iOS: Unable to restore from backup of a newer device

Products Affected

iPad, iPhone, iPod touch

Symptoms

When restoring an iOS backup to a iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that is not using the latest version of iOS, you may see the following behavior:

  • You cannot see or select the most recent backup from the list of available backups in iTunes or iCloud.
  • iTunes displays the alert "The backup [name] cannot be restored to this [iOS device] because the software on the [iOS device] is too old."
  • iTunes displays the alert "No backups available."

Resolution

Update your device to the latest version of iOS to be able to restore the backup.

iOS does not support restoring a backup from a newer version of iOS to a device using an older version of iOS.

Example: Restoring a backup from an iOS 5.1 device to an iOS 5.0 or iOS 4.x device is not supported.

Additional Information

If you wish to transfer content from a device with a newer version of iOS to a device using an earlier version, follow the steps in this article to transfer the content to your computer. After the content is transferred to your computer, you can use iTunes to sync the content to your other device.

Note: Some content, including SMS/MMS messages, app data, and settings, cannot be transferred using this method.

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