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Transfer iTunes iPhone backup to iCloud?
- Thread starter b1055
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It sounds like you don't want your phone backed up to iClound right now, you just want to transfer a backup from iTunes to iCloud. Are you sure that's what you want to do? 
I get the feeling I'm missing something because if you need to restore from that copied backup you're going to lose what's on the phone now.
Anyway...
1. Back up your iPhone in iTunes
2. Restore the iPhone with the backup you want in iCloud
3. Turn in iCloud backup and let the phone backup to iCloud
4. Restore you phone with the backup you made in step 1
5. Make sure you do not allow your phone to back up to iCloud or it will overwrite the backup you want up there.
I get the feeling I'm missing something because if you need to restore from that copied backup you're going to lose what's on the phone now.Anyway...
1. Back up your iPhone in iTunes
2. Restore the iPhone with the backup you want in iCloud
3. Turn in iCloud backup and let the phone backup to iCloud
4. Restore you phone with the backup you made in step 1
5. Make sure you do not allow your phone to back up to iCloud or it will overwrite the backup you want up there.
This sort of made sense.
This is the answer.
This now makes no sense.
There is no way to do what you are trying to do.
Have you lost your cable or something to connect your phone to your computer?
Is your computer in a different location than you are, and you want whoever has it to be able to upload it to iCloud so you can restore?
Those are the only scenarios I could imagine..but no, there is no way to do this.
No, you need to read what an itunes backup is vs a icloud backup.
In top of that, what is the purpose of trying to do that?
Lol
I solved my problem by locating the backup and moving it to my Windows bootcamp and restoring from there. My issue was that itunes was not restoring because of some error.
I actually would like to do this, if it would make it faster.
I have a phone that is smashed up. Because of the size of everything on the phone, icloud gives me an estimate of 48 hours to back up. I was hoping that the speed issue was due to trying to back up via wifi. I was able to backup my phone in 15 minutes on my PC. If I could then just spend another 15 moving it to icloud, that would be a heck of lot easier and convenient then having to leave my phone plugged in and locked for 48 hours, in order to get the icloud backup completed...Because my backup is on my computer at work, I was hoping to restore from the cloud tonight, vs. waiting until tomorrow to restore from my work PC...
I have a phone that is smashed up. Because of the size of everything on the phone, icloud gives me an estimate of 48 hours to back up. I was hoping that the speed issue was due to trying to back up via wifi. I was able to backup my phone in 15 minutes on my PC. If I could then just spend another 15 moving it to icloud, that would be a heck of lot easier and convenient then having to leave my phone plugged in and locked for 48 hours, in order to get the icloud backup completed...Because my backup is on my computer at work, I was hoping to restore from the cloud tonight, vs. waiting until tomorrow to restore from my work PC...
Actually it's simple: My father is in the states at the moment, I'm in Europe. His iPhone broke down. Now he wants to buy a new one, but only if he can restore his data. And his backups have so far been done on an iMac via iTunes in Europ…
I backed up my phone using iTunes before a repair. Got my phone back after a few days so it was wiped clean. Tried to restore, but it says I need to update itunes. Can't update itunes unless I also update my os from 10.6.8 to the only one available on the mac store now, el capitan. Asked them to downgrade my phone OS and get it working again, but they can't. Don't understand why I end up with useless phone after repair. I shouldn't need to do a major update on my MCP 2010 15".
I need to send my iTunes backup to iCloud as well. The version of iTunes my backup is on does not support the new iPhone. My computer operating system does not support the new version of iTunes. I have no way to set up my new iPhone from the iPhone backup in iTunes. Does anyone have a suggestion?
OK to get your old backup onto iCloud you're going to have to use your device as a medium to upload it.
DFU your iPhone then recover from the old iTunes backup.
When you are done restoring DO NOT DO ANYTHING on your phone and immediately go to settings and turn on iCloud backups. This make make the same old copy upload (backup) onto iCloud.
Doesnt really make any sense tho because you can just restore onto your iPhone straight from iTunes. but if you must have a copy on the cloud (that exact copy) for whatever reason (you plan on getting another phone down the line) then this is the way to go. a little extra work but a fine way to achieve what you want
DFU your iPhone then recover from the old iTunes backup.
When you are done restoring DO NOT DO ANYTHING on your phone and immediately go to settings and turn on iCloud backups. This make make the same old copy upload (backup) onto iCloud.
Doesnt really make any sense tho because you can just restore onto your iPhone straight from iTunes. but if you must have a copy on the cloud (that exact copy) for whatever reason (you plan on getting another phone down the line) then this is the way to go. a little extra work but a fine way to achieve what you want
I cannot restore my new iPhone 6s from iTunes.
I backed my 5s up on my office computer- vista business os.
The iTunes version on that computer does not work with my new 6s. It provides a message to update. The update required works with Windows 7 or later, so is not available.
Can I transfer the backup on the current computer to another computer that has a current version of iTunes, then restore new phone?
It's always kind of stunning to see threads like this on user "help" forums....
The question (above) is pretty clear: the OP wanted to know if he could move an iPhone backup from a local computer to iCloud, so that he could then restore his phone from the cloud. Not hard to understand.
But rather than simply answer the question, responses keep questioning the legitimacy or reason for the question! Lots of "I don't know why you'd want to do that?"... What difference does it make?? If that's what the guy wants to do, for whatever reason, why not just post an answer if you know it? If you don't, you're not being helpful.
An easily-imagined scenario: USER normally backs up iPhone to a local computer. But USER is now traveling, temporarily living elsewhere (or for whatever reason, doesn't have immediate access to his computer). Something happens with his phone...say, a forgotten passcode...such that he's locked out and has to do a factory reset. He can't physically connect to the backup computer, but if someone at home could open iTunes and somehow send that backup to iCloud, USER could restore from his last backup.
It's a perfectly legitimate question.
The answer, unfortunately, is that it is not currently possible.
It seems like this feature could be added to iTunes....not just for emergency scenarios, as above, but also as a more convenient way to have a backup in both locations without tying up the phone during slow, direct-to-cloud backup sessions.
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I have a solution!
I needed to do the same, and for those who previously have posted being puzzled why one would want to do such a thing, I'll explain. This will be affecting many people.
I upgraded my iPhone 4s with an IPSW file to jump from IOS 8 something to IOS 9.3.2. This worked no problem. However, the phone is then not recognised by iTunes 11.4 on my black 2008 Macbook running OS 11.6.8 Snow Leopard. What a dumb screw up that was by our friends at Apple.
Being rather nervous to upgrade my Mac much further, although I might try later, I thought of taking my backup file from iTunes and restoring it to my iPhone using ANOTHER Mac (fortunately my Father has one running Yosemite. Who says being 87 is too old to use a Mac daily!).
Here's how to do it:-
(1) Find your backup files by searching with CMD+SHIFT+G then enter ~/library/application support/mobilesync/backup
There you will find your backup file. If there's more than one, you can work out which one is the latest by the file date.
(2) COPY this file onto a memory stick.
(3) Plug the stick into the Mac operating later software that has the latest iTunes which matches with IOS 9, and search for the back up folder by using the method in (1) above.
(4) Upload the file into that folder
(5) Go to iTunes and you will see the backup file you've just uploaded in the list
(6) Connect your phone and then it's easy, questions will probably ask you to treat it as a new phone and restore from a previous backup. Obviously, choose the one you've just uploaded.
(7) Almost finished! Plug in your iPhone to power, and switch on your backup via iCloud in Settings. Then you'll have a backup in iCloud.
(8) Finished!!!!!!! You may not have all the apps that you were using before, but you can get those again from the App Store and just download.
I did try to connect my phone with my old Mac again, but it's still not recognised in iTunes 11.4. Ultimately, I'll look at upgrading my Mac to Mavericks or Yosemite, whichever is the older (so that my old Mac runs better), to get iTunes upgraded and talking with IOS 9 again.
Good luck! Cheers!
I know this is an old thread but to the quoted poster, just no. The reason why your iCloud backup is taking 48+ hours is because of your internet connection speed. If you have your backup on iTunes and wanted to transfer it to the cloud (if you even could, which you can't) it would still take the same amount of time because its based on your internet connection only. So what you're thinking makes no sense at all.
Thank you to those on this web page for the help.
I did the following to transfer a backup off on old Windows Vista Computer to a newer Windows 7 Computer so I could restore it onto a new iPhone 7 today.
1 - Copied 1.16GB File Folder from Windows Vista Desktop
c:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
to USB Thumbdrive.
This computer was running the latest possible iTunes Version 12.1.3.6 for Windows Vista which would not Restore to new iPhone 7.
2 - Copied from USB Thumbdrive that 1.16GB File Folder to Windows 7 Laptop C:\Users\Chuck\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
This computer was running the latest possible iTunes Version 12.5.1.21 for Windows 7 which is necessary to Restore to new iPhone 7.
3 - Plugged in new iPhone 7 into Windows 7 Laptop. iTunes asked for access to the iPhone - iPhone asked to Trust this computer. iTunes then asked if I wanted to Restore from the Backup dated 9/12/16 which was from the Windows Vista Computer. I agreed and it Restored the new iPhone from that Backup!!
This worked great to allow the setup of the new iPhone using a backup from an old iTunes version which had our only backup of the old iPhone.
With appreciation,
Chuck Bramwell
Irvine, California
I did the following to transfer a backup off on old Windows Vista Computer to a newer Windows 7 Computer so I could restore it onto a new iPhone 7 today.
1 - Copied 1.16GB File Folder from Windows Vista Desktop
c:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
to USB Thumbdrive.
This computer was running the latest possible iTunes Version 12.1.3.6 for Windows Vista which would not Restore to new iPhone 7.
2 - Copied from USB Thumbdrive that 1.16GB File Folder to Windows 7 Laptop C:\Users\Chuck\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
This computer was running the latest possible iTunes Version 12.5.1.21 for Windows 7 which is necessary to Restore to new iPhone 7.
3 - Plugged in new iPhone 7 into Windows 7 Laptop. iTunes asked for access to the iPhone - iPhone asked to Trust this computer. iTunes then asked if I wanted to Restore from the Backup dated 9/12/16 which was from the Windows Vista Computer. I agreed and it Restored the new iPhone from that Backup!!
This worked great to allow the setup of the new iPhone using a backup from an old iTunes version which had our only backup of the old iPhone.
With appreciation,
Chuck Bramwell
Irvine, California
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It's always kind of stunning to see threads like this on user "help" forums....
The question (above) is pretty clear: the OP wanted to know if he could move an iPhone backup from a local computer to iCloud, so that he could then restore his phone from the cloud. Not hard to understand.
But rather than simply answer the question, responses keep questioning the legitimacy or reason for the question! Lots of "I don't know why you'd want to do that?"... What difference does it make?? If that's what the guy wants to do, for whatever reason, why not just post an answer if you know it? If you don't, you're not being helpful.
An easily-imagined scenario: USER normally backs up iPhone to a local computer. But USER is now traveling, temporarily living elsewhere (or for whatever reason, doesn't have immediate access to his computer). Something happens with his phone...say, a forgotten passcode...such that he's locked out and has to do a factory reset. He can't physically connect to the backup computer, but if someone at home could open iTunes and somehow send that backup to iCloud, USER could restore from his last backup.
It's a perfectly legitimate question.
The answer, unfortunately, is that it is not currently possible.
FINALLY!! SOMEONE WHO GETS IT!
MY D-I-L used to back up her phone on my computer. She moved and then broke her phone. When we backed it up before the move we backed up on computer, not the cloud. Now with a new phone, we were trying to avoid her having to physically bring her phone here to get all of her info back. Don't like the answer lol but at least it actually answers the question!
I backup to both - Murphy's law - says what you need won't be available when you need it
Really appreciate this thread and the solution. As a non-cloud user I managed to hastily backup a dying iphone 5 SE last week to itunes and was dismayed to find it wouldn't restore to its iOS10 replacement; it would have required a system update and as I use my mac as a DAW with third party software and expensive hardware to replace, this was a problem. Now I just need to transfer the backup to my laptop and restore via iCloud from there. I think ... thanks everyone.