My iPhone 11 Pro has only about 300 MB of free space left, and its condition seems to be getting worse even after deleting apps and photos. The storage briefly increases instead, and the system is becoming unstable. One app is also reporting SQLite error 14: "unable to open database file" (error 747). I'm concerned that the phone's filesystem may be stuck in repeated write failures.
I managed to extract my photos using iMazing's direct-read feature, but important data such as WhatsApp's database and Voice Memos is still on the phone. An Apple Support representative suggested buying a new iPhone with more storage and using device-to-device Quick Start to transfer everything.
Could Quick Start realistically complete when the source phone has almost no free space and apps are already experiencing SQLite database errors? Does the transfer require several gigabytes of temporary space on the old phone to prepare the manifest or cache data? I'm worried that attempting to migrate hundreds of gigabytes could cause the phone to crash, restart, or become trapped in an Error 1110 or Error 14 boot loop.
Has anyone successfully transferred data from an iPhone in this condition? Would attempting a partial "Data Access Only" backup with iMazing be safer or more effective? My last computer backup is about nine months old.
1 Answer
The first thing to establish is how recent your iCloud or computer backup is. A device-to-device transfer still needs the old phone to remain stable enough to communicate, read the data, and complete the handshaking process. With database-open failures and almost no free space, Quick Start is not something I’d consider reliable. Preserve the phone’s current state and prioritize extracting irreplaceable data or making any kind of usable backup before experimenting with a full migration.
My most recent computer backup is about nine months old. Apple Support said device-to-device transfer might still work even with essentially no free space, but I’m trying to find out whether anyone has actually succeeded in this situation.