Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

RickCMC

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 13, 2018
104
48
I was looking at iCloud and checked my backups and noticed an error message that said “The last backup could not be completed”. That’s all it said, it didn’t give any reason why it couldn’t be completed. I have never seen that message in all the years I’ve had iPhones. I was then able to backup manually without an error. But I was wondering what causes this error in the first place?
 

NoBoMac

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 1, 2014
5,708
4,280
Lost wifi connection while backing up? Mid automatic backup and pulled the device off power?
 

CTHarrryH

macrumors 68030
Jul 4, 2012
2,935
1,431
I get occasionally - never quite sure why - most of my backups are manual ones that I force. I find if I get that message I just restart backup and it works fine. Never sure if it is something running on my device or network error or iCloud issue but I do get occasionally. As I said making it restart backup works for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThomasJL

Minorite

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2018
521
123
Poland
It means that backup couldn't start/was interrupted for some reason. If you can back up manually and with iTunes then everything should be OK.
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,098
23,744
Gotta be in it to win it
Lost wifi connection while backing up? Mid automatic backup and pulled the device off power?
In my experience, it is this issue that occurs randomly. If I want to backup I plug the phone in, make sure it's off power saving. Then go into the icloud section of settings. The navigate to your phone and press backup now.
 

RickCMC

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 13, 2018
104
48
Now I’m getting a message that says “Some files were unavailable during the last backup”. Any idea what this means and how to fix it? I’m
 

spikeymike

macrumors regular
Jul 6, 2010
223
259
CA
Now I’m getting a message that says “Some files were unavailable during the last backup”. Any idea what this means and how to fix it? I’m

Been having the same issue for the past few days now.

I've tried logging out of iCloud and back in - no luck.
Deleting old backup and starting new one - no luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThomasJL

RickCMC

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 13, 2018
104
48
You mean you get this message when trying to back up manually?
I got that message after I had it plugged in and on WiFi and kicked overnight and then checked my iCloud backup. So it must have tried to back up automatically.
 

Minorite

macrumors 6502a
May 8, 2018
521
123
Poland
And manual backup still works? If so, I would try to delete iCloud backup and do the manual one. Also if you have any VPN/Ad-Blocker running it can potentially affect iCloud backups, so check those. Also a good old reset to factory settings ususally fixes almost everything :)
 

ThomasJL

macrumors 68000
Oct 16, 2008
1,565
3,418
Been having the same issue for the past few days now.

I've tried logging out of iCloud and back in - no luck.
Deleting old backup and starting new one - no luck.
That's the same situation I've encountered frequently over the past few years, and it still persists in iOS 17.4.

I do manual backups, no automatic ones. It happens often with the manual backups, and it also often happened when I used to do automatic backups in the past. An error message is displayed which reads "Some files were unavailable during the last backup."
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.