Need SIM to backup? Restoring woes.

[NotMyName]

First question:

a) Do you need your SIM inserted in order to backup your phone?
b) Does having your SIM inserted back up any of the contacts to your iPhone backup? In other words are there any benefits to having your SIM inserted when backing up?

I ask as the SIM is now in another phone.


Second question...

This is regarding my wife's phone. Usually when doing something major i'll make 3 backups over two devices. 3 backups on the PC using 3 different USB slots, 3 backups on the laptop using 3 different USB slots. This is due to a previous encounter.

This time it was kinda rushed and only 1 backup was made.

We've tried countless times restoring it but every time it fails. The phone just ends up disconnecting mid-restore.
I've tried copying the backup file to numerous external drives (USB sticks, WD passports), i've tried zipping the backup, i've tried using Acronis to back up the file. I can't extract it off the laptop at all because it seems there's an error with one of the files (around 250MB) in folder 31.
I tried Macrium, which worked, but then it wont extract to the PC.
I tried connecting the laptop to the PC via ethernet cable and accessing the backup file using iMazing - which couldn't extract anything.

Any other tips on how to restore with this backup (or extract the photos from it)?

When trying to restore it doesn't say corrupt file or anything, the phone just simply disconnects every time. Though this is nothing new as i'm forever having issues when restoring to a backup. They almost always work out in the end but this one isn't.


And no, nothing has been backed up to the cloud.

 

[winmaciek]

Question 1: No, it doesn't matter at all.

 

[NotMyName]

Thanks.

Out of interest, where are your contacts saved? SIM or phone?


Any takers on the restoring issue?

 

[winmaciek]

No point in storing contacts on SIM for me. Much more limited and wouldn't sync to other devices. I use iCloud exclusively for that.

 

[NotMyName]

Regards iCloud backup:

I don't pay for any of the paid for services. I only use the 5GB free which on a 64GB phone is maxed out with whatever is even in there. No idea but it keeps telling me i haven't backed up in forever and it's full.

If i paid for the next tier, which i think is 50GB IIRC, backed up to that and then stopped paying my subscription, what happens to my backup?

Is it erased or is it that i just can't access it? The angle i'm coming from here is let's say i decide to shift to Android for a change & then in time decide to come back to Apple ... what of my backup? Would it be totally gone unless i keep the monthly payments going?


Hope my question makes sense?

 

[Minorite]

Regarding restore, what exact behavior do you get in iMazing? Does it fail to read the backup or some particular data? If you have full version, have you tried to check console logs during restore?