iCloud Backups No Longer Available for iPhones and iPads Running iOS 8 or Earlier

Making a device backup over iCloud now requires iOS 9 or later, which means iPhones and iPads that are running iOS 8 or earlier are no longer able to be backed up using ‌iCloud‌.

iCloud General Feature Redux
Apple announced the change in November, and as of this week, it has gone into effect. Support for ‌iCloud‌ backups on devices that run iOS 8 or older has ended, and Apple has deleted all existing ‌iCloud‌ backups of those devices.

Apps and data stored on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or earlier are not affected, and these devices can still be manually backed up to a Mac or a Windows PC. If you have a device on iOS 8 or older, if you can update, you can restore ‌iCloud‌ backup capabilities. Otherwise, all backups will need to be done manually.

Apple says that it discontinued ‌iCloud‌ backups for older devices to "more closely align" with its minimum software requirements. With the iOS 9 update that came out years ago, Apple adopted CloudKit for ‌iCloud‌ backups and stopped using an older system, and it looks like this older system is what's being sunset.

Tag: iCloud

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Top Rated Comments

Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
10 months ago

Curious, anyone here still use an iPhone 4?
Still waiting for my free bumper case to arrive. Still on my 3GS for now.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
10 months ago
In other words, iPhones 4 and earlier, as well as the original iPad, cannot be backed up to iCloud.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DBZmusicboy01 Avatar
10 months ago
I can’t imagine using the iPhone 4 entering 2025 ?‍? it was already outdated by 2015.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gtmead09 Avatar
10 months ago
I find it hard to believe that with the changes there is a lot of apps that still work that make this old of device worth while to use.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ksec Avatar
10 months ago
This scared me a bit although when I read "deleting" backup. I know it is a long time ago, but if anyone is still paying for its storage I dont think it should be deleted.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
platinumaqua Avatar
10 months ago
The Cloud is someone else's computer. Anyone concerned about having control over their data ought to store everything locally.

(Edit: reworded second sentence for better grammatical flow)
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)