iOS11 Upgrade - older iOS back up not compatible

[supernova97]

Hi Everyone!
Here is a tricky one. Mom's iPhone 5s needed to be restored this evening and I did the usual steps of backing up before restoring the ios. The only problem is that IOS 11 was downloaded and installed and now the back up that I had saved on my computer is not working. Mom never upgraded the iOS since she bought the phone and I have no idea what iOS she was running. My only guess is that the backup is not working because it is not compatible with the latest ios. Does anyone have any suggestions?? My intention was to restore the iOS to troubleshoot her phone and not upgrade to the latest iOS. She was supposed to get a new phone next week and now her pictures and contacts are gone. Thanks!

 

[Mlrollin91]

Hi Everyone!
Here is a tricky one. Mom's iPhone 5s needed to be restored this evening and I did the usual steps of backing up before restoring the ios. The only problem is that IOS 11 was downloaded and installed and now the back up that I had saved on my computer is not working. Mom never upgraded the iOS since she bought the phone and I have no idea what iOS she was running. My only guess is that the backup is not working because it is not compatible with the latest ios. Does anyone have any suggestions?? My intention was to restore the iOS to troubleshoot her phone and not upgrade to the latest iOS. She was supposed to get a new phone next week and now her pictures and contacts are gone. Thanks!

You can try using iBackupbot or Imazing to extract the photos from the backup. Contacts should be part of iCloud an will sync once you log back into iCloud.

 

[supernova97]

You can try using iBackupbot or Imazing to extract the photos from the backup. Contacts should be part of iCloud an will sync once you log back into iCloud.

the backup was encrypted. Would it it still work? What is your experience using these two packages? Also, thanks for the fast reply!

 

[Mlrollin91]

the backup was encrypted. Would it it still work? What is your experience using these two packages? Also, thanks for the fast reply!

I’ve used both. But iBackupbot needs unencrypted. But, Imazing will work with encrypted. I used it last week.

 

[iSayBoourns]

That’s odd an iOS 10 backup didn’t work on iOS 11. Previous iOS backups have typically always worked on a newer iOS. It’s the other way around that has never worked (IE using a iOS 11 backup on a iOS 10 install)

 

[Renegade72]

I don't think it's possible for an iOS 10 backup to be not compatible with iOS 11. The problem should be elsewhere. Maybe a corrupted file ?

 

[Mlrollin91]

The OP doesn’t know what version the backup is from. So we can’t assume it’s iOS 10. Being that it is a 5s and potentially never upgraded the software, it could be iOS 7. Meaning the backup definitely would not work.