Unplug your iPhone/iPad/iPod from the lightning cable and do a full restart of the iPhone.If you connect your iPhone to a USB hub or keyboard, remove the hub and plug the iPhone cable directly in to your computer USB port.If you have a desktop computer, with some USB ports in front and some in back, I highly recommend switching to the whole other side of the computer too. If your computer has more than one USB port, switch the USB plug to another port.Use a different iPhone USB lightning cable if you have a spare.The good news is that we've fixed a lot of restores with this error message, so we have some fixes for you to try! How to fix the error message 'iTunes could not restore the iPhone/iPad/iPod because an error occurred' The 'error occurred' message is a catch-all for when iTunes doesn't have a better explanation. In my experience it generally means that there was something unexpected in the backup that the iPhone doesn't know how to handle, so the entire restore attempt gets abruptly rejected. The backup being stored on an external or network drive with intermittent connectivity.Īny error that iTunes doesn't have an explicit message for. Here's some reasons for the 'iTunes could not restore the iPhone/iPad/iPod because an error occurred' message:Ī connection problem between the iPhone and the computer that results in some of the files not transferring. iTunes doesn't give you any clues about the source of the problem or if there is anything you can do to fix it!Īs the lead developer for Decipher Backup Repair, software for fixing corrupt and otherwise broken iPhone/iPad/iPod backups, I've explored many of the underlying causes of this generic 'error occurred' message while working with customers. The iTunes error message 'iTunes could not restore the iPhone because an error occurred' is on my top list for useless and obvious. I've seen my share of useful, not so useful, and downright silly app error messages.

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