Many people complain about a common issue that iPhone shows “Restore from iCloud Paused” due to some unknown reason. Even though the error message states that there’s not enough space on their iDevice or iCloud storage, the problem persists even after they remove large files from their device’s local disk or subscribe to iCloud to get additional storage.
If you are in the same situation and looking for a solution, you are at the right place. Here you will learn a couple of effective remedies to get rid of the notification of “Restore from iCloud Paused Not Enough Storage”.
How to Fix ‘Restore from iCloud Paused’
Some commonly used and proven solutions to remove the “Restore from iCloud Paused” note are suggested below.
Solution 1: Check Available Space on Your iPhone and iCloud
This is the first thing that you must do before diving into any troubleshooting solutions. If your iPhone or iCloud doesn’t have enough space to accommodate your data, you may see that “Restore from iCloud Paused” due to not enough iPhone storage or insufficient iCloud real estate.
You can follow the instructions given below to check if your iCloud account and iPhone have a sufficient amount of free area for the data:
For iPhone:
- Tap Settings.
- Tap General.
- Tap iPhone Storage.
- Check the information present next to the iPhone label at the top of the iPhone Storage window.
Note: If you see any app that you no longer need and it is eating a lot of space, you can tap its name, and choose to offload or delete it from your iPhone to make some room.
For iCloud:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap your name from the top.
- On the Apple ID screen, tap iCloud.
- Check the information present next to the iCloud label present at the top of the iCloud window.
Note: If your iCloud account doesn’t have enough space, you can either tap Manage Account Storage under the iCloud graphical bar and get rid of unwanted files from there, or tap Upgrade to iCloud+ from the bottom of the screen and get more storage capacity.
After checking and making some space, try restoring from iCloud again and see if the problem is resolved.
Solution 2: Restart Your iPhone
This is the simplest fix that you can try to resolve the issue. In fact, most problems are gone by restarting the device as it gives the circuit a fresh reboot. The process to restart your iPhone to get rid of the “Restore from iCloud Paused” if not enough iCloud storage problem is explained below:
- Tap Settings from your iPhone’s Home screen.
- Go to General.
- Scroll down to the bottom.
- Tap Shut Down.
- Swipe the slide to power off slider to the right to shut down your device.
- Wait for 15 to 30 seconds.
- Long-press the Sleep/Wake button to turn on the phone again.
- See if the issue is fixed.
Solution 3: Switch to a Different Wi-Fi Connection
If your current Wi-Fi connection is unstable or has slow Internet bandwidth, you may experience the “Restore from iCloud Paused” issue. A good solution would be to switch to a different, comparatively more stable wireless network and try restoring your data from the iCloud backup. You can follow the steps given below to learn the procedure:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Wi-Fi.
- Tap to select a different, more stable wireless network from the available list.
- Enter the password when iPhone prompts.
- Tap Join from the top-right corner.
- Try to restore your data from the iCloud backup and see if the problem is resolved.
Solution 4: Turn Off Low Power Mode
If the battery isn’t enough charged, your iPhone prompts you to enable ‘Low Power Mode’. When you do so, your phone uses the bare-minimum resources that are essential for its functioning, and all other processes such as background app refreshing, iCloud photo synchronization, automatic downloads, etc. are temporarily suspended. Therefore, if you see that restore from iCloud is paused for not iPhone storage, turning off Low Power Mode might do the trick. You can follow the instructions given below to learn the method:
- Connect your iPhone to a power outlet.
- Ensure that it is charging normally.
- Go to Settings.
- Tap Battery.
- Tap to turn off the Low Power Mode switch on the Battery screen.
- Abort the current restoration process.
- Retry to restore your data from iCloud backup.
- Check and confirm if the issue is resolved.
Solution 5: Turn Off iCloud Photos and then Back On
Sometimes iCloud Photos syncing is the main culprit, and the problem isn’t fixed even if you have sufficient space on iCloud. Many people also complain that they face the issue after buying additional iCloud storage as well.
If you’ve tried the above solutions and none of them worked, you can turn off iCloud Photos sync and then turn it back on. Please note that if you are prompted that your photos on your iPhone will be removed, remember to check whether all the photos are synced to iCloud or not. If not, do not try this method. Otherwise, you will lose some photos. The process is given below:
- Tap Settings from the Home screen.
- Scroll down and tap Photos.
- On the next screen, tap to turn off the iCloud Photos switch.
- Wait for approximately 60 seconds.
- Tap the iCloud Photos switch again to turn it back on.
- Try to restore your data from iCloud backup and see if the “Restore from iCloud Paused” issue is gone.
Solution 6: Log Out of Your iCloud Account and Log Back In
Logging out from your iCloud account and then logging back in gives your iPhone a fresh synching start. Many times, this fixes the problem, and the restore from iCloud is paused as not enough storage message is gone. Therefore, the solution is worth trying and the process is explained below:
To Sign Out:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap your name from the top of the Settings screen.
- Scroll down the Apple ID window.
- Tap Sign Out.
- Enter your Apple ID’s password on the next window.
- Tap Turn Off from the top-right corner to turn off Find My iPhone.
- On the next screen, turn on the switches representing the data you want to keep on your iPhone.
- Tap Sign Out from the top-right corner.
- Tap Sign Out on the confirmation box when it appears.
- Wait while your iPhone is signed out of your iCloud account.
To Sign Back In:
- Go to the Settings screen again.
- Tap Sign in to your iPhone from the top.
- On the Apple ID screen, enter your Apple ID.
- Tap Next from the top-right corner.
- Enter your password when your iPhone prompts.
- Tap Next again.
- On the Enter iPhone Passcode screen, enter your iPhone’s passcode.
- Tap Merge or Don’t Merge on the confirmation box that pops up to allow or skip data merging on your iPhone with iCloud.
- Wait while you are signed back in to your iCloud account.
- Try restoring from iCloud backup again and see if the issue is resolved.
Solution 7: Manually Sync Photos and Videos from iCloud to iPhone
If none of the solutions suggested above work, as the last resort, you can try manual synchronization. To do so, you must download photos and videos from your iCloud account to your PC, and then use iTunes to synchronize those media files with your iPhone.
Although this method requires more than regular human intervention, the final results are quite promising. The method of this entire practice is given below:
To Download Photos and Videos to PC:
- Launch your favorite web browser on your computer.
- Sign in to your iCloud account.
- Go to the Photos container.
- Drag your mouse to select all the photos and videos that you want to sync with your iPhone.
- Click the Download icon from the top-right area of the page.
- Check the default download folder for your web browser to confirm if the iCloud Photos.zip container is present.
To Sync Downloaded Files with iPhone via iTunes:
- Use your preferred archiving tool to extract all the components of the iCloud Photos.zip container.
- Use the method explained earlier to turn off iCloud Photos.
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to the computer.
- Launch iTunes if it doesn’t start automatically.
- Click the Phone icon from the top of the interface.
- Click to select Photos from the Settings category in the left pane.
- From the right window, check the Sync Photos box.
- From the upper frame, click to open the Copy photos from the drop-down list.
- Click Choose folder.
- Locate and select the container with the photos and videos you downloaded from iCloud and now want to sync with your iPhone.
- From the lower frame, ensure that the All folders radio button is selected.
- Check the Include videos box if not already checked.
- Click Apply from the bottom-right area of the interface.
- Wait while the photos and videos are synced to your iPhone.
- Disconnect the phone from the PC and continue using it normally.
Conclusion
Although the backup and synchronization process between your iPhone and iCloud data remains transparent and seamless, sometimes the issue shows up due to one or the other reason. When this happens, you can check and try the solutions given here to fix the “Restore from iCloud Paused” problem without vising any Apple Store or consulting an Apple authorized technician.
