My new iPhone 8 has the latest iOS version 11.2.5 and my old 6 had 11.2.2 but I received the error: The backup cannot be restored because the software is too old. I updated the 6 to the same version, took another backup, same error. I found steps on how to resolve this by apple-set up as new, update software, wipe, retry restore but I don’t think I should be receiving the error to begin with when the new phone had the latest version.
iPhone 8, iOS 11.2.5
Are you attempting to restore an iTunes backup or an iCloud backup? What version of iTunes are you running? EXACTLY, what does the error message say?
Mnmnumber1 wrote:
....I found steps on how to resolve this by apple-set up as new, update software, wipe, retry restore but I don’t think I should be receiving the error to begin with when the new phone had the latest version.
I agree. You should not have received this error at all, if I understand you correctly.
You bought a new phone running iOS 11.2.5.
Your backed up a phone running iOS 11.2.2
You tried restoring the backup from the iOS 11.2.2 phone to the phone running iOS 11.2.5 and got that error message.
That is not how it should work. If you would have tried to restore the backup from the iOS 11.2.5 phone to the phone running iOS 11.2.2, that’s when you should see that error message. You can’t restore a newer iOS backup to a phone running an older iOS backup.
Error: The backup mmr’s iPhone cannot be restored to this iPhone because the software on the iPhone is too old. To restore this iPhone from this backup, you must first set up the iPhone as new and restore the software to the latest version.” Initially, this and the weren’t clear as to which phone was referred to so I made sure both are running the same latest version, 11.2.5. I’m using iTunes latest version 12..7.3.46.
Many thanks to the quick replies! Confirmation that I should not have been receiving that error prompted me to attempt an install on the new phone. Apparently, iOS version 11.2.5 was not finished updating and it installed more of 11.2.5...😕 Whatever, doing that worked so I'm glad.
software too old to restore
