I finally "solved" my slow iPad backup problem. I say "solved" because it is still slow, but I now understand what is causing it. At the end of the day, it is still slow, but at least it completes.
After reading a TON of posts on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that there is more than one contributing factor to the slowness. Using the app here http://files.m4ko.de/applesync/ I was able to see what was going on.
1. Imported pictures - I had over 2GB of imported pictures and videos which took forever. A lot longer than you would expect 2GB of data to be copied off a USB 2.0 device. Not sure what method Apple is using to backup this data, but all I can say is that it is SLOW. I opened up the folder through Windows Explorer, copied the files off the iPad, deleted them on the iPad, and it helped speed things up A LITTLE BIT.
2. Apps - some apps take a lot longer to backup the first time than others. In my case, Zillow took 900 seconds. Yes, 900 seconds to backup. The Live View app I linked above let me see that some apps took a few seconds, some took a few minutes. If you have one app that is just locking up your backup for HOURS, then this will show you which one.
3. iPad backup is just slow - I tested the backup by adding docs to Goodreader, for example, and backing up again. Backing up that one document was slower than it was to copy the document using the import feature, so whatever Apple is doing to keep things in sync is adding some tremendous overhead.
I would suggest to backup often. After I found some offending apps that I deleted, the first backup took about 45 minutes. If I hit backup right after that, it was less than 60 seconds. As I added apps to test, it would range from 2-3 minutes each time. So it obviously skips what is already backed up. If you wait too long and install too many apps and files, your next backup may take longer. However, if you go 1 hour and are less than half way through, there is something hanging up your iPad. The LiveView app should show you what it is and at least you can delete the app, get the backup completed, and reinstall the app.
Backing up 16, 32, or 64GB of data (or less since music and movies are not backed up) really shouldn't be rocket science. Hopefully this may help those folks out there who have given up on their backup.
Cheers.
After reading a TON of posts on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that there is more than one contributing factor to the slowness. Using the app here http://files.m4ko.de/applesync/ I was able to see what was going on.
1. Imported pictures - I had over 2GB of imported pictures and videos which took forever. A lot longer than you would expect 2GB of data to be copied off a USB 2.0 device. Not sure what method Apple is using to backup this data, but all I can say is that it is SLOW. I opened up the folder through Windows Explorer, copied the files off the iPad, deleted them on the iPad, and it helped speed things up A LITTLE BIT.
2. Apps - some apps take a lot longer to backup the first time than others. In my case, Zillow took 900 seconds. Yes, 900 seconds to backup. The Live View app I linked above let me see that some apps took a few seconds, some took a few minutes. If you have one app that is just locking up your backup for HOURS, then this will show you which one.
3. iPad backup is just slow - I tested the backup by adding docs to Goodreader, for example, and backing up again. Backing up that one document was slower than it was to copy the document using the import feature, so whatever Apple is doing to keep things in sync is adding some tremendous overhead.
I would suggest to backup often. After I found some offending apps that I deleted, the first backup took about 45 minutes. If I hit backup right after that, it was less than 60 seconds. As I added apps to test, it would range from 2-3 minutes each time. So it obviously skips what is already backed up. If you wait too long and install too many apps and files, your next backup may take longer. However, if you go 1 hour and are less than half way through, there is something hanging up your iPad. The LiveView app should show you what it is and at least you can delete the app, get the backup completed, and reinstall the app.
Backing up 16, 32, or 64GB of data (or less since music and movies are not backed up) really shouldn't be rocket science. Hopefully this may help those folks out there who have given up on their backup.
Cheers.
