Previous iPhone backups missing on Mac mini M1 after erase

Multiple backups used to be the norm. But in at least the last 3-4 releases of macOS, iPhone/iPad backup behavior has changed - now only the most recent backup is saved by default and every time you back up, it is overwritten. (I suspect this is because iPhone/iPad memory has increased over time and in order to save disk space on your Mac, Apple has changed the default to keep only the most recent backup.)

But you can still save multiple backups by going into "Manage Backups." From there, control-click the current backup (the most recent one); then choose Archive, which will save/archive that backup on its own. The next time you back up your iPhone/iPad, it will become the new, recent backup. You can do this multiple times over time, building up an archive of multiple backups; just remember that each successive archived backup will take more & more disk space.

Further look into iMazing which makes multiple backups easier to create & manage ... and it does incremental backups, saving much disk space. You can also specify any disk as the backup location, you are not restricted to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Hi Steve

Like you I'm old school and refuse to pay a subscription for iCloud, Music, etc...

I also see the push to move folks away from the old methods and into using payed services.

Sadly this push can come in several different forms.

1) iOS and macOS updates that render earlier backup versions unusable.

2) iOS and macOS updates that hide or make using the old methods more difficult.

3) Smaller storage that push users into purchasing upgraded hardware or using payed subscriptions.

FWIW I'm not moving away from backing up my Phones to my Mac's or backing up my Mac's to external drives any time soon.

Vent Here Feedback - Mac mini - Apple (or not, even Apple bots will give it a miss).

As for a benefits debate, I can’t help you - happy iCloud user for life. I’ve also retired old man Time Machine years ago and life’s never been better. But in that area you have plenty of company, literally thousands of diehard fans of the aging, endlessly hard-disk-reading-and-writing Apple bot-app here…

…all the best.

If you have archived one or more backups, when you do Restore Backup you can choose the backup you want to restore from. (Note, you must turn off Find My before doing the restore. Turn it back on after the restore is done.)

Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup - Apple Support

Sorry I mispoke. I meant 1TB (not GB).

The last time I had to do this process was quite some time ago but when I did it I had the options of restoring my phone from all of my previously stored backups.

Only one backup per device has been the case as far as I remember. But you might be right that in the distant past a history of backups was indeed supported. But as you also said average devices these days have lots more to backup. So a history of such modern day backups would soon fill a Mac's disk space and then there would be lots of angry people asking where did their Mac's disk space go. Yes, there could be a user option to fine-tune that but obviously Apple prefers to keep confusing options to the minimum.

Personally I have that 5 GB free iCloud and I backup just my iPhone there automatically. I occasionally do a local backup of iPhone and other devices to the Mac.

Images and especially movies seem to take most space in many people's devices. I do not use iCloud Photos so if I had lots of photos in the iPhone, I presume that 5 GB iCloud backup would not be enough for the backup. And if I used iCloud Photos, then AFAIK they would not be backupped but that iCloud space would be consumed by the iCloud Photos instead (which is not really a backup but a sync service). But neither approach does not cause a problem for me because I prefer to periodically download all photos to the Mac and store them on external disk (and backups).

But I see your point but I also see Apple's point.

I don't know if manually grabbing the backups from ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ would work and could those be used as a backup history when restoring. Anyone?

Features/functions are crimped/eliminated partly based on usage which Apple tracks. Looks like iCloud-over-my-dead-body-only-backing-up-to-Mac folks like yourself are a tiny minority…

…i.e. it is what it is, sorry!

MartinR wrote:

But you can still save multiple backups by going into "Manage Backups." From there, control-click the current backup (the most recent one); then choose Archive, which will save/archive that backup on its own. The next time you back up your iPhone/iPad, it will become the new, recent backup. You can do this multiple times over time, building up an archive of multiple backups; just remember that each successive archived backup will take more & more disk space.

Thanks for the note, I had not noticed this option. Obviously this solves the OP's dilemma at least for the future.

Steve Burke wrote:

I've taken a look at my current backups saved in this location and they don't seem to make any sense when I go into them.

The files in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup ... are not humanly readable. If there is more than one 'top level' folder at that location, each contains a particular backup but there's no direct way to tell one from another ... other than perhaps by looking at the the "Date Modified," which may help you distinguish the active backup vs. any archived backups.

I do not advise trying to do anything in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup as it could corrupt your backups.

I really encourage you to look into iMazing. I have used it for years with great success in both managing backups as well as extracting data from them. It saved my bacon when the Finder in Catalina crapped out on sync'ing my Calendar. I was able to extract my entire calendar directly from my iPhone in order to restore eveything the way it should have been.

Now only shows latest backup. You can backup to iCloud at no cost as long as you do not exceed 5GB