The Idiots Guide to Making your Iphone Backup fast

[Lightbrazer]

I've seen many posts about backups taking no time at all, and some saying they are taking a long time. I know why some are fast and some are not, it's a setting you chose when you first set up your iphone which does not normally pop up again. Here is my step by step guide to undoing what most of you with slow backups did and making your backups take about 90 seconds on average.

That's right, the actual backup only takes 90 seconds (if you haven't installed anything new since your last sync), the thing that's making everyone's backup take an hour plus is that your sending your crash reports to apple everytime you backup and apples servers are so inundated that you're having to wait for the crash reports to upload and it's taking forever. This is an option that you clicked on your very first sync that you will now undo.

Plug your iphone in so it shows up under "devices" on the left side of itunes. If it starts to sync stop it right away by clicking the x (top middle of itunes). Then go to devices click your iphone so the middle window displays the iphone info and uncheck the "automatically sync when this iphone is connected" you'll find it under the summary tab of your iphone if you're not already there.

Then unplug and re-plug your phone back in.

Now when the phone shows up under devices right click on it and a context menu will pop up, go to the bottom of this list and select "reset warnings"

Now click sync and a warning window will pop up which you probably flew by the first time you set up your phone. It is the source of your backup woes. It is the one saying apple would like to get your crash reports. Also it will have checked by default "don't show this warning again" which is why you never got a chance to undo your mistake of clicking yes last time.

UNCHECK the don't show this again, you want to see this warning window everytime you plug your phone in because you'll always want to click "DO NOT ALLOW." If you want to see why the backup takes so long then click the button where it says to show you the reports. I'll bet if your backups are taking a while this folder is just chock full of crash reports. Go ahead and empty it.

Now everytime you plug your phone in just keep selecting DO NOT SEND THE INFO TO APPLE. (please note the window will only show up if there are crash reports to be sent, so if you empty the crash report folder above then you won't see the warning window again until a new report is generated) I'll bet your backups go way faster from now on.

Also note, if you have a butload of new apps that you installed on your last sync the next backup will indeed take several minutes since this is all new data. (Remember itunes does a backup first then an install incase any of the new apps cause a major problem you'll have a backup from before you installed them. But this means the next time you plug your phone in is the first time your backup will include any apps from the last sync). For example if you sync now and you get a 90 second backup but then you install Brain Challenge (an almost 100 meg app) the your next backup will probably go up to 5 or 10 minutes since none of this is in the last backup. But that's still a far cry less than what many of you have been experiencing.

And when no new apps are installed the backup takes about 90 seconds now.

enjoy.

[yoman]

Thanks...I'll give it a try...

[TonyMil]

Thank you!

[cfairbank]

Do you know how to do this on the mac. Can't right click the device. So where do you go to change the setting?

Thanks

[Lightbrazer]

Do you know how to do this on the mac. Can't right click the device. So where do you go to change the setting?

Thanks

If you don't have a right mouse button on your mac mouse then hold the control button down when clicking to bring up the context menu. Please note control+click will act as a right mouse click universally for your mac incase you didn't know that.

[Sobe]

Great tip!

Thanks a bunch!

[dacreativeguy]

doesn't work on the mac with itunes 7.7. That dialog never appears.

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha Lightbrazer,

I attempted to follow your instructions, but the crash report window never came up for me. I'm resigned to just let iTunes do the backup once a day, as I've been sitting here for the past 1:36 (1 hour and 36 minutes) - I pulled the plug on the backup as I have to go out and wash my car now. I'll complete the backup later today.

HawaiiMacAddict

[joebokeh]

doesn't work on the mac with itunes 7.7. That dialog never appears.

i got the same result

[firewood]

The dialog appeared the first time I tried this. But not the second time I tried to sync.

[maryanny]

I have a mac and 7.7 and it worked for me, thanks so much!

[joebokeh]

whatda.. how...

[skubish]

doesn't work on Macs

[acvball92]

didn't work for me either. I hope they fix this soon. It is sooooooooo anoyyyyyinnggg.

[Nikhil72]

The dialogue popped up on my MacBook...I'm letting the initial backup go through now (always hit cancel...), I'll report back on subsequent ones!

[nikhsub1]

I successfully did everything explained... however the backup is still taking forever...

[thor79]

nice...worked great here...had 10 or so crash reports in the folder.

[Sky Blue]

It's a nice tip, however I don't want to be clicking 'don't send' everytime. I'll keep it as is.

[Xtal]

Tip: if you sync using MS Exchange or MobileMe, your backup problems will go away. I sync to www.nuevasync.com using MS Exchange and I have never been asked to back up.

The backup problem comes from syncing bookmarks/contacts/calendar/email to your LOCAL COMPUTER.

As soon as I decided to sync bookmarks to my local computer via iTunes, it would back up my iPhone each time there was a change on the computer which had to be transferred to the iPhone. I turned off bookmark sync and I was back to NEVER being prompted to back up.

[Lightbrazer]

First it does work on macs, in fact I only have a mac to have tested it on.

Second as I said in the initial post once you empty the folder storing the crash reports then you won't be prompted again until more crashes occur and something goes in that folder.

This won't magically make the backups go away, it reduces them to their actual time of 90 seconds to 5 minutes and eliminates the 2 hour plus backups many users were experiencing.

[HawaiiMacAddict]

Aloha Lightbrazer,

I attempted this on my iMac (bought in 2006, Core Duo 20" model) running Mac OS X 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7. I'm using a virgin (non-jailbroken) iPhone 3G running Firmware 2.0 (5A357). As I mentioned before, my attempt was unsuccessful, so I'm just going to close out of the backup for my morning sync (when I load up on my daily podcasts) and do a "full" sync every evening.

My iTunes library is actually hosted on my external drive, so I'll make another attempt using my MacBook Pro later tonight and let you know the results of same.

In your last post, you mentioned emptying the folder storing the crash reports. Is that folder emptied when you right-click and choose "Reset Warnings"? I get that far, but never get the error reporting window after clicking the Sync button.

HawaiiMacAddict

[aphexii]

Tip: if you sync using MS Exchange or MobileMe, your backup problems will go away. I sync to www.nuevasync.com using MS Exchange and I have never been asked to back up.

The backup problem comes from syncing bookmarks/contacts/calendar/email to your LOCAL COMPUTER.

As soon as I decided to sync bookmarks to my local computer via iTunes, it would back up my iPhone each time there was a change on the computer which had to be transferred to the iPhone. I turned off bookmark sync and I was back to NEVER being prompted to back up.

You're incorrect. I use Mobile Me push for all my data and my backup took about 55 minutes yesterday.

[lavrishevo]

Have you tried making sure all your app's are listed in iTunes that are installed on your phone. I had about 15 apps's not showing up in iTunes because I was downloading and installing via wifi on the phone. One I downloaded all the 'missing' app's via iTunes my sync's greatly improved in speed. Worth a shot.

[ViViDboarder]

Have you tried making sure all your app's are listed in iTunes that are installed on your phone. I had about 15 apps's not showing up in iTunes because I was downloading and installing via wifi on the phone. One I downloaded all the 'missing' app's via iTunes my sync's greatly improved in speed. Worth a shot.

Yea, this dialog does not come up on a mac and so I doubt it could have much a reason. A crash log is just a small text file. MUCH smaller than 1 meg even if you crash multiple times.

I already had a post documenting this (As quoted user mentions)

[Sonicjay]

Turning off the reporting stops giving information to Apple that they could be using to fix the problems..

[philgilder]

nothing came up on my mac
after resetting warnings, unplug, reconnecting and pressing sync, it just syncs away
but now backups take hours, rather than the 2-3 minutes they did before :mad:

[jcapz]

I have done every step and also cleared away the folder showing the crash reports....when backing up first time after following the steps of course I knew it was going to take a while(since I had just reinstalled the apps therefore causing a long initial backup) during the whole backup maybe after it was almost done a pop up came up saying something along the lines of "was not able to sync proper disc cannot be found." Is there a reason for it? I unplugged my phone and restarted the whole initial backup process which it is still doing...I'm hoping it won't give me that message again but just wanted to see if you had an answer to that pop up.

[tico24]

I'm afraid that this did nothing whatsoever for me...if anything, its made backups take longer! Currently 1 hour 34 mins into the backup and its only 3/4 of the way through.

One it finally backs up, i'll attempt a reboot of my iphone and try again.

[redgaz26]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A347 Safari/525.20)

this is bonkers!!!!!!
Why can't we just sync our phones like we did before 2.0?????
Apple what is going on. I'm scared to connect my phone to iTunes incase I have to leave the house the same day.
Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!

[miamialley]

I did not "fly right by" the prompt to send Apple the report. I knew what I was agreeing to and did so intentionally.

Your solution does not work for me.

[miamialley]

During the back up phase, just click the 'x' to the right of the text "Backing up iPhone" and it will stop the back up and will continue to sync the iphone. Of course, you're not backing up your phone, but at least you'll have some control.

[forceusr]

This method isn't working for me. When I click "Reset Warnings," and then attempt to sync, I never get an option to see anything related to Crash Reports. Can someone tell me which folder on the hard drive (Mac, please) holds these files?

[lavrishevo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5A347 Safari/525.20)

this is bonkers!!!!!!
Why can't we just sync our phones like we did before 2.0?????
Apple what is going on. I'm scared to connect my phone to iTunes incase I have to leave the house the same day.
Crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you made sure all your installed app's are also listed under the applications tab in iTunes? If not download any that are missing. Also you could try deleting all the 3rd party app's on the phone by holding down on the icon till the wiggle comes, hit x to delete and then let itunes install the app's. For some reason when I downloaded and installed a bunch of app's via wifi on my phone itself iTunes was not showing them in the app's tab. After going tobthe app store via iTunes and downloading them I am backing up and syncing 24 app's in two min. or so compared to the 25 min. it was taking.

[Night Spring]

I tried this method, not sure if it's helping or not, but in regards to the slow backup speed, I found the folder where the backups are stored (C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup on Windows Vista), and checked the time of the files. I discovered that no matter how big or small the files were (I had files ranging in size from 1kb to 500kb), most of the time, the backup process was writing only 16-18 files a minute. And there are 3,000+ files in my backup directory! (I'm sure this varies depending on the number and types of apps you have.) No wonder a complete backup takes so long! I really hope Apple fixes this soon.

In the meanwhile, I'm sticking to this method on the chance that the OP is right and it does prevent the phone/touch from doing complete backups.

[HawaiiMacAddict]

This method isn't working for me. When I click "Reset Warnings," and then attempt to sync, I never get an option to see anything related to Crash Reports. Can someone tell me which folder on the hard drive (Mac, please) holds these files?

Aloha forceusr,

Take a look at the attached - that's where the files were found on my system, although the "solution" still does not work for me. I do a full backup once I return home from work, although last night's backup took just about 3 hours :eek:

HawaiiMacAddict

[forceusr]

Aloha forceusr,

Take a look at the attached - that's where the files were found on my system, although the "solution" still does not work for me. I do a full backup once I return home from work, although last night's backup took just about 3 hours :eek:

HawaiiMacAddict

Aloha! Thanks for the help. Oddly, when I got home from work last night and hooked up my phone to the computer, I got the window talking about "sending information to Apple." I deleted the crash report folder, and still had my backup take more than an hour.

:::sigh:::

I'm hoping for 2.0.1 or 2.1 to come sooner, rather than later. ;)

[bbotte]

Good info here.

[stofferdk]

just wanted to say: THANK YOU!

jasus - best fix ever. Now I can enable backup again without waiting forever each time I sync

[nomar383]

**Answer already posted**

[t0mat0]

Cheers OP!
Can I suggest changing the thread title to emphasise the >30minute to <3 minute nature of this fix?

I had the problem of not seeing the pop up asking me if I wanted to give Apple the crash reports. My fix was to press buttons:

On the summary tab for the iphone when connected (skip the sync) untick automatically sync. Then click apply. right clicked on iPhone on the left hand side and reset warnings
I then disconnected, reconnected, Ctrl , to get into the preferences, then ticked disable auto sync. right clicked on iPhone on the left hand side and reset warnings, then unconnected iPhone.
then connected, undisabled auto sync, clicked on apply. right clicked on iPhone on the left hand side and reset warnings. ticked automatically sync when iphone connected, apply. right clicked on iPhone on the left hand side and reset warnings. unconnected, reconnected. let it sync. The crash warning came up, went to the folder, deleted the crash reports, unticked the box, and said no.

I'd imagine there's a quicker way, but 5 minutes of fiddling has cut down the syncs massively.

[hybryd]

Here is what did it for me: (on OS X)

-Found the file:
/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MobileDeviceCrashCopy.plist

-Double Clicked on it to open it in Property List Editor

You Should have 'Should Prompt' and 'Should Submit' options listed under here for each mobile device you have (I had two listed).

-I unchecked all 'Should Submit' options and checked all 'Should Prompt' options.

-Save the file

-Hit 'Sync' in iTunes... and enjoy! My devices synced without the Crash data being sent. All is well.

[boiee]

Here is what did it for me: (on OS X)

-Found the file:
/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MobileDeviceCrashCopy.plist

-Double Clicked on it to open it in Property List Editor

You Should have 'Should Prompt' and 'Should Submit' options listed under here for each mobile device you have (I had two listed).

-I unchecked all 'Should Submit' options and checked all 'Should Prompt' options.

-Save the file

-Hit 'Sync' in iTunes... and enjoy! My devices synced without the Crash data being sent. All is well.

Where is Property List Editor? Can't seem to find it. :(

[IndianaiPhone]

Thank you very much!

[SFC Archer]

Worked like a charm...THANK YOU OP!!!

I will view the log each sync it pops and if there is 3 or less reports, I will let it send...if there are more then that i will delete them, this way APPLE CAN FOCUS AND FIX this backup bug before I overwhelm them with more reports that they can't seem to handle anyway.

Great instructions and it works on my original iPhone as you explained it!

Some of you are still going to have a long backup because you have been stopping it before it completes. Like the OP also stated, if you added new Apps recently then it has to back up those as well. Mine took less then two minutes because I did add two Apps today that had not backed up yet.

Thanks Again!

[Lightbrazer]

Glad this helped out a bunch of you. To those still experiencing long backups you may have a flaw from the get go (ie OS 2.0) that is propagating forward each time you sync and/or restore. I only say this because I've had to restore my phone several times (I kept getting the black screen of death, apple logo with no boot), eventually I needed to find faster ways to backup my phone which is why I discovered the original method I posted. But recently I got sick of it bricking so I did a total restore and then told it not to use the backup image, I just told it to set it up as a new phone then I did a sync to reinstall all apps fresh. Then after it did I set them all up again and did a backup. To my surprise this fresh backup with 70 new apps took under 6 minutes. Clearly there was a bug in os 2.0 that propagated forward. If you have nothing of super duper importance aside from a few app preferences I'd recommend a fresh start, it's been working great since I did that.

[Khryz]

Here is what did it for me: (on OS X)

-Found the file:
/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MobileDeviceCrashCopy.plist

-Double Clicked on it to open it in Property List Editor

You Should have 'Should Prompt' and 'Should Submit' options listed under here for each mobile device you have (I had two listed).

-I unchecked all 'Should Submit' options and checked all 'Should Prompt' options.

-Save the file

-Hit 'Sync' in iTunes... and enjoy! My devices synced without the Crash data being sent. All is well.

Do you have to wait until the iPod/iPhone is connected to find this file? I can't find it now and my iPod Touch is currently taking a long time to backup.

[gcmexico]

doesn't work on the mac with itunes 7.7. That dialog never appears.
*
about to write the same thing...box doesn't appear

[Khryz]

Does this work with the iPod Touch too?

[Sigvard]

Many thanks, backups fly by now rather than being +1 hour before I applied this fix.

[RonFromOregon]

The trick for me was to follow the tips from the Original Poster, AND ALSO verify that all Applications in iTunes corresponds 1:1 with the apps on the iPhone. There were some apps in iTunes that I had deleted on my phone. Once I cleared them out of iTunes, my syncs went from 80 minutes to about 3 minutes.

Just to be clear, I clicked on "Applications" in iTunes, and went through them one-by-one to see if the same app was also on my iPhone. If I saw an app that wasn't also on my phone, I right-clicked on the app in iTunes and deleted it.

[meagain]

Has anyone called AppleCare on this?

[meagain]

Here is what did it for me: (on OS X)

-Found the file:
/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MobileDeviceCrashCopy.plist

-Double Clicked on it to open it in Property List Editor

You Should have 'Should Prompt' and 'Should Submit' options listed under here for each mobile device you have (I had two listed).

-I unchecked all 'Should Submit' options and checked all 'Should Prompt' options.

-Save the file

-Hit 'Sync' in iTunes... and enjoy! My devices synced without the Crash data being sent. All is well.

Does anyone know how to do this? I get no prompt after resetting the warnings. I can't do this anymore. 3 hours to sync.

[SnowLeopard2008]

... just let it backup once, the complete thing. and the backups after it will be quick. the later backups are incremental, rather than a complete backup. if you have lots of movies on the iphone, that also slows the speed.

[meagain]

It's like this every time pretty much despite not changing anything on the phone. I don't even want to get any more apps or sync anymore. I've been doing this when I go to bed.

My phone is just as filled as my 2g phone which took perhaps 1 minute.
Something's really wrong with all this. This last one, despite removing the crash logs (which I can't see could offer benefit) as well as reset the warnings..... is currently at the 24 minute mark with about 95% left to go with the backup.

[bboucher790]

Automatically Sync iPhone is unchecked.
I clicked the reset warnings.
I clicked sync, it automatically starts syncing. I didn't get the popup. Any suggestions?

[TribalToy]

Huge Thank you. My backups where taking upwards to 2+ hours. Now they are down to about 10-15 mins. Thank you!

[nippyjun]

Huge Thank you. My backups where taking upwards to 2+ hours. Now they are down to about 10-15 mins. Thank you!

What worked for you?

[iphonematt]

I know how to make it fast... don't use your iPhone! lol

Thanks for the tips! Works great!

[vodius]

You actually don't have to change sync settings. Just right (or right click, for those new mac users :cool: ) on your iPhone in the left column and choose reset warnings. Unplug and plug it back in. Then that message would pop up. Say 'Don't Send' and check to never ask again.
Cheers!

[joebokeh]

I have this feeling that the backups are random... One day this "technique" of emptying your logs and not sending info works, but then the next time, it ignores your request to not send, and sends anyways... So I've been seeing very varied backup times.... Whether your phone data remains constant or things change... I don't think there's a way to avoid the long times unless software changes either for the phone or iTunes....

Can someone chime in and state if they get short backup times 100% of the time????

[jcapz]

I have located where the crash reports are on my mac and I wanted to know if when deleting old crash reports, am i deleting everything in that folder along with the one folder labeled "baseband" or just everything in the folder and everything inside of the baseband folder?

[joebokeh]

I've been deleting the entire contents of the folder

[Mobile923]

For those who have a complete backup:

About how much space does it take up?

How can I change the destination of the backup folders?

I'm limited in the amount of hard drive space on my C:

[jcapz]

JoeBokeh....after deleting all contents in the whole folder did you see a significant difference?

[joebokeh]

I believe the clearing of those files affects me 0%... I think the backups are random... Sometime I get syncs under 3 minutes... Sometimes it will go all night... Whether I clear that data or not...

[Markit8]

I have located where the crash reports are on my mac and I wanted to know if when deleting old crash reports, am i deleting everything in that folder along with the one folder labeled "baseband" or just everything in the folder and everything inside of the baseband folder?

Where exactly is this folder?
Sorry if this was posted - couldn't find it.

[pol0001]

Works fine for me. Thanks for the tip. :apple:

[JoMilla]

You guys do realize that when it says "backing up" you can click the X and it will still sync the rest of your files.. Takes about 40 seconds..

[t0mat0]

Yes, but that will stop it from making a full backup, and just sync other parts. This information is to help reduce the time making a full backup.
Hopefully 2.1 will reduce the need for this...

[fatboy123456]

The 2.1 update is out now, and it states that it's supposed to 'significantly' reduce backup times. I'm updating my phone right now.

[8legs]

Using a Macbook Pro... it worked... Quick and easy. Thanks for the help!

[foreignconcepts]

Still hasn't worked for me. I've got a new iPhone that's only been successfully synced once, and that was when I was setting everything up for it. After spending yesterday playing with the phone and running down the battery (which I subsequently charged using the AC adapter) I plugged it in but after about 30 mins I gave up and canceled the sync, and started searching on here and other places online. Funny that when I began typing the phrase "iphone takes a long time to sync" into Google that it came up with my exact wording as one of the suggested searches.

In terms of equipment, here is what I'm working with:

15 inch Macbook Pro (less than a year old)
Latest version of iTunes
iPhone 16 gb 3g with firmware 2.2

I've followed the steps that the OP has suggested, however I had no issue with warning screens popping up, then or now. Nothing has crashed on me since I got the phone almost 48 hours ago, therefore I shouldn't have any crash reports... right?

The syncing progress does not seem to be stuck on backup per se, I saw it flash "Backing up iPhone" for about 5 seconds then it came to what seems to take the longest: "Syncing contacts with <insert iPhone name here>..." I have 11 contacts on the phone, and a few podcasts. I have about 5 apps, all of them are free. I still haven't decided what music and videos I want to put on it so there is nothing in the "iPod" section of the phone.

Any other suggestions?

[PlatinumKitten]

Lightbrazer,

I followed your instructions and my usual 1 hour backup and sync is now less than a minute. You are a life saver!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

:D

[lemonademaker]

WOW THANKS!! it worked for me!!!

"search is my friend"!!!

[nagromme]

It helped me too. Backups went from over 40 minutes to a bit under 10 (probably less if I did it more often). Apple really needs to opt everyone out of that nonsense! After all, their message doesn’t say “will add half an hour to every sync.”

I sync to two Macs (apps/media on one, photos/misc on the other). One Mac backs up fast, the other slow... until I fixed it with one click using this tip :) Thanks!

[Waron]

Thanks Lightsaber,:p

Using an early 2009 MacBook. Syncs went from 20 minutes to less than 1 minute.

Ironically if my iphone didn't crash so often, this problem wouldn't have happened either.

Come on apple! My old powerbook and ipods crashed much less than my newer, more expensive gear!

[The General]

Thanks Lightsaber,:p

Using an early 2009 MacBook. Syncs went from 20 minutes to less than 1 minute.

Ironically if my iphone didn't crash so often, this problem wouldn't have happened either.

Come on apple! My old powerbook and ipods crashed much less than my newer, more expensive gear!

This thread is incredibly old. The bug causing slow backups in 2.x firmware with iTunes 8 was fixed and has been gone for almost a year.

The reason your backup went from 20 minutes to less than one minute is because backups are incremental. Since you didn't change many if any files on your iPhone between the two backups you did following this guide, the second backup didn't have to backup anything at all, hence its speed.

[xxdayrex]

You know,
You just paid god knows how much on an iphone, and they cant even provide it with software that acctually works.
:mad:

[warrior4777]

Ok, I believe I have the winning slowest back-up! It's been going on for almost 2 days noe and it's not even half way done. Yes, you read that right, 48 straight hours - I started it midday on friday and it is Sunday morning and it's still going!

I can't be without my fhone anylonger, but I haven't been able to back-up for a long while now because of the slowness.

I've followed the suggestions posted here and nothing different. I haven't done a complete re-lode of everything, i'm trying not to because I do have a lot of data contained in quite a few different apps.

I have the iPhone 3G with 3.1.2 (not jailbroken) the latest iTunes,windows 7.

Any help would be awesome!!!:)

Thanks in advance.

[-aggie-]

Ok, I believe I have the winning slowest back-up! It's been going on for almost 2 days noe and it's not even half way done. Yes, you read that right, 48 straight hours - I started it midday on friday and it is Sunday morning and it's still going!

I can't be without my fhone anylonger, but I haven't been able to back-up for a long while now because of the slowness.

I've followed the suggestions posted here and nothing different. I haven't done a complete re-lode of everything, i'm trying not to because I do have a lot of data contained in quite a few different apps.

I have the iPhone 3G with 3.1.2 (not jailbroken) the latest iTunes,windows 7.

Any help would be awesome!!!:)

Thanks in advance.

Depends on whether you can wait, but I'd let it finish, unless it's too excruciating. Then, you need to restore this phone as new. If you sync everything from the iPhone onto the appropriate software (like Outlook or Address Book for contacts) the restoring as new shouldn't be much of a pain at all.

[kingadjon]

Very helpful and definitely sped things up.

---
Dell Latitude X1
1.1 GHz Intel PM
1.24 GB RAM
XP Pro SP3

[CuMorrigu]

Okay trying this again.

Pre-troubleshooting steps, backup was still running after SEVEN HOURS. Windows machine installed updates and re-booted so I lost all progress that was made.

Windows 7 64bit
4gb RAM
iTunes 9.2 (just ran the update this morning).

Begin troubleshooting:
Deleted all old backups backups
Reset all warnings
Reset sync information
Deleted all error logs
Told Apple to feck off and I'm no gonna send them me 'usage information.'
Backup is STILL taking forever. I'm at about 1 hour right now with no visible progress on the status bar.

[Kin Lau]

Okay trying this again.

Pre-troubleshooting steps, backup was still running after SEVEN HOURS. Windows machine installed updates and re-booted so I lost all progress that was made.

Windows 7 64bit
4gb RAM
iTunes 9.2 (just ran the update this morning).

Begin troubleshooting:
Deleted all old backups backups
Reset all warnings
Reset sync information
Deleted all error logs
Told Apple to feck off and I'm no gonna send them me 'usage information.'
Backup is STILL taking forever. I'm at about 1 hour right now with no visible progress on the status bar.

I'm in the same boat as you, I've just updated to iTunes 9.2, Vista 64bit, 4gb ram, removed the old backup, rebooted everything. I let it run for several hours a few times, but cancelled it because I thought it was hung.

This time, I'm checking the \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\...... folder, and I can see files are being created, but _slowly_. I know I have about 7gigs of apps and data on my phone, but after 1hr, the backup folder is only 19.3mb.

[Acronym]

when deleting the folder did you delete the baseband and the panics folder?

[caranddriver]

Wouldn't backup before upgrade happen faster if you unclick all the music, videos, etc. and sync so it takes that stuff all of your phone before the big upgrade?

[talepictures]

The thing I don't get is why the normal sync backup works quickly but then when it comes to the update it takes years. No iOS4 for me until iPhone 4 I think...

[Kin Lau]

when deleting the folder did you delete the baseband and the panics folder?

No, I did not. I can't find any folders with those names, where are they?

After 9 hrs, my backup is only at 200mb, the progress bar is only showing less than 10%. At this rate, it's going to take about 1 week.

[occamsrazor]

I just thought I'd add my experience...

iPhone 3GS, successfully upgraded to IOS4 with no problems.
Subsequently doing a "sync" would take forever.
iTunes would be stuck at "Syncing My iPhone" for hours, never seeming to end.
I tried most of the tips mentioned including the "reset warnings" one, with no success.

Then I tried disabling the Photos sync. Wow - the whole sync takes something like 20 seconds.
It asked me if I wanted to remove the synced photo albums, I said yes, and it removed them from the iPhone (but still on my mac).
Note: I don't use iTunes to sync my camera roll, only use Image Capture for that.

Re-enabling the Photos sync appears to make the process grind to a halt again unfortunately. I find this rather crazy, I am talking about one single folder of 60 images, I can't see why this would make a MBP get stuck at 100% CPU for hours.

Anyway, this solved the sync problem for me, now I just need to find a way to get the photo albums synced back on. Hope this helps someone... the current flakiness of iPhone sync and backup is ridiculously bad.

EDIT: I just did another test....

Sync with Photo-syncing completely disabled - about 20 secs, doesn't max the CPU
Sync with Photo-syncing enabled, syncing only one folder containing one image - maxes CPU, doesn't appear to finish.
There's clearly something messed up with the photo-syncing....

[occamsrazor]

OK, I've had some success.... As per these articles:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11732723&tstart=0

I discovered there is a photo cache created in the top/root folder of whatever folder you have chosen to sync photos from on your Mac.

Find this folder named "Ipod Photo Cache" and move the whole thing to the trash.
Open up iTunes, select the iPhone device, go to the Photos tab, then select which photo folders you want to sync (when I did it the Photo sync tab prefs had got reset).
When you hit sync, you should see the progress bar at some point say "optimising photos" or something like that..... and the whole sync process after that should be quick.

[*busybeez*]

!!!!!!!

[*busybeez*]

I finally found a thread that someone actually knew what they were talking about!!! This helped tremendously!!! Now I can backup my phone in seconds. Now the only problem is some of my apps that are in my itunes still are not on my phone. Im going to be searching that too, hopefully I can find the solution!
Thanks again ;)

[Blackl4va]

I can't find the backup folder for iTunes, can someone please explain to me how to find it? Thank you, and when I left click on Devices>__'s iPhone> and get to the Summary part I scroll all the way down to Options and these are the only options :
- Open iTunes when this phone is connected
- Sync only checked songs and videos
- Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC
- Manually manage music and videos
- Encrypt iPhone backup

But not, ' automatically sync when this iPhone is connected ' . And I'm running then newest version of iTunes ( 9.2 ) Please help me out here ! All help is appreciated :D

[K9connection7]

Can somebody tell me how to get my wife 3GS to get new 4.2. Got a error because she stopped it before done now I just get a error when I go in to itunes