Why does iPhone take so long to back up?

[QuarterSwede]

I'm sure that's true NeoMayhem, but this issue is a software bug. Doing as eneisch suggests fixes the horribly slow backup problem.

 

[t0mat0]

1 option.

 

[SDAVE]

Your backup takes a short time because you're only syncing things that have been updated and in your case date book entries etc.

Try syncing a full iPod to a new computer see how long it takes

Actually restoring the whole phone took about 20 minutes last time I tried, so that's pretty long.

 

[Amorpheus]

I wonder if everybody who has backup issues does connect over USB 2.0?

 

[QuarterSwede]

I wonder if everybody who has backup issues does connect over USB 2.0?

Isn't that they only way to sync/backup?

[Edit]I did what eneisch suggested and it still took me 50 minutes to backup. I guess I'll just have to wait for Apple to fix this. Even if this is performing as they want it's unacceptable. Especially since Time Machine in OS X backs up a heck of a lot faster with tons more data being transferred (I'm talking GBs sometimes) ... and that's over USB.

 

[periahdark]

sine 2.0.2 my backups have gone significantly faster, it was like 30 minutes now it takes like 15 maybe less

 

[yode]

On my Itunes, I have had the option to restore or setup a new iPhone. Next to the restore backup filename there is up/download arrows that allows you to choose which one to select. It seems it only puts the date/time on the ones that were completed.

For mine, it only shows up as "Christian's iPhone", and it still only shows 2 options, one being "Christian's iPhone" and the other being "Unknown". I am sure that I have backed up on different days in the past. Any help on finding the other backups? Btw, the backups I am looking for were of a different iPhone that I got exchanged, same firmware though.

 

[ssajous]

I have seen that periodically

For me at least firmware updates are a HUGE pain in the arse b/c my iPhone take hours to back up. Usually it does not even back up giving me a message saying it does not so I end up restoring the phone before updating. Is it supposed to take about 6-8 hours to back up or is that just me? How can I fix this problem besides deleting my many apps?

No idea why it does it. I also would love to know why contacts take so long too load.

 

[iNfowarrior]

Maybe its because you have 30 apps installed i have about 4 installed on mine (more on the computer) and my backup rarely goes past 10 secs if it even takes that long.

I don't understand why you would have 30 apps on your phone surely you don't use EVERY single one of them?

This must be a joke right? What did you even buy the thing for if you wanted 4 apps?

Here's a hint: Current iTunes is GARBAGE

 

[iNfowarrior]

I was having longs backups as well that were driving me crazy. I tried turning off crash reports and it did not work for me. I found this fix on the Apple discussions site. I performed these steps last week and ever since my backups/syncs have taken 3-5 minutes instead of 1+ hours. It took a little time to implement, but for me it was worth it. Seems that it has to do with corrupt app installations hanging up the backup process. Give it a try and report your successes/failures! The end of the message suggests not to install/update apps directly on the iphone, but I have done it without adverse effect.

"Go into iTunes Edit/Preferences the last tab sync disable auto sync for all iPod and iPhones. This does not fix it it is just the first step do not stop here.

Next connect your iPhone to the computer. Once it shows up in iTunes go into the last tab Applications. Uncheck sync all apps. Now Click apply. Now click sync. it will remove all the applications! After it is finished unplug the iPhone. I bet you will have at least one app still on the Iphone, maybe more. Hold any icon down until they jiggle. tap the x's and delete all the remaing apps. You may notice after you delete each app that a little spinning circle is next to your 3G icon on the top right hand side. Let it finish spinning before you delete the next app.

Once you have deleted all the remaining apps (That had corrupt data that was causing your long back ups!) do a hard reset. To do this hold the sleep/wake button and the home button until the red slider appears at the top of the screen. Slide it over and the phone will power off. You will again notice the spinning circle. Once it finishes wait a few seconds and power the iPhone back on by pressing the sleep/wake button.

While it is booting back up go into iTunes again turn the auto sync back on! Now connect the iPhone to the computer, let it backup and sync. Now it goes so fast you may want to cry or laugh. Now after it finishes go back to the applications tab. Click sync apps again, but make sure you have the 2nd circle checked. This box is sync selected apps. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked! Now slowly begin adding apps back to the iPhone. I have done as many as 5 at a time. Check the boxes then click apply, then sync. It will backup then add the applications and sync all other information. After the sync you may notice that little spinning circle is next to your 3G icon on the top right hand side. Let it finish spinning before you add the next app.

Here is the kicker! DO NOT update or install apps from the phone! Only use iTunes to install and or update apps until they get the bug fixed!"

I hate to burst your bubble but the step involving powering off the iphone and powering it back on is the only step out of that entire rant that will do anything. Everything else is just changing preferences and following common sense.

Despite endless rumors, reseting the device is the only fix for anything, short of a restore.

 

[eneisch]

I hate to burst your bubble but the step involving powering off the iphone and powering it back on is the only step out of that entire rant that will do anything. Everything else is just changing preferences and following common sense.

Despite endless rumors, reseting the device is the only fix for anything, short of a restore.

Not true (at least in my case). I have reset often and did not see any changes in backup speed until I made the changes I noted earlier and my backups have been significantly and consistently faster. After I uninstalled all of my apps through iTunes and disconnected my iphone there were still a few apps installed. The OP suggests that these are corrupted versions of apps that were left on the phone and that itunes had problems recognizing and backing them up and that was the reason the backups were taking so long.

Also it should be noted that the first backup after applying this method will be longer than normal as iTunes now must perform a complete new backup. Subsequent backups were much faster for me (under 4-5 minutes).

 

[iNfowarrior]

Not true (at least in my case). I have reset often and did not see any changes in backup speed until I made the changes I noted earlier and my backups have been significantly and consistently faster. After I uninstalled all of my apps through iTunes and disconnected my iphone there were still a few apps installed. The OP suggests that these are corrupted versions of apps that were left on the phone and that itunes had problems recognizing and backing them up and that was the reason the backups were taking so long.

Also it should be noted that the first backup after applying this method will be longer than normal as iTunes now must perform a complete new backup. Subsequent backups were much faster for me (under 4-5 minutes).

If you follow the steps of your process there is a logical reason why itunes behaves the way it does at each step. Of course back ups and syncs are going to fly when there is: #1 No content ON the phone to back up in the first place, #2 only 5 apps at a time being synced. Of course it does.

Never once do you describe what a backup is like after a real world day of downloading and deleting and emailing and browsing etc.. (Meaning a full day AFTER performing your process).

I appreciate you detailing the process and I don't doubt that your results are there, but the facts are, the apps and software are buggy, and a regular restart of the phone will temporarily fix 99% of problems. Furthermore, we shouldn't have to be working out preference changing fixes. Apple is apprently gearing up to fix these buggy issues, I just don't have any faith that they will.

 

[Muncher]

My backups take about 1, maybe 2 minutes. This is one of the few common bugs I have never had on my iPhone.

Huh. You must not have much on your iPhone.

The iPhone only has one memory chip (the touch has two, but they are the same speed). Why can you restore the whole 250mb OS in a few minutes but it takes a while to backup a few settings files?

I don't think it just backs up settings files. When the OS is restored, the iPhone probably doesn't take the time to zero out the entire flash drive; it wastes writes and takes a while. It probably just writes the 250 MB, and considers the rest of the flash empty.

 

[Mikey B]

my iPhone was doing so well with backups. there was the first, initial one that was pretty long, but for awhile after that they were only taking 5 minutes at the very most. quite alright with me. then, of course, the 2.0.2 OS being the bug-filled mess that it is, my iPhone crashed when syncing new apps and nearly had to be restored. it came back to life after sitting in the dock connected to my laptop for over 5 minutes. so now, i'm assuming the backup got corrupted because its back to taking the lifespan of a cat to back-up again.

what's the name of the iPhone OS developer? where's he live again?....

 

[Trajectory]

My backups are very fast. Maybe because I only have 4 apps installed. I do have lots of music on my iPhone.

 

[trunksu]

My backups are very fast. Maybe because I only have 4 apps installed. I do have lots of music on my iPhone.

it's not the # of apps you have installed that are causing the problem. i have 40 apps and backups are less than 5min for me now.

a long time ago my backups used to take 2 hours+. i tried to restore from backups but always got "backup is corrupted" even though i've never aborted them. the only backup i could use was my last backup from 1st gen iPhone.

what i did was i did a system restore but told itunes to start from scratch (treat it as a new phone). also i told it not to sync my apps. i went through my apps and decided to just nit pick the ones i really need at first and did a sync.

ever since then it's been doing 5min backups (with 40 apps instsalled). i have no clue if it was the way i did it or was it a particular app causing the problem. i definitely don't have all the apps i had before when it was taking 2+ hour backups. i never did the "reset warning" method either.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Never once do you describe what a backup is like after a real world day of downloading and deleting and emailing and browsing etc.. (Meaning a full day AFTER performing your process).

Well, I did the process last night and reinstalled all 27 of my apps and after a full day of using my iPhone (reading emails, replying, making new bookmarks, using apps that save data) my backup tonight was only 4-5 minutes. So it seems this process, for whatever reason, does work.

I appreciate you detailing the process and I don't doubt that your results are there, but the facts are, the apps and software are buggy, and a regular restart of the phone will temporarily fix 99% of problems.

Most of the time, but that surely hadn't fixed my bloody long back up times!

Furthermore, we shouldn't have to be working out preference changing fixes. Apple is apprently gearing up to fix these buggy issues, I just don't have any faith that they will.

I agree and until Apple fixes it, I'll be happy to not have my iPhone automatically sync on connection (it's a pain anyway) and not use sync all apps, instead using sync selected apps ... which does seem to work.

For whatever reason this process is the only thing that has significantly shortened my backup times. They started out at 50 minutes every sync but, after the first 50 minute backup, are now down to 4-5 minutes. Got me why this works but it does.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I ***** HATE the backups!!!

It was going well for me before. (and by well I mean under an hour) But now I have been procrastinating from backing up for about a week now. Since then I have downloaded a few new apps on my iphone and updated about 10.

I have been trying to sync today but it has been interrupted THREE times due to phone calls. The on the first call it was about 80% completed after about an hour and a half. Now here I am syncing again, it's been a little over 50 mins and I'm looking at about 20% completed.... I HATE this...

I haven't updated to 2.0.2 yet because my internet sucks hardcore right now and keeps cutting out.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

ok so how long does a restore from backup take? and how long does the reset warnings take? has one been known to work better?

and when you restore from backup does it keep all the apps or do u have to resync?

 

[eneisch]

Never once do you describe what a backup is like after a real world day of downloading and deleting and emailing and browsing etc.. (Meaning a full day AFTER performing your process).

My backups, after a full day of use, including exchange e-mail, web browsing and usings apps has been reduced from over an hour/sync to less than 5 minutes/sync. I performed the process I described over a week ago and connect/sync my phone with iTunes every night and my backups have been shortened ever since. I only applied this process once and I do not reset my iPhone prior to syncing. By the way, I have consistenly had around 30 apps installed on my phone throughout this period as well.

I agree that Apple should fix this and we should not be made to go through all this trouble, but in the meantime this has helped me out alot.

 

[fost24]

Amazing!

I can only say one word: MIRACLE! I have performed the task as per your instructions and I now have an iphone that works the way it should. It now backs up in seconds! Yes, I did have some apps left on the iphone, so they must have been the ones causing the problems. Thank you for your advice.

 

[elu]

Cancel Backups

You could cancel backups by pressing the "x" small circular button in that status bar on the top part of the iTunes view, couldn't you?

 

[Excellerator]

For mine, it only shows up as "Christian's iPhone", and it still only shows 2 options, one being "Christian's iPhone" and the other being "Unknown". I am sure that I have backed up on different days in the past. Any help on finding the other backups? Btw, the backups I am looking for were of a different iPhone that I got exchanged, same firmware though.

That I am not sure of. I just noticed the multiple restore option the last time I restored.

 

[cdang]

Wow! It worked!

I was having longs backups as well that were driving me crazy. I tried turning off crash reports and it did not work for me. I found this fix on the Apple discussions site. I performed these steps last week and ever since my backups/syncs have taken 3-5 minutes instead of 1+ hours. It took a little time to implement, but for me it was worth it. Seems that it has to do with corrupt app installations hanging up the backup process. Give it a try and report your successes/failures! The end of the message suggests not to install/update apps directly on the iphone, but I have done it without adverse effect.

"Go into iTunes Edit/Preferences the last tab sync disable auto sync for all iPod and iPhones. This does not fix it it is just the first step do not stop here.

Next connect your iPhone to the computer. Once it shows up in iTunes go into the last tab Applications. Uncheck sync all apps. Now Click apply. Now click sync. it will remove all the applications! After it is finished unplug the iPhone. I bet you will have at least one app still on the Iphone, maybe more. Hold any icon down until they jiggle. tap the x's and delete all the remaing apps. You may notice after you delete each app that a little spinning circle is next to your 3G icon on the top right hand side. Let it finish spinning before you delete the next app.

Once you have deleted all the remaining apps (That had corrupt data that was causing your long back ups!) do a hard reset. To do this hold the sleep/wake button and the home button until the red slider appears at the top of the screen. Slide it over and the phone will power off. You will again notice the spinning circle. Once it finishes wait a few seconds and power the iPhone back on by pressing the sleep/wake button.

While it is booting back up go into iTunes again turn the auto sync back on! Now connect the iPhone to the computer, let it backup and sync. Now it goes so fast you may want to cry or laugh. Now after it finishes go back to the applications tab. Click sync apps again, but make sure you have the 2nd circle checked. This box is sync selected apps. Make sure all the boxes are unchecked! Now slowly begin adding apps back to the iPhone. I have done as many as 5 at a time. Check the boxes then click apply, then sync. It will backup then add the applications and sync all other information. After the sync you may notice that little spinning circle is next to your 3G icon on the top right hand side. Let it finish spinning before you add the next app.

Here is the kicker! DO NOT update or install apps from the phone! Only use iTunes to install and or update apps until they get the bug fixed!"

Seriously! After it took over 10 hours to back up my phone I was just about ready to rip it out from the usb adapter! I looked up forums to see if anyone else was experiencing this and I am happy I found this forum. All of the promised "bug-fixes", improvements in 3g network, longer battery life is all glorified crap. I am realistic when I say that Apple just wants to give all of it's confused and pissed off customers information that all of us want to hear.

Granted, I had about 15 applications on my phone, nothing justifies the 10+ hour back up! I do however have to thank eneisch I followed his instructions and low and behold, back up and sync was literally 2 minutes! It sucks that we as customers have to go about and beta-test these phones. Apple and it's application developers need to get their sheet together and stop blaming each other for the ridiculous things that come up!

 

[DanielJvdBerg]

Seriously! After it took over 10 hours to back up my phone I was just about ready to rip it out from the usb adapter! I looked up forums to see if anyone else was experiencing this and I am happy I found this forum. All of the promised "bug-fixes", improvements in 3g network, longer battery life is all glorified crap. I am realistic when I say that Apple just wants to give all of it's confused and pissed off customers information that all of us want to hear.

Granted, I had about 15 applications on my phone, nothing justifies the 10+ hour back up! I do however have to thank eneisch I followed his instructions and low and behold, back up and sync was literally 2 minutes! It sucks that we as customers have to go about and beta-test these phones. Apple and it's application developers need to get their sheet together and stop blaming each other for the ridiculous things that come up!

I don't know why are you talking such nonsense...

1. You are not even member for a month
2. The backup is fixed for about everyone
3. Why are you using such a annoying color for your text? It's barely readable.
4. We aren't beta testing, in my opinion there are only a handful of iPhone bugs left.

End of my rant on you