iTunes backup does not restore — iPhone stays empty

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Level 1

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iTunes backup does not restore — iPhone stays empty

Hello,

I really need help with an important issue. I have an iPhone 14 (256GB). Recently, the phone started shutting down and restarting on its own. I updated iOS, but after the update, the phone lost network signal. A technician reinstalled the firmware, and now the iPhone works, but all my data is gone.

Before the repair, I created a full iTunes backup on my computer (about 256GB). When I try to restore it, there is no error message: iTunes shows that the backup is loading, but after the process finishes, the iPhone remains completely empty with no data at all.

I also tried restoring on another computer — the result is the same. The backup should contain very important data (photos, videos, contacts, notes, messages).

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Is there a way to make iTunes restore the data, or at least extract it from this backup?

Thank you very much for any advice.

iPhone 14, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 1, 2025 02:12 PM

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Answer 1

diemcel Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 2, 2025 05:01 AM in response to Ingo2711

Yes, I can select the backup in iTunes, and it starts restoring, but the process takes many hours (around 8 hours) because the backup is over 200GB. The iPhone has enough storage (256GB), so that should not be a problem.

I think the issue may be related to the iOS update. Before, I hadn’t updated my phone for about a year. Then the phone started shutting down and restarting by itself, so I updated iOS. After the update, the network signal disappeared. A technician reinstalled the firmware, and I made a backup during that process.

Now, when I try to restore this backup, it looks like the data is loading, but in the end the iPhone is empty. I don’t get any error messages about storage or missing files. Maybe the backup doesn’t restore because of the iOS version change?

I don’t know what else I can do, so any advice would be really appreciated.

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