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iPhone Automatic iCloud backups failing since upgrading to iOS 12

Morac

Morac

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 30, 2009
2,330
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Since upgrading to iOS 12 my automatic iCloud backups have usually been failing because “some files were unavailable during the last backup”.

Manual backups work fine, but except for once, shortly after restarting my iPhone, automatic backups fail. I’ve seen this on both my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad Air 2, though it happens more often on my iPhone.

Any ideas how to resolve this?
 
Morac said:
Since upgrading to iOS 12 my automatic iCloud backups have usually been failing because “some files were unavailable during the last backup”.

Manual backups work fine, but except for once, shortly after restarting my iPhone, automatic backups fail. I’ve seen this on both my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad Air 2, though it happens more often on my iPhone.

Any ideas how to resolve this?
Click to expand...
I was having this same problem with the same error message. I deleted the old backups, backed up manually, and then after that the auto backups started working again.
 
Morac said:
Since upgrading to iOS 12 my automatic iCloud backups have usually been failing because “some files were unavailable during the last backup”.

Manual backups work fine, but except for once, shortly after restarting my iPhone, automatic backups fail. I’ve seen this on both my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad Air 2, though it happens more often on my iPhone.

Any ideas how to resolve this?
Click to expand...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/why-won’t-icloud-backup-automatically.2139559/
 
sbcdk said:
Delete the current backup from iCloud.
Click to expand...

I already did that. It didn’t help. It actually seemed to make the problem happen more often.

On my iPad I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance of the automatic backup dialing. On my iPhone it’s closer to 90%.

For example, last night I plugged in my iPhone and the automatic backup failed. I rebooted my iPhone and plugged it in and the automatic backup succeeded. For my iPad, I rebooted it and plugged it in and checked this morning and the automatic backup had failed. I manually backed it up.

Of note under iOS 11, I saw that files in use message every now and then, but in iOS 12, it happens nearly all the time.
 
Last edited:
Usually the most effective way of dealing with issues that aren’t common, is to do a clean install. Yes, you can get lucky and fix the problem if you spend enough time and energy, but your resources could also be wasted. If you invest them in a clean install, the odds of success is much higher and you will know how long it will take in advance.
Hunting for a solution could take weeks without results, or you might get lucky in a few hours. For that reason, I usually go for the clean install, after a few hours of futile bughunting.
 
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I don’t think a clean install is the solution since this issue is affecting multiple devices and started with iOS 12. Seems like from the link above it’s affecting others, so it’s likely a bug.
 
Morac said:
I don’t think a clean install is the solution since this issue is affecting multiple devices and started with iOS 12. Seems like from the link above it’s affecting others, so it’s likely a bug.
Click to expand...

On the least used/crucial delete the back up, log out of iCloud, log back in and don’t back it up manually. Just plug it in overnight and check the results in the morning. If it succeeds try keep letting it backup automatically until you are satisfied it’s fixed.

If its fixed do that to the other devices.

If its not fixed call Apple and have them check your iCloud and AppleID for some sort of conflict.
 
cynics said:
On the least used/crucial delete the back up, log out of iCloud, log back in and don’t back it up manually. Just plug it in overnight and check the results in the morning. If it succeeds try keep letting it backup automatically until you are satisfied it’s fixed.

If its fixed do that to the other devices.

If its not fixed call Apple and have them check your iCloud and AppleID for some sort of conflict.
Click to expand...

My iPhone decided to back up on its own last night, so as I mentioned sometimes it works on its own.

My iPad was due to back up after I needed to leave this morning so I just did it manually.
 
Morac said:
Since upgrading to iOS 12 my automatic iCloud backups have usually been failing because “some files were unavailable during the last backup”.

Manual backups work fine, but except for once, shortly after restarting my iPhone, automatic backups fail. I’ve seen this on both my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad Air 2, though it happens more often on my iPhone.

Any ideas how to resolve this?
Click to expand...
You probably have an app that’s active in the background and disturbing the backup procedure.

I had a similar problem before iOS 12 and just to try solving it I turned off background activity for all apps and it worked again. Unfortunately I never had time to figure out which app(s) caused the problem.
 
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Also if your wifi drops out it will fail to complete. I think you'd know if your wifi was that spotty or had poor reception though.
 
OP are you still having this problem? My auto backups were working just fine until a day ago. Had phone plugged in over night and it never backed up. Usually it auto back ups once every 24 hours if I have it plugged in and on WiFi but it hasn’t done it the last two days.
 
Hmmm. Got the “Some files were unavailable during the last backup” message last night. I guess it’s trying to backup but failing. Deleted old backups before this so I’m not sure what else to do to fix it.
 
I’ve been getting the “some files were unavailable” message intermittently, but for the most part automatically backups were working. Usually if I get that message, the following night it works. Tonight was different.

I got the unavailable message on my iPhone yesterday, so tonight about 10 minutes after plugging my iPhone in I checked to see if the backup had finished. It’s usually done within a few minutes of me plugging in my phone. Tonight It was sitting near the beginning of the backup at the “estimating time remaining” phase. After about 10 minutes it hadn’t moved so I tried to cancel, but that didn’t work. Finally I restarted my phone.

I then checked the next backup size which listed as 250 MB. With a 10 Mbps upload speed that shouldn’t have taken that long. I plugged it back in and waited about 5 minutes and checked again. The backup again had kicked off, but again was stuck at “estimating time remaining” and wasn’t moving. I waited a bit and then restarted again.

This time I kicked off a manual backup. The “estimated time remaining” phase lasted a few seconds before the upload started. The whole thing finished in about 2 minutes. I have no idea why the automatic backup was hanging.
 
Can anyone help here? My iPhone XS Max keeps saying "this iPhone hasn't been backed up in 5 weeks" but when I go to back up it then says "The last backup could not be completed because iCloud contains a backup from a newer iOS version". I used to be on beta so think its something to do with that. Anyone know how I create a new backup?
 
Dave Meadows said:
Can anyone help here? My iPhone XS Max keeps saying "this iPhone hasn't been backed up in 5 weeks" but when I go to back up it then says "The last backup could not be completed because iCloud contains a backup from a newer iOS version". I used to be on beta so think its something to do with that. Anyone know how I create a new backup?
Click to expand...

Delete the existing iCloud backup from the iCloud storage settings. Wait a few minutes and turn backup back on.
 
Morac said:
Delete the existing iCloud backup from the iCloud storage settings. Wait a few minutes and turn backup back on.
Click to expand...

All sorted now thanks. I deleted the old backup (which was from the beta) and it’s backed up ok now.
 
Morac said:
I’ve been getting the “some files were unavailable” message intermittently, but for the most part automatically backups were working. Usually if I get that message, the following night it works. Tonight was different.

I got the unavailable message on my iPhone yesterday, so tonight about 10 minutes after plugging my iPhone in I checked to see if the backup had finished. It’s usually done within a few minutes of me plugging in my phone. Tonight It was sitting near the beginning of the backup at the “estimating time remaining” phase. After about 10 minutes it hadn’t moved so I tried to cancel, but that didn’t work. Finally I restarted my phone.

I then checked the next backup size which listed as 250 MB. With a 10 Mbps upload speed that shouldn’t have taken that long. I plugged it back in and waited about 5 minutes and checked again. The backup again had kicked off, but again was stuck at “estimating time remaining” and wasn’t moving. I waited a bit and then restarted again.

This time I kicked off a manual backup. The “estimated time remaining” phase lasted a few seconds before the upload started. The whole thing finished in about 2 minutes. I have no idea why the automatic backup was hanging.
Click to expand...
I’ve been getting the “Some files were unavailable” message lately. Some days it will back up just fine but others I get that message. I even did a restore of my phone and set up as new and the backup problem still happened so I have to assume this is an iOS bug for some users. I’m not going to worry about it anymore.
 
iOS 12.1 didn’t fix the issue. I wonder if mine and the OP’s devices are defective because I’m not seeing anyone else have this issue. I’ve searched the internet and can’t find anything about backup problems.
 
My iPhone is stuck at the beginning of backing up again tonight after kicking off automatically. I’m going to let it go and see what it says in the morning.

Edit:

Checked out 25 minutes after it started and it had just finished. It should have taken about 2 minutes. That makes me think iOS is trying to wait for whatever is locking the file to release it. I don’t know how long it waits, but it does give up at some point.
 
Last edited:
Morac said:
My iPhone is stuck at the beginning of backing up again tonight after kicking off automatically. I’m going to let it go and see what it says in the morning.

Edit:

Checked out 25 minutes after it started and it had just finished. It should have taken about 2 minutes. That makes me think iOS is trying to wait for whatever is locking the file to release it. I don’t know how long it waits, but it does give up at some point.
Click to expand...

Hey OP I was curious if you were still having this files unavailable issue? Since iOS 12.1 my backups were working just fine until last when I got the dreaded “Some files were unavailable during the last backup”. Really not sure what the problem is because I have other apple devices that don’t have this problem.
 
RickCMC said:
Hey OP I was curious if you were still having this files unavailable issue? Since iOS 12.1 my backups were working just fine until last when I got the dreaded “Some files were unavailable during the last backup”. Really not sure what the problem is because I have other apple devices that don’t have this problem.
Click to expand...

It still fails intermittently, but lately it’s been working more often than it fails.
 
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