Incredible: Problem solved! iCloud backup is up to date.
Lessons learned:
1. Keep your iPhone WiFi password up to date. (my biggest stupid mistake)
That one will do a lot of good things for you
- save costly cell phone minutes
- reduce batter drain. Cellular data connections don't just eat data minutes, they also use more battery power
- speed up downloads significantly.
- Some Apple downloads will not even download over a cellular data connection.
- and as you have discovered is essential for the automatic backups.
Glad the problem is solved and everything is working again. 😊