BACKUP in itunes is too slow

Holy Crap!! It works!!

I've tried nearly everything advised in various locations.... canceling the back-up each time, turning off auto-sync, upgrading to 2.01 then 2.02, deactivating the back-up via a software widget, deleting the back-up files multiple times, etc. Nothing really worked. My back-up would always take more than an hour, sometimes 2 or even 3, w/ about 60 apps.

I followed all the steps outlined above. After supposedly removing all my apps, about TWELVE were still left on the phone, probably all ones I downloaded or updated via the phone. No wonder my back-up was so slow! The back-up w/ no apps on the phone was really fast of course. Reinstalling the apps 5 at a time was WAY faster than it had been before.

The first back-up with about 30 apps took around an hour. But 12 hours later when it did it again, it was <30 seconds total. Crossing my fingers that this is a permanent change!

This worked great for me but after putting about 10 apps back on my phone through iTunes, I started experiencing long backup times again. I removed the "Remote" app from the phone and re-synced and my sync times sped up again. Could it be that a specific app is causing this (since I assume a lot of folks have the free Apple Remote app on their phone) or did this app just happen to get corrupted on my phone? Just curious if anyone can confirm by removing just the "remote" app and seeing if that does anything to the sync times.

Look people it's not an issue of bad apps. I am not worried about my warranty I have unofficial apps and my back up still does not take more than 2 minutes. If you start experiencing long back ups again, think back to the last app you put on your phone before the backups got drawn out again. Did you install or update this app through the phone and not iTunes? I bet you did. Take that/those apps off. Do a sync/backup. Then using iTunes put the app/apps back on. The first back up afterward might take a little while but not hours.

It's real simple DO NOT update or install apps over the phone! For the person thinking that the Remote app just caused the back up to become The install or update of it might have gotten corrupt, but the app it's self is not the cause.

This is what happened to me. I was doing a backup and got a text message and it cancelled the backup in the middle and now it won't back up at all. Well maybe if I left it for hours on end. This is unacceptable and I too am not deleting all of my apps. That is not an option.

For the record, I did not add any apps through the phone. They were all added back through iTunes.

geauxracerx wrote:
Look people it's not an issue of bad apps. I am not worried about my warranty I have unofficial apps and my back up still does not take more than 2 minutes. If you start experiencing long back ups again, think back to the last app you put on your phone before the backups got drawn out again. Did you install or update this app through the phone and not iTunes? I bet you did. Take that/those apps off. Do a sync/backup. Then using iTunes put the app/apps back on. The first back up afterward might take a little while but not hours.

It's real simple DO NOT update or install apps over the phone! For the person thinking that the Remote app just caused the back up to become The install or update of it might have gotten corrupt, but the app it's self is not the cause.

wow... Calm down a little. The tone you are taking with people who may not understand, or may not want to follow your suggested approach (for good reason, since it deletes all the app data for the apps they have installed, and some people cannot lose this data and be OK with it), is definitely a little more "hyper" (and close to nasty) than it needs to be. If you are upset that people are not taking your advice (some are, and have thanked you a great deal for your help), leave it at that. There's no need to post comments with this tone.

You posted this the other day (6/26/08)...

geauxracerx wrote:
Have you bothered to read the whole thread? Or did you just reply? You assiment is to read this thread, and then fix your issue.

...and there just isn't any reason to take that sort of tone with anyone. If someone doesn't get it, and you are annoyed with him or her, that's totally acceptable, but taking that tone with others in a casual help forum certainly turns others off and doesn't make them want to listen to your suggestions, which you have clearly spent a good deal of time being kind enough to outline for others as a way to help them.

We're all in the same boat here...frustrated with workarounds and annoying bugs related to a product we were excited to purchase. Your method is helpful to some people, but not all, and should not be considered the solution, but rather a workaround that may help some users.

bdinmstig wrote:
I have data in my iPhone apps that I can't afford to lose.

OK so I went through the apps that have important data and basically found some way for each app to "back up" their data (including +writing down settings+... urgh!), so I could try geauxracerx's "solution".

It worked... the first time I synced only. Right after I re-installed all my apps, the whole sync took only a few seconds. I was happy.

BUT - then I had to of course go into each of my apps and set them up again, restoring all the "backed up" settings I had. When I synced a second time, it was +just as slow as before!!!+

geauxracerx wrote:
*I bet you a million dollars*

I would like to know when I can collect my million dollars. 😉

OK I let the second sync finish (took about 3 hours!), then unplugged the iPhone, turned it off & back on, then did another sync. This time it was about 3 minutes.

I wonder if the backup takes longer when you've +changed the data+ in one or more apps. I'll try it again tonight after using a few apps and changing their data, and then see if the backup gets slow again.

This looks like a promising, but time-intensive process. Two questions...

Why must you add your iPhone apps back slowly (ie. one-at-a-time or five-at-a-time) ?? If this approach works, it would seem that you could reinstall all the apps using iTunes in one fell swoop. Even if the very first install/backup took a long time, at least you could be doing other things (ie. sleeping).

Also, one of the steps in these instructions requires you to turn auto sync "back on". If I prefer to leave it off (so my iPhone syncs only when I press "sync"), will the process still work?

Thanks!

Scott Russell wrote:
Why must you add your iPhone apps back slowly (ie. one-at-a-time or five-at-a-time) ?? If this approach works, it would seem that you could reinstall all the apps using iTunes in one fell swoop. Even if the very first install/backup took a long time, at least you could be doing other things (ie. sleeping).

One fell swoop worked for me.

Also, one of the steps in these instructions requires you to turn auto sync "back on". If I prefer to leave it off (so my iPhone syncs only when I press "sync"), will the process still work?

Yes.

Did every as suggested here. Worked fine. Installed 1 app today via the phone and the backup is back to an hour again.

Since I did the workaround my iPhone has backed up fairly reliably (considering I had given up on backups completely before). Sometimes it takes more time then others I think 45 minutes was the longest (maybe ten updates). But, it then takes just a couple of minutes the next time I do it (I am kind of paranoid now and do a second backup after a long one just to see if it is broke or not. So far so good). I did toss out of itunes the apps that remained on the iPhone after removing all the apps and downloaded them again (they were free anyway) just in case a corrupted app was synced to itunes from the iPhone rather than downloaded directly. If after working though this, if you still have problems, I would suggest doing that. If app was not free, I would call apple and try to get them to allow you to directly download them again. When new updates are available I update through iTunes and sync and then backup. Just be aware that sometimes those can take awhile so plan your sync times to allow for potentially long syncs and whatever you do, don't stop a sync in progress, the next sync will be a lot better.

One rhetorical question though. What do you lose if you do not backup? After all, your email, contacts and music are synced especially if you are using mobileMe. If you do not have a lot of app data (I am curious how that was resolved) what do you lose? Not that this should not be fixed by apple. This is a pretty big problem and needs to be resolved. But I am not sure what is backed up other than app data.

I hope this helps.

bdinmstig wrote:
OK I let the second sync finish (took about 3 hours!), then unplugged the iPhone, turned it off & back on, then did another sync. This time it was about 3 minutes.

I wonder if the backup takes longer when you've +changed the data+ in one or more apps. I'll try it again tonight after using a few apps and changing their data, and then see if the backup gets slow again.

Based on my own experience, yes, it does take longer when you've used several apps since the last time you performed a sync, but this is not the only reason it can take longer the next time you sync. Sometimes, it takes longer simply because it feels like taking longer, or so it seems. 🙂

Garret Textor1 wrote:
If app was not free, I would call apple and try to get them to allow you to directly download them again.

You can download them again without asking Apple. You will not be charged a second time if you click the Buy button on an app, as the iTunes Store knows that you already own the app.

One rhetorical question though. What do you lose if you do not backup? After all, your email, contacts and music are synced especially if you are using mobileMe. If you do not have a lot of app data (I am curious how that was resolved) what do you lose? Not that this should not be fixed by apple. This is a pretty big problem and needs to be resolved. But I am not sure what is backed up other than app data.

You lose the app data. Other data, like music, contacts, calendars, and general settings, is backed up during the sync process. The backup process takes care of the app data, so you lose this if you have to restore from a backup and you don't actually have a backup.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure about what would happen if I tossed the paid apps. Of course this means backing up is even less important unless you have valuable app data. I myself will never forgive apple for my lost sudoku game in progress. ;>)