Roger Fingas
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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Amber Neely
29 Comments
Maybe its just me, but I'd never consider content of a messaging app to be a permanent data store.
[quote name="GQB" url="/t/190203/iphone-6s-owners-report-losing-messages-recent-calls-when-restoring-from-icloud#post_2807159"]Maybe its just me, but I'd never consider content of a messaging app to be a permanent data store. [/quote] This concerns Health data and other things as well.
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+
Another reason I don't back up to the "cloud".
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...