iPhone iCloud restore not finishing

[ddublu]

I swapped out devices yesterday due to a sticking home button. Started my restore around 6pm and it would usually take a couple hours max to finish. Only populated about 25% of my pictures. Shows the spot for the pic but not the actual pic or video. I erased all and restarted the restore to see if that would help it finish. From 8pm last night until 7:30 this morning it's still saying "downloading" under my camera roll. All other parts of the restore are complete. What else could I try to fix this?

 

[ddublu]

I just restored via iTunes in preparation for JB and this same issue happened again...it shows the placeholder for all of my pictures in my camera roll but not the actual images. I restored from iCloud backup but dont see my pics. What would cause this?

 

[NickRichyRich]

Sounds like there is some form of corruption with your backup. I would look into some application that allows you to unpack that backup of your phone and see if you can manually extract the pictures from the backup.

 

[LV426]

I swapped out devices yesterday due to a sticking home button. Started my restore around 6pm and it would usually take a couple hours max to finish. Only populated about 25% of my pictures. Shows the spot for the pic but not the actual pic or video. I erased all and restarted the restore to see if that would help it finish. From 8pm last night until 7:30 this morning it's still saying "downloading" under my camera roll. All other parts of the restore are complete. What else could I try to fix this?

I restored from iCould to a new iPhone about 1 month ago. It took the best part of 24 hours for everything to pull across. In the meantime, the phone took extended breathers from network activity while it was doing it. I'd give it a bit more time before giving up.

 

[Stuke00]

I swapped out devices yesterday due to a sticking home button. Started my restore around 6pm and it would usually take a couple hours max to finish. Only populated about 25% of my pictures. Shows the spot for the pic but not the actual pic or video. I erased all and restarted the restore to see if that would help it finish. From 8pm last night until 7:30 this morning it's still saying "downloading" under my camera roll. All other parts of the restore are complete. What else could I try to fix this?

I've seen the same thing, but usually if I tap on one of those images it will load up.

 

[ddublu]

Sounds like there is some form of corruption with your backup. I would look into some application that allows you to unpack that backup of your phone and see if you can manually extract the pictures from the backup.

I restored from iCould to a new iPhone about 1 month ago. It took the best part of 24 hours for everything to pull across. In the meantime, the phone took extended breathers from network activity while it was doing it. I'd give it a bit more time before giving up.

I've seen the same thing, but usually if I tap on one of those images it will load up.

Nope nope and nope. After quite a bit of back and forth with Apple Care Tech Support, I was told that there was still an ongoing engineering issue with how icloud backups actually work. This jarred my memory from a few months ago. Here is how I thought it worked:

Backups take place automatically when plugged in and on wifi. Great. If I wanted to ensure the most recent backup I would manually start a backup. One would think that the last backup performed would contain and override everything that was backed up prior. Incorrect.

Here is how it worked for me this time and the previous time when I switched devices:

I had an auto backup at 12:59am Friday morning, another one at 1:17am Saturday morning and then performed a manual backup at 11:32am yesterday morning (Saturday). When I tried to restore from iCloud backup yesterday after full erase and reset I grabbed the most recent backup. That backup only contained camera roll pics taken since the previous main backup (the 12:59am one). The backup pulled in every other app and all settings EXCEPT for the other 600+ pictures. So....I erased and reset all settings last night after confirming with Apple that the backup from 12:59am was 3.3gb (vs a 45mb backup and a 64mb backup).....Selected that one and restored. Back to normal very quickly yet lost a few pictures but they were in my photostream so just grabbed them there.

So...according to Apple this is an engineering issue and is still being worked on. I may start a new thread to see if I can get some broader coverage of this.

 

[ddublu]

Is iCloud supposed to work like this? Engineering issue?

After quite a bit of back and forth with Apple Care Tech Support, I was told that there was still an ongoing engineering issue with how iCloud backups actually work. This jarred my memory from a few months ago where I had to swap out devices. I restored from most recent backup at the time (an hour old) yet hardly any of my pics were there. Here is how I thought it worked:

Backups take place automatically when plugged in and on wifi. Great. If I wanted to ensure the most recent backup I would manually start a backup. One would think that the last backup performed would contain and override everything that was backed up prior. Incorrect.

Here is how it worked for me this time and the previous time when I switched devices:

I had an auto backup at 12:59am Friday morning, another one at 1:17am Saturday morning and then performed a manual backup at 11:32am Saturday morning. When I tried to restore from iCloud backup Saturday after full erase and reset I grabbed the most recent backup. That backup only contained camera roll pics taken since the previous main backup (the 12:59am one). The backup pulled in every other app and all settings EXCEPT for the other 600+ pictures. So....I erased and reset all settings last night after confirming with Apple that the backup from 12:59am was 3.3gb (vs my other two recent ones at 45mb and a 64mb).....Selected that one and restored. Back to normal very quickly yet lost a few pictures but they were in my photostream so just grabbed them there.

So...according to Apple this is an engineering issue and is still being worked on. I may start a new thread to see if I can get some broader coverage of this.

As I am about to JB my device I have to wonder, "what is the best way to back up data so I can grab that file for a FULL restore?" Anyone ever ran into this?

 

[Stuke00]

After quite a bit of back and forth with Apple Care Tech Support, I was told that there was still an ongoing engineering issue with how iCloud backups actually work. This jarred my memory from a few months ago where I had to swap out devices. I restored from most recent backup at the time (an hour old) yet hardly any of my pics were there. Here is how I thought it worked:

Backups take place automatically when plugged in and on wifi. Great. If I wanted to ensure the most recent backup I would manually start a backup. One would think that the last backup performed would contain and override everything that was backed up prior. Incorrect.

Here is how it worked for me this time and the previous time when I switched devices:

I had an auto backup at 12:59am Friday morning, another one at 1:17am Saturday morning and then performed a manual backup at 11:32am Saturday morning. When I tried to restore from iCloud backup Saturday after full erase and reset I grabbed the most recent backup. That backup only contained camera roll pics taken since the previous main backup (the 12:59am one). The backup pulled in every other app and all settings EXCEPT for the other 600+ pictures. So....I erased and reset all settings last night after confirming with Apple that the backup from 12:59am was 3.3gb (vs my other two recent ones at 45mb and a 64mb).....Selected that one and restored. Back to normal very quickly yet lost a few pictures but they were in my photostream so just grabbed them there.

So...according to Apple this is an engineering issue and is still being worked on. I may start a new thread to see if I can get some broader coverage of this.

As I am about to JB my device I have to wonder, "what is the best way to back up data so I can grab that file for a FULL restore?" Anyone ever ran into this?

Just use iTunes to do a full backup if you wish. I can't imagine every backup to iCloud overwriting the last. That would be a huge bandwidth issue. If you want to make sure you have a full complete backup to iCloud, delete the backup that is out there now and then manually do another. Or use iTunes.

 

[ddublu]

Just use iTunes to do a full backup if you wish. I can't imagine every backup to iCloud overwriting the last. That would be a huge bandwidth issue. If you want to make sure you have a full complete backup to iCloud, delete the backup that is out there now and then manually do another. Or use iTunes.

I get that but how are you to know that the most recent backup ISNT the one that contains all of the data? If you are restoring from a clean device why wouldnt you expect it to take a while since NONE of the data is on the device? If I go into iCloud and delete the backup that's there now and then backup via iCloud how do I know it will backup EVERYTHING?

 

[PNutts]

Unfortunately I think only Apple will be able to answer that. Obviously it really really shouldn't work that way.

Anecdotally since the first backup is full and the rest are incremental, at some point the subsequent incremental backups are going to be merged or purged. I've restored a couple of devices via iCloud (after taping the Backup Now) button and the restore was a full restore including the new stuff. It sounds like an intermittent problem.

I don't want to go this far into a restore, but at the list of backups do they show size?

 

[ddublu]

Unfortunately I think only Apple will be able to answer that. Obviously it really really shouldn't work that way.

Anecdotally since the first backup is full and the rest are incremental, at some point the subsequent incremental backups are going to be merged or purged. I've restored a couple of devices via iCloud (after taping the Backup Now) button and the restore was a full restore including the new stuff. It sounds like an intermittent problem.

I don't want to go this far into a restore, but at the list of backups do they show size?

Funny you mention that....when you start fresh and go to do a restore, it gives you options to use different backups however it only tells you the dates on them, not the sizes. If you go into iCloud once restored and manage backups it only shows one but it shows the size (and it's usually the full one). Apple tech COULD tell me the sizes and dates/times of all backups.. That's where the issue lies...I shouldnt have to call in to get that info.

 

[Xenc]

Doesn't iCloud only back up the last 30 days of Camera Roll?

 

[Stuke00]

Doesn't iCloud only back up the last 30 days of Camera Roll?

No, that is photostream.

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I get that but how are you to know that the most recent backup ISNT the one that contains all of the data? If you are restoring from a clean device why wouldnt you expect it to take a while since NONE of the data is on the device? If I go into iCloud and delete the backup that's there now and then backup via iCloud how do I know it will backup EVERYTHING?

You will know it is backing up everything based on how long it takes to do the backup. This is how I have always done it and I've never had anything missing after a restore.