TS3988 I cannot get my iPhone to back up to iCloud.

Question

I have been trying for 8 hours today.  It gives me a 9 hour estimation window, and the bar has made no progress.  It will randomly time out.  I have been on the phone with 3 different apple people!  Each time they have me do the same things that either 1. I have already done on my own or 2. that their own people have already had me do. 
I have never backed up to iCloud before so this will be the first time....if it ever works.  Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You didn't say what you've tried already, but you may have a particula app or something in your camera roll that is preventing the backup from succeeding.  To locate which one, go to Settings>iCloud>Storage & Backup>Manage Storage, tap the name of your device under Backups, under Backup Options tap Show All Apps, then turn them all to Off (including camera roll) and try backing up again.  If it succeeds, then the camera roll and/or one of your apps is preventing the backup and you'll have to located by process of elimination. Turn the camera roll On and try backing up again.  If it succeeds, turn some of your apps to On and try backing up again.  If it succeeds again, turn some more apps to On then try again; repeat this process until it fails.  Eventually you'll be able to locate the problem app and exclude it from your backup.
It may also be caused by network connectivity to the iCloud server.  Solutions to that include power-cycling your wireless router (unplugging it for 15 seconds, then plugging it back in), resetting network settings on your phone (in Settings>General>Reset), updating the firmware on your router, changing the router's DNS settings to use Google's public DNS (see https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using), etc.