Backup of iPhone takes around 2 hours!

I am getting the EXACT same thing!

I just bought an iPhone 3G and it takes HOURS to backup and if I get a call in the middle of it, it starts over!

Unacceptable. What is going on?!

Wow, I'm guessing you've downloaded several really large applications. My backup takes about 15 minutes. If you are satisfied that the backup really isn't necessary, you can cancel it by clicking on the X in the title window of iTunes. Since the phone seems to back up every time you plug it in but really only needs to be backed up if you've added something important, canceling the backup doesn't seem to be a bad thing. I've been doing it all week without my phone self destructing.

I concur with dwb - just do it once, then wait for a fix. 2.01 is on the way.

Mine as well. This is completely unacceptable. There is no way it should take this long (it's not even backing up that much). If it was a full image back-up, that would be great, but even that should only take 5-10 minutes.

I have to say, I am an Apple fan, but Apple really really messed up with this new iPhone launch. Normally, Apple products looks good and work well. This time, it's all flash, and no substance. Please Apple, get back on track, hire new people, spend more resources where they're needed (it's almost as if you spent 95% of your budget on marketing, and then as an after thought put some into programming and development - don't let pride kill you).

I am having the same problem. Syncs are now taking well over two hours to complete the "backup" process on the iPhone. I've never been this frustrated with an Apple product. I think disgusted is a more accurate term. They have done absolutely NOTHING to even address these issues publicly since the launch. This phone feels like it's running beta software, at best.

Wait for firmware 2.0.1? I shouldn't have to "wait" for anything, nor should any other users. If Apple would take five minutes and at least acknowledge that there are major sync issues with firmware 2.0, maybe most of us would feel a little better, but they don't even bother to visit their own forums and offer support advice. I suppose we could all flood the Apple stores and demand that something be done, but what would they do? Most-likely they would simply restore the device and call it a day. Even if they replaced the phones, that wouldn't help at all, since there isn't anything wrong with the phones themselves.

I have about 550MB of apps installed on my phone. This is NOTHING in terms of size and Apple should be able to write their software to deal with this much data, and a whole lot more. These full backups every time I sync my phone are the product of lazy coding, period.

I absolutely love Apple, I've got several of their products, and I've never been this upset with them in the past. I'm willing to accept a few bugs in firmware 2.0, but making my phone useless for the better part of two-and-a-half hours is pathetic design. I'm telling my friends not to bother updating to firmware 2.0 on their original iPhones, and to hold off on getting an iPhone 3G (like I did) until Apple gets their act together and does something meaningful to address the issues we are having. These are not isolated issues. Far too many people are having the same issue and it's far too easy to reproduce.

I'm having the same issue as well. Backups take well over 2 hours.

I just went from a 2.5-hour sync time to 14-minutes after upgrading to iTunes 7.7.1. Can a few others please update iTunes and confirm that their sync times have decreased. 14-minutes isn't great, but it's a whole lot better than 2.5-hours!

(Posted this in another thread that I'm following on the same subject, in case you see it in a few places.)

Thanks for suggesting the upgrade from 7.7.0 to 7.7.1, but, it never finished updating after 22 hours with 7.7.0 and now with 7.7.1, I installed that today at 3am local time, and started synching at about 3a20. It is now 17:20, i.e. 14 hours later, and the "Backup" is still only 80% complete with 7.7.1! Is this not rediculous? Well, the reason I need to back up is because my apps are not synched until backup is complete. Synching does not synch apps, only backup does, and I bought a $25 app since my last synch and am desparate to get that backed up so I don't have to buy it again, but now I'm 2 days without a mobile phone and this is driving me nuts! My phone spends more time synching and backing up than in my pocket. HELP!

BTW, this is iTunes 7.7.1 under WIN XP SP 3 and I have the Adobe Photo-downloader "virus" that pops up whenever I plug in an iDevice which I think may be part of the problem but I've found NO way of disabling that!

Not sure it is the Norton. I am running an iMac and no virus software and my backup hangs at about 80%. Restore functionality has been janky for me since 7.7.1.

TimeHorse wrote:
Well, the reason I need to back up is because my apps are not synched until backup is complete. Synching does not synch apps, only backup does, and I bought a $25 app since my last synch and am desparate to get that backed up so I don't have to buy it again, but now I'm 2 days without a mobile phone and this is driving me nuts! My phone spends more time synching and backing up than in my pocket. HELP!

Don't worry about your applications. They're tied to your iTunes account. As long as you're on a computer authorized to that account, you can "buy" the application again (it will be free) and redownload it.

Now, application data, such as passwords stored in a password vault, or lists stored in a list program; those are different and do need to be backed up if you want to recover them.

Sorry, I don't know whether "janky" means good or bad...

Apologies. Janky is bad.

Gerald Edgar wrote:
Sorry, I don't know whether "janky" means good or bad...

According to UrbanDictionary:

Janky
+(adjective) inferior quality; held in low social regard; old and delapidated; refers almost exclusively to inanimate material objects, not to people+

Yeah, that about says it all reagrding my experience with the iPhone firmware 2.0 sync.

🙂

Same problem here, but with 2.0 software on a 1.0 iPhone. (No way I am getting a 3G with all the problems I have heard/read about. It feels like new hardware anyway with all the new apps.) I am only trying to sync applications (nothing else), and having to sit through 3-4 hour backups. I was twice forced to re-sync all apps after a restore, following a frozen startu. Other people are having to restore their phones after attempting to run app updates via EDGE or WiFi. For now, I suggest updating apps in iTunes and syncing from your Mac/PC (i.e. what I am waiting on as I type...) until they hopefully fix things in the new software.