iCloud backup size "0 KB"-- what does this mean?

Doesn't seem to be only a cosmetic bug if I cannot access those backups to restore my phone, nor can I delete them from iCloud to make space. It says Backups is taking 2.7 GB of space but it doesn't show me any backups. I will submit via Apple Feedback - thank you for the link.

Fermi wrote:

Doesn't seem to be only a cosmetic bug if I cannot access those backups to restore my phone, nor can I delete them from iCloud to make space. It says Backups is taking 2.7 GB of space but it doesn't show me any backups. I will submit via Apple Feedback - thank you for the link.

I'm a bit confused. Are you stating that you erased your device, and you were not able to restore it from the backup made by that device, even thought it showed the full-sized backup in other places?

And where are you looking to see the backup, where you are not seeing it?

Also, what is preventing you from deleting it?

Can you clarify so we can see if we can get you sorted out?

Cheers,

GB

Hi Janne.

So Icloud Backup is broken for all ios but 11 ?

Any word from Apple if this is forever ?

In iphone 5c, ios 9.3.5 , complete backup of 3.2 Gb was successful, but it took only

less than an hour, when the initial estimated duration was 13 hours ! Size of 0 Kb

Luiz.

Hello GB.

I use 2 devices ( ipad 2 and iphone 5c ) on the same iCloud account, and both devices can't see each other's backup.

As i've said before, wiped the old backup and started a whole new one sized 3.2 Gb. It finished successfuly in a suspiciously short time ( less than an hour, when the initial estimated duration was 13 hours, coherent with that size and the upload speed ).

The icloud.com settings shows total backup size iof 6.32Gb , and that's the only sign of normality.

Do you know of someone with these symptons who managed to get a restore done ?

Thanks.

Bonsoir à la France!

I'm glad this thread helped. I know it makes people nervous, but when the backup size is represented correctly everywhere else, and when I was able to successfully restore an erased device from one of those backups, it seems a minimal risk event.

And I'm glad you confirmed it is devices running older iOS's. That adds another concrete piece of evidence that this is related to the older iOS versions and how they are represented, rather than anything suddenly having gone awry with backups of devices running said iOS versions!

Thanks for posting back,

Cheers,

GB

Hi - thanks for all your info on this post. I just want to confirm something before I make a huge mistake. I have an iphone 6 running on an older OS. Today I noticed that 6 years of texts with my hubby just disappeared. GONE! none of my other text threads were gone. I thought "I'll just restore my phone from an old backup" so I checked to see when the last one was. I have one backup for my phone in icloud and it was from yesterday (perfect) but like others here have stated, it says 0 KB. When I log into Icloud on my macbook I can see I have a backup from yesterday that is 1.8GB (sounds ok). My concern is if I wipe my phone and go to restore from backup, since my phone currently thinks that backup has 0 data, will I even be able to select that as a backup option? Also, what OS am I going to end up with when I wipe and restore my phone? will it force me to update to the latest? I've avoided that because my phone is older and my hubby had issues updating the OS on his older phone. Thanks for all your valuable input!

thanks for the reply. When I follow that path: main icloud screen, it shows a multicolored bar with a big hunk in blue for photos and a big hunk in yellow for backup (only my iPhone gets backed up to icloud). However, when I click thru to "manage storage" and then select "EW iPhone 6" it says Last backup 5/3/18, backup size 0kb. It also says "next backup size" 177.7 mb, which is no way correct. I'm sure the data is in iCloud, my concern is when I go to restore my phone from that backup, since it thinks there is 0kb data in it, will it even let me select that option?

I just wanted to mention that it's interesting that the new backup for you was 3.2GB as this is the exact same size of the backup for my iPad Air 2 is showing (3.2 GB), despite Backups also showing as 0 KB! How odd (and tbh, a little too coincidental)! I'm not sure what to do or trust if the backup is there in full or not. I have the last version of iOS 9 running and need to update to iOS 11 but I'm not going to do so until I'm 100% certain everything is actually backed up first.

Great job ThreeWildOlive!!! And thank you for posting back and confirming that what we are seeing with the 0GB business is just cosmetic! Nothing wrong with having another backup, just in case. But I'm so glad you didn't need it! 😁

Thanks again for posting back with your success story!

Best,

GB

Thanks, GB. One last note - in using my phone I've noticed that a couple apps were acting wonky (like my Bible app will launch, but there's no versions loaded), and a game or two wouldn't open. I just deleted the apps, reloaded them from the app store, logged back in and no worries.

I really have my eye on that iPhone X, so maybe then I'll move on to the new OS... : )

Yeah, when you restore your device, all of your purchases are re-downloaded from iTunes, so it is always possible that one or two got hosed up during the process. You did exactly the right thing to correct the problem 🙂

Best,

GB

I have the same issue with my old 4S but it can't be updated beyond iOS 9.3.5 so I'm apparently stuck with it because

I daren't reset the phone since I might lose data if restore fails, and anyway it'll just come back again at some point won't it? So this is obviously a really old issue and for obvious reasons(it would've been discovered during development) it probably does work on a fresh system, but it's embarrassing for Apple…

Have same problem. Believe it started yesterday. Also both pad and phone used to be listed under backups.

As I stated above, I erased my iPhone 5s and restored it from a "0 Byte" iPad backup with no issues.

Cheers,

GB