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highdefjunkie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2010
920
1,612
Chicago
I barely have 10 gigs on my 32gig IPad and at this rate, It's gong to take hours!

1. All I wanna do I copy additional pics to my Ipad but as we all know, as soon as you connect it to Itunes It does a FULL BACKUP. Anyway to disable that?

2. When doing a backup, does it also backup pictures even if I don't have the sync photos box checked? What about music?

Thanks guys, I'm trying to get some Blackhawk pictures I took from game 1 on my Ipad and I'm running out of time before I have to leave work and watch the game.

Peace,

Chris
 

Fry-man22

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2007
455
26
It's not doing a "full backup" in that your media added from iTunes is not in the backup image. It's just doing stuff like the PIM data and the app data.

I read somewhere that the usage statistics being sent back to apple was resulting in long backups for some users - maybe try and reset the warnings and make sure you're not sending this info back...

Just for reference, mine takes no more than 2 minutes to back up and that's on the high side.
 

highdefjunkie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2010
920
1,612
Chicago
It's not doing a "full backup" in that your media added from iTunes is not in the backup image. It's just doing stuff like the PIM data and the app data.

I read somewhere that the usage statistics being sent back to apple was resulting in long backups for some users - maybe try and reset the warnings and make sure you're not sending this info back...

Just for reference, mine takes no more than 2 minutes to back up and that's on the high side.

2 minutes? How much data? My God, I've been backing up for over 2 hours and I am not even 1/4 of the way done!!!!!
 

Fry-man22

macrumors 6502
Nov 25, 2007
455
26
2 minutes? How much data? My God, I've been backing up for over 2 hours and I am not even 1/4 of the way done!!!!!

:) once again, I don't think it's about the amount of data here. I think you're running into a bug with the sync process. I have 1 GB free on my 16 - every back up I've seen has taken less than 2 minutes.

Right click the iPad in iTunes and choose "reset warnings" and choose to NOT send info to Apple and sync again. If that doesn't help I got nothing other than I believe it's not data related...
 

highdefjunkie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2010
920
1,612
Chicago
:) once again, I don't think it's about the amount of data here. I think you're running into a bug with the sync process. I have 1 GB free on my 16 - every back up I've seen has taken less than 2 minutes.

Right click the iPad in iTunes and choose "reset warnings" and choose to NOT send info to Apple and sync again. If that doesn't help I got nothing other than I believe it's not data related...


Thanks guys. I did what you said but I also unchecked sync music and it's flying, so NOT sure which one fixed it! :)

But I appreciate the advise.
 

citi

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2006
1,363
508
Simi Valley, CA
Thanks guys. I did what you said but I also unchecked sync music and it's flying, so NOT sure which one fixed it! :)

But I appreciate the advise.

You probably have the recompress audio to 128kb option selected and it's attempting to convert your music files. That takes a long time.

Just a guess though.
 

ZBoater

macrumors G3
Jul 2, 2007
8,497
1,322
Sunny Florida
Are you on a PC or a Mac? On my Win7 PC I found a program that shuts off the backup process. I only turn it on once a week or whenever I have an hour to burn. Otherwise I leave it off. It was taking too long.
 

tivoboy

macrumors 68040
May 15, 2005
3,970
790
yes, long

yes, mine is taking WAY too long, I had it running over an HOUR and it only got apparently 15% of the way through. Something is WRONG with this process for backup, I just cancel it out and sync.
 

ciaran00

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2010
459
0
Make sure you're using your USB 2.0 connection at Hi Speed without a lot of interposing hubs.

Hook it up directly to your Mac to see if you see a difference. You will.
 

antiprotest

macrumors 68040
Apr 19, 2010
3,950
13,669
Look at the status at the top where it tells you it is backing up, click the "x" at the right of the status message. This will let you skip the back up for this sync session.

I recommend that you do this only when you are in a hurry, as it is a good habit to back up often.
 

pondie84

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2008
592
0
It usually takes less than a minute for me.

It doesn't even seem to take that long wirelessly.
 

wrobertschicago

macrumors newbie
Aug 5, 2010
1
0
can't update ipad os due to long back-up

Starting a couple of weeks ago, my 64-gig iPad started taking an eternity to back up. I let it go for almost 24 hours yesterday, and it seemed to hang at about 1/3 done. I just started canceling back-ups by clicking on the "x" in the iTunes window. I'm trying to install the latest iPad OS, but iTunes insists on doing the dreaded back up before doing the install. I reset warnings, as suggested above, to no avail. Any ideas? I can't seem to figure out how to tun off the Apple info-sharing function, as I have seen a few suggest. Thanks kindly.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
If you don't backup often, but download lots of apps etc, then it can take a long time. Just back up when you go to sleep and it'll be done when you wake up.
 

martyg

Guest
Dec 9, 2010
3
0
Done when I wake up??

Hah, you've got to be kidding! 16Gb iPad only half filled, backup is 3/4 done at >24 hours!!

I can backup my 320Gb laptop to an external drive in a couple of hours. I am dumbstruck that an Apple product has such a pity-poor excuse for operating software.

Message boards and discussion forums are filled with this same question and it doesn't seem to be getting any response from Apple at all.

So much for Apple's technical prowess - it's all marketing hype. Sure, iPad is a great toy, but if I can't back it up without giving it up for 2-3 days I can't rely on it as a tool.

Does anybody know who to talk to (or bitch at) at Apple??
 

Ksane

macrumors regular
Aug 1, 2010
141
1
I realize this is an old thread.....but wanted to let you know you can download a program called "Back Off" and it disables iTunes automatically backing up when you plug in your iPad. I wouldn't be able to remain sane and use iTunes without it lol
 

martyg

Guest
Dec 9, 2010
3
0
Thanks, but...

Thanks for the tip, but it doesn't address the root of the problem. If you're using the iPad for work and need to rely on everything that's installed on it, you have to be able to backup regularly.

My backup is nearly done this morning closing in on 36 hours! That's just not a workable scenario. I wonder if Steve Jobs would be willing to give his iPad up for half that long even once a week? I'd bet not!

I'm interested in finding a real solution short of selling my iPad and getting something else!

My son's answer to everything computer-related is "Get a Mac!" I'm beginning to think he's right!!
 

davidwarren

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
782
2
I have a 64GB iPad, it rarely takes more than a few minutes to backup, ten at the most if I'm replacing lots of content.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
Thanks for the tip, but it doesn't address the root of the problem. If you're using the iPad for work and need to rely on everything that's installed on it, you have to be able to backup regularly.

My backup is nearly done this morning closing in on 36 hours! That's just not a workable scenario. I wonder if Steve Jobs would be willing to give his iPad up for half that long even once a week? I'd bet not!

If you backup regularly (like say, at least once a week), then each backup should take only a few minutes.

Also, make sure you have the most recent iTunes.

Oh, and check that your USB connection is USB2, not 1.

If the backup is still taking extremely long (even a initial backup should take at most an hour or two), try deleting your backup (Edit > Preferences > Device > select backup and delete) and starting over. Backups sometimes get corrupted, then it hangs on subsequent backup attempts.

Finally, consider whether you have any apps that store huge amounts of data. Magazines, media player apps, etc. Deleting them temporarily might speed up backup. Once you get an initial backup done, you can add back the apps and their data one by one, performing a backup each time, and each incremental backup shouldn't take that long.
 

martyg

Guest
Dec 9, 2010
3
0
Been there, done that!

Thanks for the tips.

I moved to a different pc with a clean install of current iTunes version, so there was no previous backup, USB is 2.0 using original iPad sync cable.

Only thing I didn't try was deleting apps. Now nearly finished at >37 hours, so I don't want to give up on it without letting that finish.

I understand your point about more frequently backing up, and will if it can complete in a reasonable amount of time. Trouble was backup kept crashing overnight on my other pc, so it took a while to get onto a machine where backup would complete at all.

Also hoping iOS 4.2 helps, as others have reported.

Found another tip that may help a bit on the pc side - open Windows task manager and set the priority to High for the AppleMobileBackup.exe process. Not sure how much it helps if the problem is on the iPad side, but it certainly can't hurt.
 

mamema

macrumors regular
Jun 9, 2010
116
0
i had the same issue (i'm using mac) and pulled my hair out. The solution was to disconnect any network connection. After the first backup all subsequent backups run fast even with network connections running.
 

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,598
7,768
I had this exteremely long backup problem with my iPod touch back when 2.0 first came out, so I know how frustrating it is. Hopefully once this initial backup finishes and you get your iPad updated, subsequent backups would take only a normal amount of time. Best of luck!
 

mikelegacy

macrumors 65816
Dec 5, 2010
1,138
0
Pittsburgh, PA
iTunes should only be backing up what files are new on your iPad, such as apps or new things that you've bought. I dont understand how it's taking so long for some of you. I've restored and synced my iPhone with over 10 gigs of data in under 10 minutes before and backups rarely take more than 60 seconds, unless I purchased a large app or a ton of music.
 
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