Why is the iCloud backup option grayed out after iOS 11 update

I FINALLY figured this out... After the iOS11 update, my Backup option was greyed out on my phone, exactly like your photo. I called Apple and they insisted it was a device issue and had nothing to do with the iOS update.

So today, I connected my phone to my computer/itunes to do a wired backup (for safety!) and realized that when I clicked on my phone in the Backup section, the radio button for "This Computer" was selected instead of "iCloud". I changed the radio button so that "iCloud" was selected. When I disconnected my phone from my computer, the Backup button was no longer greyed out on my phone.

Including a screenshot in case Apple support wants to update their call center knowledge 😉

Greetings Guys!

I just wanted to add my part to the solution.

Alas, it was a little different from everyone else here. Turned out that my workplace added a private VPN/Profile on the phone that prevented me form accessing the iCloud.

I managed to resolve the issue by going into Settings and finding the private profile and removing it 🙂

If the Back Up Now option is grayed out, it might be because of a network restriction. For example, sometimes public Internet networks (like school or business networks) have profile or restriction settings that make iCloud Backup unavailable.

Please try to remove Company profile which gets installed while setting up work email.

Settings -> General -> Profile

Remove the profile and enable iCloud drive then you can enable iCloud backup. Hope it helps

I'm also having the same problem on my iPad. I can neither back up to iCloud nor backup to my computer. I can "turn on" iCloud backups on my iPad, but a back up is not attempted. I deleted my old backup, which was from iOS 11 beta, I'm just trying to backup my restored iPad on iOS 11.0.3 but it's like it's impossible to back up at all.

I got to my own solution as well. The option became grayed out for me when I downgraded from the iOS 11.1 public beta to the latest iOS 11 version. Fortunately, after a factory reset and restore I was at least able to back up to my iTunes computer, but it wasn't until my iPhone upgraded to the public 11.1 release that I was granted again the ability to back up to iCloud.

Apple makes it pretty clear that if you participate in the public beta and want to leave, you have to restore to the backup of your data from BEFORE you entered the public beta. I tried to sidestep that limitation, downgrading and hoping it wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, it was, but after some patience and manual back ups, all is well again and my data has arrived safely on my device. Hooray!

Try a forced restart.

Reset Device

Reset – iPhone 7

Hard reset

Not greyed out on my device. Perhaps trying a restart?

What backup do you have set in iTunes?

Did you find the solution in the end?

Hey Eric!

Thanks for the quick response!

I've tried all of the following, on both the iPad and the iPhone, it looks like the iCloud Drive and option to turn on the back up is still being greyed out :/

You are welcome. Have you tried logging out of iCloud and back in?

I have the same problem. How exactly did you do that?

I have the iPhone X