Decipher Tools > FAQ > I'm getting an Error 256 when trying to back up my iPhone in Decipher TextMessage

I'm getting an Error 256 when trying to back up my iPhone in Decipher TextMessage

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Jay Walsh, Co-Founder of Decipher Media
Jay Walsh
May 13, 2024 at 9:30 AM
Categories: Decipher TextMessage | View Comments

The Error (-256) when attempting to make a backup of your iPhone via Decipher TextMessage is usually an indication from the iPhone that it lost USB connectivity during the backup. The error can also happen if the iPhone's drive is full.

First, please check to see if the iPhone's hard drive is full. The iPhone creates a few files when sending the backup to the computer, so if the drive is full, the backup will fail with this -256 error.

  1. Open the Settings app on the iPhone.

  2. Select General > iPhone Storage.

  3. Give this screen a few moments to populate, and see if the top section shows whether the iPhone storage is completely used up.

  4. If there is at least 1GB of free space available, that should be more than sufficient and nothing needs to be done. If there is less than 1GB of free space available, please use the information on the rest of this screen to help guide you to free up some more space on the iPhones hard drive.

Check your iPhone's available hard drive space in the Settings app > General > iPhone Storage.

Otherwise, when storage is not the issue, most of the time when we see this, the fix is to swap out the iPhone cable. If you have another cable handy, please use that for the next try. Likewise, if your PC or Mac has more than one USB port, please change USB ports as well. If the phone is plugged in to a USB port on a computer monitor, keyboard, or USB hub, please plug it directly into the computer instead if possible.

After following those instructions, reboot both the PC or Mac and the iPhone https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201559 and then try the backup again.

If it is still not working for you, please use that contact support button in the backup window of the program so the new error log fills in for us to review. You can also try backing up in iTunes (Windows) or Finder (Mac) to see if that works. If the backup completes there, then run Decipher TextMessage and it will read in the iTunes/Finder backup and you do not need to backup in Decipher TextMessage.

If you still have troubles, you can contact us via our Decipher Tools Support page and we will write you back to assist!