IOS – Can’t backup iPhone 5s (iOS 8.4) using iTunes 12.3 (because an error occured) or iCloud backup

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I'm trying to backup my iPhone before upgrading to iOS9. Right now it's running iOS 8.4. After pressing 'Back Up Now' button in iTunes I'm getting this error message: 'iTunes could not back up the iPhone … because an error occured'

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I tried all steps from this official Apple's document: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203271 (including restarting Macbook, iPhone, I tried another Macbook, different USB ports etc).

Any ideas how to fix this? I don't want to upgrade to iOS9 without backup.

UPDATE:

I upgraded my iCloud storage and tried iCloud backup. It failed with 'The last backup could not be completed' error.

UPDATE 2:

Probably I found the source of my problem. When I go to the Settings->General->Usage->Manage Storage I get list of installed applications. There is an empty application. Check this screenshot. Its size is 50.7Mb.

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I can select it and I see such screen:

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I can press 'Delete App', and there is no name for this app (null).

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After confirmation this app goes from the list, but if I go back from Manage Storage and return there, it appears again, so this application can't be deleted.
I tried hard reset, but this application stays in settings event after it.

My iPhone isn't jailbroken

Best Answer

I faced the same issue on my phone: unable to backup, neither to iCloud or through iTunes. I found some few posts, most notably this one and this one .

Basically your on the right track: backup fail because of one or more zombie app(s). Apps that were deleted but are still there... :(

The only option seems to be to find out what app is causing this, and reinstall it, check your backup is working again, then delete it (hoping this time it will go away for good, leaving a proper state for backup to keep working ) !

To find out what is your zombie app, you'll have to find out based on whatever information you have about it. Some like me still have the app icon showing in Settings->General->Usage->Manage Storage, which make identifying pretty straight forward. Unfortunately, in your case you'll have to find out what app of 50.7MB and version 23.0 you recently deleted. To help you in your quest, you could look into:

  • your memory ;)
  • in the App Store of your iPhone, in the list of purchased apps, look for those not installed that could match. [added base on comment below]
  • in iTunes, in the iPhone sync screen, app tab, the app listed as installed on your phone while you do know you removed it...
  • in your iTunes Library, App folder, in list view so you can sort by size
  • your iPhone logs, using Xcode (that's the geeky way !). see the second post listed above for a detailed how-to.

Hope you'll get to it. Good luck !

Side note: I would have added more links, but being a rookie on 'Ask Different', I'm limited to 2 external links...

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