "restore backup" (which I had just created an hour before I got the new phone) I got the "corrupt or not compatible" message.

What I discovered, is that my new iPhone had an older iOS than the one I made the backup from. Once I updated my new phone to the latest iOS the restore from backup worked fine!

Hope this helps.

Reply
User profile for user: Stephen Fleming
Stephen Fleming
User level: Level 1
46 points

Oct 1, 2017 8:51 PM in response to frose.osfs

This did the trick. My old phone was running 11.0.1, the new phone out of the box had 11.0. Had to reset to factory, set up as new phone, update the OS, reset as factory again, choose "restore from backup", choose iTunes, and away we went. Wasted half an hour of my life, but that's what I get for obsessively updating my old phone when I knew I was buying a new one this week...


Thank you!

Reply
User profile for user: Jonathan UK
Jonathan UK
User level: Level 10
163,895 points

Jan 7, 2017 2:59 AM in response to judy's trouble

Hi


As iTunes reports that the backup is corrupt or incompatible, I'm afraid that you will not be able to use that backup.


If you also have an iCloud backup, I suggest that you restore from that instead:


Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support


More information:

If your iTunes backup couldn't be completed or you can't restore from a backup - Apple Support

Reply

how to fix backup was corrupt or not compatible?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up