Both iTunes and iCloud offer the way to help us backup iPhone data. When we
accidentally lose some important data, we can perform a restore to get them back. We can also
utilize it to transfer data to new iPhone
and it’s also a way to fix iOS issues.
However, when you are trying to restore an iTunes or iCloud backup this time, a message
appears and says that iPhone cannot restore from backup not enough free space is available
on device. You may have tried to fix this error by restarting the computer & iPhone but
it does not work. Well, take it easy. Get some other methods to this “iPhone restore failed
not enough space error” in this guide.
How to Fix iPhone Restore Failed Not Enough Space Error?
Since it says that iPhone cannot restore from
backup because of not enough space, first you should go to have a check the storage
space of your iPhone or computer. It makes sense to see whether the error message is the
reality.
If indeed there is not enough free space to perform the restore, you can try to free up more
storage space. Or if there is enough available space on your device but receive the error
message, please jump to the next part to get another
solution.
Free Up iPhone Storage Space
You can check the usage of iPhone storage space by going to Settings >
General > Storage & iCloud Usage. It will show you
how much space is used by each app. To free up space, you can choose to delete some
infrequently used apps. You can also remove unwanted songs, photos, videos, messages, etc.
Free Up Computer Storage Space
To free up the storage space of your computer, you can delete applications, photos, videos,
large documents, etc. If you want to keep these files, you can move them to removable media,
such as external hard drive, USB flash drive, or cloud storage. You can also run the Disk Cleaup utility to remove unnecessary files on your system
hard drive.
Be aware that iTunes backup can occupy considerable space of your hard drive. So you can
delete some old iTunes backup files. Two ways to make it:
■ Delete old backups via iTunes directly:
Open iTunes > Click Edit > Choose Preferences... >
Click Devices tab > Select the backup you want to delete > Click
Delete Backup to confirm.

■ Delete old backups from backup location:
For PC: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
For Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Note: If you see folders with a time stamp to the end of
the backup library, please also delete them. These folders would be created during the
restore process. Even when the backup fails, the folder will not be removed automatically.
The Best Workaround to iPhone Restore Failed Not Enough Space
Even though you can fix the iPhone restore failed not enough space error this time, you may
meet other errors next time when you are trying to backup/restore iPhone with iTunes or
iCloud. To avoid all annoying restore errors, the best workaround is to backup iPhone with
another easy-to-use iTunes alternative.
AOMEI MBackupper,
one free PC-based iPhone backup manager is recommended here. Compared to iTunes, it offers
more flexible features to make things simple.
- It lets you preview and select the data
before the backup & restore.
- The backup files are accessible and you can check the
backup files anytime you want.
- When performing the restore, there is no need to reset
your iPhone and no existing data will be erased.
Steps to Backup iPhone with AOMEI MBackupper
1. Download, install, and launch AOMEI MBackupper > Connect your iPhone to computer via the USB
cable > Tap “Trust” on the iPhone screen to give your computer access to your device.
2. Click Custom Backup option and then you can select the data you want to
backup.
→ You can click each icon to preview and select the items. For example, click Contacts icon
to preview and select the contacts you want to backup > Click OK to
continue.

3. Select the storage path > Click Start Backup button to make it.

When the process is finished, you can check the backup task on the Backup Management screen.
Here you can choose to locate, browse, delete, or restore the backup files. It’s also
possible to click the triangle icon to run an incremental backup next time.

Note: mBackupper makes it possible to restore backup files to any iDevice,
so you can take advantage of this function to transfer data to your new iPhone easily.
Conclusion
That’s all for how to fix the iPhone backup failed not enough space error. You can try to
free up more space on iPhone or computer or just try AOMEI MBackupper to backup & restore your
iPhone in an easier way. You can only restore the needed data to iPhone without data
erase.