I am unable to backup after months of successful backups. Receive "iPhone could not backup the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone.

I am unable to backup my iPhone4 (4.3.4) after months of successful backups. Receive "iPhone could not backup the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Followed advise on user forum to delete the old backup... did not help. Need to do a backup. Is there a cure?

The only thing that resolved it for me was to COMPLETELY remove all Apple components per http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1925. I also downgraded to iTunes 10.3 since my issue didn't start until after the 10.4 update. May not be related but oh well....You will have to restore your old iTunes Library file (*.itl) if you downgrade.

Similar Messages

I'm unable to backup my iphone. It is saying 'iTunes could not backup because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the i Phone.' i deleted my previous back up but it still isn't helping. Any suggestions ?

I'm unable to backup my iphone. It is saying 'iTunes could not backup because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the i Phone.' i deleted my previous back up but it still isn't helping. Any suggestions ?

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Note: To quickly access the Application Data folder, click Start, and choose Run. Type %appdata% and click OK.
Windows Vista and Windows 7: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Note: To quickly access the AppData folder, click Start. In the search bar, type %appdata% and press the Return key.
Delete the entire Backup folder if there is anything at all in it.

I am unable to back up my iPad on my pc. Message says backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPad.

I have been unable to sync my iPad with my pc since November 2013. The message that I receive is that "iTunes could not back up the iPad because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPad. My iPad is running the most current update and my iTunes program is also the most recent update. What could be the reason for and solution to this problem?

You might want to try deleting your old backup. That could be the source of the problem.
Launch iTunes and go to Edit>Preferences>Devices>Your backup name. Click on your backup to select it, and then click on Delete. Click on OK.
Connect your iPad to your computer and try again.

HT1766 my backup is failling to restore and displays an error message: backup either corrupt or not compatible with the device. This happened after updating to the latest software IOS7

My backup is failling to restore and displays an error message: backup either corrupt or not compatible with the device. This happened after updating to the latest software IOS7

I have the same issue and I KNOW my backup IS good. What happen is when you try to restore your phone apple says something like can I check for new updates and if you choose no, it just takes you back to the restore screen and a loop from then on. If you dont update from you phone then when you back up you will have the 5.0.1 back up and then when you update to 5.1.1 and then try to restore the backup from 5.0.1 it say it EITHER corrupt or incompatible.. It is incompatible and its hard as **** to restore back to 5.0.1. I followed the restore to a T and still getting errors. I lost all text history and have to reset up email. All just because I wanted a 1.2 Gigs of "other" space back.

Unable to sync or backup my iPad2 with the new iTunes. I keep getting the error ""iTunes could not back up the iPad because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPad.". I've deleted all the old backups but still get this.

I'm totally frustrated by iTunes and don't know how to solve my problem. Like a lot of people on here I'm not able to sync or back up my iPad2 with my iTunes (version 10.4.1.10). I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. My iTunes worked just fine until the 10.4.xx updates came out and since June I've not been able to back up or sync the iPad2.
When I connect and try to sync I get the error message, “iTunes could not back up the iPad because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPad.”
I've deleted all the old backups so there are none on my system. I've deleted iTunes and re-installed the 64bit version several times but it has not made any difference. I've read and followed several suggestions on these boards about how to remove and reinstall everything but none have worked yet. I'm stumped here.

I had the exact same thing with my shuffle - same error message saying that it was corrupt so I restored it (wiping everything in the process) and the same message came up as soon as it reloaded. Thank god I didn't try it with my iPod or iPhone first. So many issues with this new version of iTunes!!!!!!!!

HT4972 After upgrading iPhone 4 to iOS 5.1.1 getting the error "iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored" HELP!

I attempted to upgrade my iPhone 4 to iOS 5.1.1. I selected 'back up' from the phone in the device menu and iTunes confirmed that the phone had been backed up. I then installed iOS 5.1.1 which wiped everything on the phone & now I am getting the error "iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored".
I have tried restoring factory settings but iTunes simply will not restore from back up & I'm not sure what else to do!
Any advice would be much appreciated.

I have the same issue and I KNOW my backup IS good. What happen is when you try to restore your phone apple says something like can I check for new updates and if you choose no, it just takes you back to the restore screen and a loop from then on. If you dont update from you phone then when you back up you will have the 5.0.1 back up and then when you update to 5.1.1 and then try to restore the backup from 5.0.1 it say it EITHER corrupt or incompatible.. It is incompatible and its hard as **** to restore back to 5.0.1. I followed the restore to a T and still getting errors. I lost all text history and have to reset up email. All just because I wanted a 1.2 Gigs of "other" space back.

ITunes could not restore the iPhone "___'s iPhone" because the backup was corrupt or not compatible

Ok so bear with me here, it is somewhat of a long story.
I had been using an iPhone 4 for a while, with an old iTunes account that has all my stuff from over the years on it, on my computer. A week ago, I dropped by iPhone 4 in the sink and it got covered with water, despite quickly pulling it out, putting it in rice under a lamp, the phone was shot, and I was without a phone. My Dad, who is on the same AT&T plan with me, was using an iPhone 3. He was available for an upgrade, so he got a new iPhone, and gave me the iPhone 3. Now i'm not an apple master or anything but I have a good idea of what I am doing, normally, I backup my phone to my computer every few months. Basically everytime I plug it in to my computer which isn't very often because I just charge it with the wall charger. So got my SIM card with the same phone number and all, and obviously, while still being my number, it had my dads apps, messages, contacts and photos on it. So I bring it home, and plug it into my computer, I cancel the intial sync, and right click on the phone on the left side of iTunes and hit "restore from backup" I look through the list of backups, and the most recent one I see is from Dec 11, 2011. Which is surprsing because i'm pretty sure I had backed up since then, but I say whatever i'll still get contacts apps and most pictures back etc. So I hit it, and go through with it, and it tells me there was a more recent date of backing up, relieved, I click on that and continue, the normal bar comes up it says something like estimated time 30 minutes, so I walk away, come back 5 minutes later, and I get an error message saying, "iTunes could not restore the iPhone "____'s iPhone" because the backup was corrupt or is not compatible with the iPhone." Confused, I go back and try again, however this time I click on "old backup (the dec 11th one rather than the newer one) and the same thing happens after a few minutes. I go back a third time, and select a time from August of 2011. And I hit restore, and it goes through. However, this happened to be a backup I made right when I got my new iPhone 4, and therefore I basically restored my phone, to having nothing. Thats where I sit right now, with none of my contacts or pictures. I'm not sure if I backed up to iCloud or not and i'm not sure how to retrieve that. Some extra things: When I try to sync my iTunes library and apps onto the new iphone 3, I need to greatly reduce the number of songs and apps beacuse this iPhone is only an 8gb while the old one was 16, (I don't think that is the reason I am getting the error message though because when I sync it clearly says "Your iPhone does not have enough space). Also, this is obviously an iPhone 3, not an iPhone 4, updated with the most recent iTunes software, which, I believe is 5.1.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have over 1,400 pictures saved on my old phone (very important things to me) and a contact list of over 300 including important friends, coaches, teachers and workers.
Thank you very much, if it doesn't say my email on here try me at [email protected]
Thanks again
-Drew
Edit: The current phone is an iPhone 3G, not a 3Gs.

ashleyfrg2,
you will need to restore your phone as a new device and NOT from backup. If you've been using your phone as recommended, you should have minimal data loss: Photos should have been imported to your computer right after taking them; contacts should be safe in a cloud service or on your computer. You CANNOT downgrade to 4.3.3.

My XP machine is unable to load iTunes 10.5.1. It gets about halfway loaded then says it can't find Bonjour.msi. However, that file is on the computer. I tried loading the Bonjour.msi from another computer but it came up with the same message.

My XP machine is unable to load iTunes 10.5.1. It gets about halfway loaded then says it can't find Bonjour.msi. However, that file is on the computer. I tried loading the Bonjour.msi from another computer but it came up with the same message. I also tried to remove iTunes from the add/remove sector on Control Panel but it also refused for the same reason. Help, please.

Try:
- iOS: Not responding or does not turn on
- Also try DFU mode after try recovery mode
How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings
- If not successful and you can't fully turn the iOS device fully off, let the battery fully drain. After charging for an least an hour try the above again.
- Try another cable
- Try on another computer
- If still not successful that usually indicates a hardware problem and an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store is in order.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar
The missing apps could have been done by setting the Restrictions that can hid those apps. If the backup was made with those retrictions set the the Restrictions are also restored.
Thus, if you get it to work restore to factory settings/new iPod, not from backup
You can redownload most iTunes purchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

TS4036 I've got a new iPad I'm trying to do an iCloud back up but keep being given the following message: no iCloud backups are compatible with the version of iOS (6.1.3) on this iPad. How do I restore I cloud on my new device?

I've got a new iPad and am trying to do an iCloud backup but keep getting the following message: no iCloud backups are compatible with the version of iOS (6.1.3) on this iPad.
How do I restore info from iCloud onto my new device?

You would have to update your device first, before you can restore your iPad from your backup. Resolution: set it up as anew device, then update your device to the latest version "Settings > General > Updates", then reset your device again "Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings" and then after the iPad restarts again, choose to restore your device from your backup.

How to resolve error message "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again."

I inadvertently deleted my iPhone backup on my MacBook Pro. I restored iPhone to factory settings and then synced remotely with iCloud. However the error message repeatedly states:
iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again.
Any ideas as to how this can be resolved please. Thank you very much.

My wife's iPhone 5 would not backup, after upgrading to iOS 8.     The "genius" at the Apple store succeeded in DELETING, the only recent backup of her phone so
recovery became more critical.
I followed all the procedures for troubleshooting it, but still it would try to backup and then stop due to an error. We particularly wanted to preserve some game data/history/progress that she'd been working on for years.      This game (Dream Fish) would no longer open after the iOS 8 upgrade ... and the phone would not successfully backup, and so we had no confidence that it would restore from an older backup either.       I googled for solution and found Phoneview and iFunBox.      These apps allow you to see & access data files in the iPhone.      Phoneview was too fragile and crashed when copying a file any size.
I found "iFunBox".     iFunBox was excellent.      I used iFunBox to recover her game data.    It allows you to make a copy of data files that reside on the iPhone... and store them as a manual backup on the Mac.
And in the process I found 2 games that caused iFunBox to crash.      The 2 games in question were not important enough to try to keep, so I deleted them from the iPhone.
So then, I had a manual backup of the important iPhone data, and had eliminated two game files that apparently had a conflict with iOS 8.
My next Backup attempt was successful.        The iPhone with iOS 8 would now backup to both the Mac and to the Cloud.
Next I deleted Dream Fish from the iPhone and downloaded a fresh version from the Cloud.    The new Dream Fish with no history opened in iOS 8.
Then I used iFunBox to copy my wife's Dream Fish data history from the Mac back into the new game.
Once the transfer was complete, Dream Fish would now OPEN and all of her progress was there and working like normal.
Hope this helps.

HT1766 Error message: "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again." But how do I delete the backup?

Error message when attempting to backup up iPhone4S to Mac says "iTunes could not back up the iphone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone. Delete the backup for this iPhone, then try again." But how do I delete the backup? Can't find answer to that anywhere.

We had this problem after upgrading to iOS 8.       The iPhone 5 would not backup either to the cloud or to the computer.   Backup always ended with an error message.
Long story short, with the help of iFunBox ( which I used to make manual backups of some important iPhone data files ), I discovered two games that
would crash iFunBox.      They were not important games for us, so I didn't try to isolate the offending data files.     And I deleted the two games from the iPhone.
Apparently these two games conflicted with iOS 8 just as they did with iFunBox.      The next backup without those games was then successful.
I backed up to both the Mac and the cloud.
Hope this helps.

I deleted the backup on itunes, synced again and got the error message: itunes could not back up the iphone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iphone

I am using iphone 3GS, after syncing for few times and got the errors. I deleted the backup from Edit-> Preferences-> Devices. Then I synced again, there was an error message: itunes could not back up the iphone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iphone. What can I do? I have no backup anymore on ituens.

babesharon
I closed iTunes & manually deleted the file which was still stored locally even though it didn't display in Preferences. I have vista so I went to
C:\Users\{user name}\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync and deleted everything in the Backup folder (though I left the folder as is). If you have a different OS search the apple website for the backup location.
I reopened iTunes & Synced with out a problem. I also got the update to install.
Good luck.

ITunes could not restore iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored...

I replaced a faulty iPhone 4S with a new handset today, another iPhone 4S. I was certain to backup my previous iPhone 4S to iTunes on my PC before returning the faulty unit. The new phone was 'set up' at the Apple Store and updated to the current iOS, 7.0.4, as was the faulty unit prior to replacement. Upon connecting the new unit to iTunes to restore to the most recent restore point from earlier in the day, the following message was shown:
"iTunes could not restore iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored."
I've browsed other forums and have contacted the Apple Store Genius Bar, and will hear from the Lead Genius tomorrow. In the meantime, I am hoping someone may have information for me on what I may need to do in order to restore my phone as I'd anticipated doing by now. My photos, email and text messages are what is affected and have not repopulated. My music is accessable via iCloud without a problem and my contacts were kept via SIM. I regularly copy my Camera Roll from my iPhone to my computer, and most of my photos are still viewable via Apple TV/My Photo Stream however only through the photos last saved. The 348 recent photos that were on my faulty unit, and viewable in My Photo Stream were presumedly safe, but have disappeared.
I have yet to shut down or restart my computer, nor have I exited out of iTunes, for the simple reason that I'd anticipated returning home with the new handset and plug it into my computer to restore right away. I did, but that's as far as I've gotten.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Had the exact same problem whilst upgrading my iphone 4 to ios5. Lost all my data.
Backed up ios 4.3 (8F190) iphone4. Upgraded to ios 5.1 (9B176), and then tried to restore.
No joy, repeated the restore attempts countless times - lost all my data
Tried again with a simulated test.
Created a new itunes account on a new PC (64-bit windows 7), latest itunes(10.6.1.7- 64 bit).
As my data is toast, I'm using the ios 5.1 phone to try to see if it was me or an apple bug, or something elsewhich caused this to happen.
After quite a few more hours at it, it looks like a bug in iTunes / ios. I would be very happy to be wrong, though.
Tried repeatedly restoring an ios 4.3 backup to 5.1 - no joy.
Happy to try again - it does restore partially (got the call register transferred, but no SMS'es or anything else).
Any ideas?

Backup was corrupt or not compatable with iphone

backup was corrupt or not compatable with iphone

The same happen to me in a iPhone 4, trying to upgrade from ios 6.1.3 to ios 7.0.4.
I have make three backups of my iphone, then I have restore firmware with the new ios, and when I have try to restore my backup, after two minutes I get this error... tested with all the backups happens the same.
I have 3 iphones, and this only happened in one of them... but it's not the first time that I lose data when apple backup software tell me that all my backups are ok... and they aren't... I like a lot of apple products (I have 3 iphones, 1 ipad, apple tv and 4 apple computers), and they work well... but having two backup problems with diferent devices... I begin to think that backup in apple it's not good enough...
Regards.

Can't backup my iPhone 5 due to backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone

Is been quite some time that my iPhone 5 couldn't backup when i try to sync things into my phone from my computer. But iTunes can't backup and it says is corrupted or not compatible with the iPhone. They ask me to delete the backup and try again but i tried few times and is the same result.

Hi there ChienWei,
I see that your iPhone is unable to back up into your PC, and this is preventing you from being able to sync your iPhone. I have an article here for you that will help you address this issue and provide some troubleshooting steps:
If you can't back up or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using iTunes - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203271
Thanks for being a part of the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

I am unable to backup after months of successful backups. Receive "iPhone could not backup the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for