iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the iPhone refused the request – iOS 4

Problem

When running iPhone OS 4 beta 1, syncing with iTunes doesn’t backup the iPhone causing the error:

iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the iPhone refused the request

Fix

Install the iPhone SDK 4 beta with Xcode 3.2.3 (or later), which will update some files in iTunes and enable the backup to complete successfully.

An iTunes update is likely to be released soon to address this and other issues some users are experiencing with syncing.

Update 25/04/10: Apparently iPhone OS 4 beta 2 backs up in iTunes 9.1 without any issues.

16 thoughts on “iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the iPhone refused the request – iOS 4

  1. Hey… I’ve got the same problem!

    I’m running a PowerMac G5 with iTunes 9.1
    I’ve got iPhone 3G, OS 4.0 (I’m a developers member) and I’m trying to backup my iPhone Content, but I get following message:

    itunes could not backup the iPhone because the iPhone refused the request

    And I can’t download Xcode 3.2.3 or SDK 4.0 because it only runs on Intel Macs

    Any help is appreciated..

  2. I’m getting the same problem as everyone too. My friend is the one that purchased the Xcode 3.2.3 and downloaded it on the share folder so I can download it and install it, everytime I try to download it, it comes back saying Mounting Failed. How do I go about installing this? Am I missing some steps, Help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from ya soon.

    • @raymond If you update to beta 2 there is an official Apple fix, however, you’ll need to login (or get your friend to) to get the files.

      Beta 2 is a bit buggy (the camera roll doesn’t work), so decided whether that or backups are more important, or don’t run the beta OS 😉 !

  3. Ben, I tried installing the Beta version 2 before this Xcode and everytime I try to install beta version 2 first, it shuts down my Itunes automatically and won’t install it

    • @raymond have you got the latest version of Xcode? Make sure you follow all the steps Apple mention in the release notes as they’re particularly important for this prerelease.

  4. Ok Ben I’ll try and take a look at it, My friend wouldn’t give me the password to go download it so I don’t know if he’s doing it right or not, all he’s doing is downloading it than putting it on the mobile me share drive, than when I try to install it from there it don’t work. Do you think maybe thats the problem and I should download it direct from the xcode site?

  5. The solution: You need to install iPhoneSystemComponents.pkg from SDK. You don’t need to install whole SDK! It’s worked for me.

  6. Thanks a lot for the advice Ben! It’s not every day you encounter an “unsolvable” problem with products from Apple, but when it happens it’s nice to have guys like you around.

  7. im runing windows vista & can someone tell me will this file work for me? Tryed to back up my phone as it was doing it, i got a phone call which then turned out to give me a message on itunes informing itunes could not backup the iPhone because the iPhone refused the request!! ive got the same issues!

  8. i got same problem , i wanna restore the buckup from itunes the it shows me same message u have ” itunes could not restore the iphone because the iphone refused the requse”” i have itunes v10.1.2 and iphone 4g v4.2.1?
    so how i can fix that problem cuz i lost all my data .. please help

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