How to restore iPhone from backup that iTunes says is "corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored"?
November 25, 2012 12:44 PM Subscribe
I have attempted to setup a new iPhone from a backup I made this morning. When I attempt to do so, I receive the error, "iTunes could not restore the iPhone because the backup was corrupt or not compatible with the iPhone that is being restored".
As a continuation of this AskMeFi, I finally broke down today and went to see the Geniuses about my battery life issue. A hardware issue with the battery was confirmed, and I received a new iPhone 4S. The old iPhone was also a 4S.
Upon returning home, I attempted to restore the new iPhone from the old iPhone's backup and received the error stated in my question. I can think of two possible causes:
1. The old iPhone was running iOS 5.1.1 and the replacement is running 6.0 out of the box.
2. My old iPhone was jailbroken.
I would like to think that it is the first potential cause because my understanding is that iPhone backups do not backup the firmware. Luckily, I have a iCloud backup that is about a month old, and that seems to be working fine.
Ideally, I would like to get my phone back to the state of the last backup, but failing that, I would appreciate recommendations for iPhone backup extractors. There seem to be several and I am unsure which one would be the best to use. Freeware is preferable, but I do not mind paying if that is really what is needed. As it happens, I am pretty good about backups and transferring photos from the phone to external storage, so I am not really out any irreplaceable data. Mostly, I am interested in recovering photos and videos from my Camera+ app that I had not transferred to my Camera Roll, so solutions for recovering app data would be key. Could anyone please advise? I have done some Googling this afternoon but haven't hit pay dirt yet, and thus I appeal to the hive mind. Thank you very much.
As a continuation of this AskMeFi, I finally broke down today and went to see the Geniuses about my battery life issue. A hardware issue with the battery was confirmed, and I received a new iPhone 4S. The old iPhone was also a 4S.
Upon returning home, I attempted to restore the new iPhone from the old iPhone's backup and received the error stated in my question. I can think of two possible causes:
1. The old iPhone was running iOS 5.1.1 and the replacement is running 6.0 out of the box.
2. My old iPhone was jailbroken.
I would like to think that it is the first potential cause because my understanding is that iPhone backups do not backup the firmware. Luckily, I have a iCloud backup that is about a month old, and that seems to be working fine.
Ideally, I would like to get my phone back to the state of the last backup, but failing that, I would appreciate recommendations for iPhone backup extractors. There seem to be several and I am unsure which one would be the best to use. Freeware is preferable, but I do not mind paying if that is really what is needed. As it happens, I am pretty good about backups and transferring photos from the phone to external storage, so I am not really out any irreplaceable data. Mostly, I am interested in recovering photos and videos from my Camera+ app that I had not transferred to my Camera Roll, so solutions for recovering app data would be key. Could anyone please advise? I have done some Googling this afternoon but haven't hit pay dirt yet, and thus I appeal to the hive mind. Thank you very much.
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There's a trial. If you install it, make sure to choose not to install any toolbars during setup. I remember a greyed-out radio button I had to click to make that happen. Also, the trial won't extract more than 4 contacts.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 11:54 PM on May 30, 2013