iPhone 6s owners report losing messages, recent calls when restoring from iCloud

Posted:
in iPhone edited November 2015
Some people picking up a replacement iPhone 6s are finding that their Messages and Recent Calls data is missing after restoring from iCloud, according to numerous complaints.




The issue is the subject of multiple threads at Apple's support forums, and has been verified by AppleInsider. Anecdotes hint that even some people within Apple may have suffered the problem, and that in some cases people are losing additional data such as Health statistics or Safari browsing data.

The root of the glitch is uncertain, but may be connected to the original devices being updated to iOS 9.0.1 or later, and the replacements having iOS 9.0. Others have suggested simply that iCloud is pushing out corrupt backups.

Regardless, one user-proposed solution is making sure both the new and original phones are updated to iOS 9.1, running a fresh backup of the original device, and then resetting the second phone to factory settings. Only at this point is it theoretically safe to restore from iCloud on the new hardware.

Possibly simpler is relying on local iTunes backups, especially since the original device may be missing or non-functional.

Apple support representatives have told customers that the company is aware of the issue and working on a solution, but no timelines or official workarounds have been announced.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    gqbgqb Posts: 1,934member

    Maybe its just me, but I'd never consider content of a messaging app to be a permanent data store. 

  • Reply 2 of 29
    gqb wrote: »
    Maybe its just me, but I'd never consider content of a messaging app to be a permanent data store. 

    This concerns Health data and other things as well.
  • Reply 3 of 29
    I had this issue recently on my 5c. Before I even upgraded to my new 6s+.
    My wife was using my 5c (on iOS 9.1) when suddenly the phone completely deleted itself. No idea why or what she did (if she even did anything) but I restored from iCloud and definitely I was missing many emails.
    No problem since and when I upgraded to my 6s+ using iCloud to restore it happened flawlessly. So my conclusion is that it's an issue with iCloud and NOT the 6s+
  • Reply 4 of 29

    Another reason I don't back up to the "cloud". 

  • Reply 5 of 29
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    The iCloud backups only get triggered when the iPhone is connected to a power source, locked and connected to WiFi (and NOT set for an encrypted backup to the computer which shuts that auto-backup off) IIRC, so anything since the last of those criteria won't have been uploaded for archiving yet...
  • Reply 6 of 29
    I've more had issues where my icloud backups are always corrupt and none of my 6s 's (I've had a few, screen issues) seem to restore correctly from a backup. I always end up setting the phones up as new. I'm not sure why this keeps happening as I keep deleting all the old backups once I set a phone up as new and create completely new backups.
  • Reply 7 of 29
    Apple are having a lot of cock ups lately, even the iPad Pro is having problems
  • Reply 8 of 29
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    darendino wrote: »
    Apple are having a lot of cock ups lately, even the iPad Pro is having problems

    No it's just every thing immediately hits the internet these days, shows up all over Twitter, Facebook Apple rumor sites, etc, etc. etc.
  • Reply 9 of 29

    I thought that losing messages was normal when restoring with iCloud. My understanding is that iCloud does not back up everything, and you will lose some data when restoring from iCloud. That's one reason why I've always used iTunes backups when restoring.

  • Reply 10 of 29

    I experienced this problem. It wasn't just messages, data in some other apps got lost as well.  I had created an iTunes backup at the same time, so I restored with that.

     

    This is a regression... used to work.

  • Reply 11 of 29
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member

    This is why I always make a back up on my computer, those seem to be far more solid backups then icloud, plus I not willing to keep paying apple for cloud storage when I have Terabits of storage at home.

  • Reply 12 of 29
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member

    I've never had any issue with this. All my messages are compl

  • Reply 13 of 29
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    gqb wrote: »
    Maybe its just me, but I'd never consider content of a messaging app to be a permanent data store. 
    And why not? If a backup system is in place, and the backup system is designed to backup your messages (among other things), why wouldn't you expect that to be permanent? You would expect that to just disappear someday?

    I've got every message I ever sent since the iPhone 3GS backed up and it's been useful several times to confirm the dates that something happened or correct a misunderstanding. My messages app backup is currently 11GB. I always back up to the computer - but i don't think anybody who backs up to iCloud should expect their messages to randomly disappear. They should be able to rely on a secure and reliable backup: There's obviously a bug that needs fixing.
  • Reply 14 of 29
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    Imaginary insider Ning Shi Cwoh today advised that these messages have not really gone missing, been lost or deleted, they have merely been transferred to the NSA for review. Users who have experienced message loss should expect a visit from the NSA to discuss said messages sometime over the next 30 days!

    /s :D
  • Reply 15 of 29
    fallenjtfallenjt Posts: 4,053member
    decondo wrote: »
    Another reason I don't back up to the "cloud". 
    another reason for this is people are stupid. They should know that the new phone must have OS updated with the latest version before restoring the backup. I have done this so many time and never lost a single piece of data.
  • Reply 16 of 29
    tenlytenly Posts: 710member
    fallenjt wrote: »
    another reason for this is people are stupid. They should know that the new phone must have OS updated with the latest version before restoring the backup. I have done this so many time and never lost a single piece of data.

    Bullsh**t! That's not at all general knowledge - nor is it an actual requirement. If it *were* a requirement, the restore process itself would warn the users or even insist upon an upgrade before allowing the restore to happen.

    People that call other people stupid when they're really not - are the stupidest people in the world!
  • Reply 17 of 29
    Luckily I have my iMac messages there but totally pisses me off about my health data and having to re-enter logins for many apps.
    Did 9.1 to 9.1.
  • Reply 18 of 29
    People don't back up correctly, that's all!
    Also you can't use back up from iOS 9.1 to older version iOS, they are not compatible!
  • Reply 19 of 29
    sergioz wrote: »
    People don't back up correctly, that's all!
    Also you can't use back up from iOS 9.1 to older version iOS, they are not compatible!

    I backed up perfectly fine. 9.1 to 9.1. Everything else restored but my texts, call history and the data of some apps.
  • Reply 20 of 29
    I experienced this too. I lost all of my text messages when I backed up to the cloud to replace my 6s plus because of a Siri microphone issue. I've been an Apple fan for a long time but it seems that the glitches and annoyances are becoming more common. It's getting harder to say "it just works." Perhaps getting rid of Scott Forstall wasn't such a good move. The software seems more buggy these days.
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