Backup of iPhone takes around 2 hours!

ricperry1 wrote:
If you paid for an app, Apple has recorded it and you won't have to pay for it again. Just re-download the app, and when it tries to purchase, the record will show you have already been charged for that software and won't re-charge you. It should simply prompt you to re-download the software.

Right. When you try to download or update an app you have already paid for, you will be told that you have already purchased the app and will be asked if "you want to download it again".

Yes I've got 7.7.1 and iphone 2.0.1 it didn't work before the updates but seems to be okay now.

Apple NEEDS to start a timer when the 'backup' starts, then end the timer when it finishes and send that data to themselves to see how bad this problem is.

Dozens of articles on the internet reporting hundreds of users with the issue and telling them all to just disable backup in terminal.

Apple needs to know this is a bad issue.

I with the new iTunes and iPhone 2.0.1 out I deleted my backup, and started a new one... still taking hours!

Patrick Haugen wrote:
Dozens of articles on the internet reporting hundreds of users with the issue and telling them all to just disable backup in terminal.

And this is a terrible solution, in my opinion. Sure, it can get you through a quick sync of data, but you can cancel the backup yourself while it's running (which seems to corrupt it, at least for me) and continue with the sync of calendar, contacts, photos, music, video, etc.

All the articles telling people to just cancel the backup seem to be warning them properly, but I know some users are confused and they think this "solves" the issue, when it only creates a new issue: no backup.

I seem to have gotten lucky, compared with others. After the iTunes 7.7.1 update, my backups take under 15-minutes. They are incremental now. However, if I cancel a backup, or it cancels for any reason (a phone call did it yesterday), I'm back to more than 2.5-hours to create a good backup. Then the backups are back to under 15-minutes. It's terrible. I have to remember to put the iPhone into airplane mode, which I forgot to do yesterday.

Patrick Haugen wrote:
Apple NEEDS to start a timer when the 'backup' starts, then end the timer when it finishes and send that data to themselves to see how bad this problem is.

If they were to create a timer, they will have already admitted that there is a problem with the backups. What they really need to do is take our word for it, since I doubt we're all coming here to complain about an issue that doesn't exist. We can all reproduce it easily. When Dan Frakes from Macworld magazine is complaining on Twitter about his backups taking forever and his restores NEVER actually working (due to corruption of the backup), you'd think someone at Apple would take notice. Fine, Apple, don't take our word for it. Do nothing when we complain. Don't acknowledge that we are having issues. But you certainly should be taking notice when the guy who may be writing an iPhone review in a well-known Mac-related publication is having the same issues we are talking about here.

It takes many hours, I've never let it finish but it has gone as many as 5 hours without getting even half finished. This is with itunes 7.7.1 and firmware 2.0. When I try to update the firmware to 2.0.1 itunes says it is backing up the iphone, but the iphone doesn't show that it is syncing. Then itunes gives an error message about the iphone being disconnected..

So.
Very.
Frustrating.

This is shaping up to be the first and last apple product I ever buy.

Shanesnh wrote:
Yes I am expieriecing this corruption. I know this because every backup takes around 2 hrs

Seems that the iTunes 7.7.1 helped some users, and did nothing for others. For me, it helped, and I don't get corruption any longer unless I cancel a backup. Others are not so lucky. There is a missing piece that we haven't figured out together, and that only Apple seems able to correct.

and when i tried to restore (After the iPhone crashed during an App Update and bricked itself) and the restore hung and wouldnt work. Im tempted to delete the backup and have it take a brand new one (hopefully non-corrupt) but I dont want to taunt the already angry bull...

I know how you feel. I've been tempted a few times to delete the backup, just to see if it will give me a faster initial backup (which I doubt anyway) after I get a corrupted backup (by canceling the backup process via a phone call received, etc.), but I've decided against it every time because I don't want to push my luck.

Thank everyone for all the responses on this though. Maybe Apple will see that this thread has almost 2000 views and actually do something! This iPhone is my first Apple product. I thought, maybe I could try this (Since I am not a fan of Macs). Now its turned into the last product I will buy from Apple most likely.

This is the broader (and more important) issue for Apple and its users. I have several Apple products, and I love them all. I'm one of Apple's biggest fans. This iPhone nightmare just isn't doing them any justice. Early adopter syndrome is one thing, but this is a mess, and it's not helping Apple win any new customers.

I've also had the corrupted backups for some time. Even when I let it run to the end (several hours later) I am still left with something labelled "unknown" with a totally irrelevant date. Deleting it makes no difference as it appears again the next time I manage a full backup. Come on Apple, this is such an important issue yet you're ignoring all your customers!!

Well that method worked fine for deleting my corrupted backups. sadly, I'm still having the same problem. My latest backup took 1hr 20 min, the progress bar seemed stuck just before the word "up" and never got to the end.
Everytime, I end up with a backup labelled "unknown" dated 1/1/2001 which is strange as I never had an iphone at that time! I'm assuming from this that I don't have a usable backup at the moment as the process never gets to the end. All my software is up to date, yet this keeps happening and Apple is still not responding to this problem!

I've found a solution on another thread here, but can't locate it quickly. Essentially: turn off auto-sync so that your iphone only syncs when you tell it to, not automatically when you plug it in to iTunes. Then right click your iphone in the left list of devices in iTunes and click on Reset Warnings. This will clear the crash information that you have been sending to Apple. Once I did this my backups went from forever to 90 seconds. I also backup before and after every sync and after I load any content so that my backups stay at 90 seconds.

I said this earlier in another thread here:

I have had similar problems and seem to be stable now... If useful here is what helped; plus a new twist.

1. Required rebuild as a "new phone" not from backup.
2. Have kept apps to a few pages, not the 5 to 7 pages I had.
3. Turned off auto sync setting so I can control timing.
4. Reset the warnings and do not send info to Apple (and now backups are 90 seconds).
5. Always do backups twice after loading new content or apps so last one is again 90 seconds.
6. Have not found any apps to be always crashing or always perfect.
7. ** Discovered that my phone corruptions started when I was using a USB hub that was bad. It was good enough to sort of work, but took forever to do anything, and once I took this out of the loop things are staying fine.

Goodluck!

Air, iMac, iP3G Mac OS X (10.5.4)

DaleKKiller wrote:
Well that method worked fine for deleting my corrupted backups. sadly, I'm still having the same problem. My latest backup took 1hr 20 min, the progress bar seemed stuck just before the word "up" and never got to the end.
Everytime, I end up with a backup labelled "unknown" dated 1/1/2001 which is strange as I never had an iphone at that time! I'm assuming from this that I don't have a usable backup at the moment as the process never gets to the end. All my software is up to date, yet this keeps happening and Apple is still not responding to this problem!

Unfortunately, you are most likely correct. If you are not able to finish the backup, it's probably corrupted.

systemthinker wrote:
I've found a solution on another thread here, but can't locate it quickly. Essentially: turn off auto-sync so that your iphone only syncs when you tell it to, not automatically when you plug it in to iTunes. Then right click your iphone in the left list of devices in iTunes and click on Reset Warnings. This will clear the crash information that you have been sending to Apple. Once I did this my backups went from forever to 90 seconds. I also backup before and after every sync and after I load any content so that my backups stay at 90 seconds.

Your issue was separate and distinct from the one others are having in this thread. Your issue had nothing to do with the backup of the iPhone. You weren't getting to the backup portion of the sync. You were stuck a the portion, prior to the backup itself, where information is sent to Apple. Many of us (myself included) never send information to Apple. I learned about turning this off with the original iPhone, because they had this problem in the beginning. Since Apple cannot guarantee that their servers will never be down, I cannot promise them that I'll even send diagnostic information. They can get that from someone else. 🙂

The issue we are experiencing is at the point past where data is sent to Apple. The backup itself is taking a long time. Files are being copied to the desktop computer (to the MobileSync backup directory), and, because there appears to be corruption (because corruption seems so easy to come by right now), a full backup of all files is done every time. Some of us have had luck with the iTunes 7.7.1 update, while others, sadly, have not.

I said this earlier in another thread here:

I have had similar problems and seem to be stable now... If useful here is what helped; plus a new twist.

1. Required rebuild as a "new phone" not from backup.

This is usually a good option to choose, since it prevents old problems from creeping into a new iPhone setup.

2. Have kept apps to a few pages, not the 5 to 7 pages I had.

This should not matter. From what I could gather a while back, there is simply a setting that tells the springboard (iPhone screens) to place applications in the spots that the user has chosen for them. I'm not positive, exactly, how this works, but I would guess it is probably a single preference file (.plist).

3. Turned off auto sync setting so I can control timing.

Generally, this is not necessary, but I always turn it off so that I can completely control when I back up my iPhone.

4. Reset the warnings and do not send info to Apple (and now backups are 90 seconds).

Agreed, because if you are a user that also has the issue you were having where iTunes stalled while sending information to Apple (if Apple's servers are down, iTunes has to time out before it will move forward, I believe), you'll avoid this headache.

5. Always do backups twice after loading new content or apps so last one is again 90 seconds.

I haven't had to do this. Since backups are incremental, once a newly installed app makes it into your backup, only changes to files on the iPhone should be backed up the next time (unless there is what appears to be corruption, which many users in this thread are seeing every time -- in that case, all bets are off, regardless of what they do, it seems).

6. Have not found any apps to be always crashing or always perfect.

Aurora Feint was the only app that always crashed on my iPhone. I left it alone and waited for an update, the most-recent of which fixed this. But I see the same thing. Apps rarely crash on my iPhone, and none crash all the time, or with any consistency.

7. ** Discovered that my phone corruptions started when I was using a USB hub that was bad. It was good enough to sort of work, but took forever to do anything, and once I took this out of the loop things are staying fine.

Yup. USB hubs seem to be bad news, especially for iPhones. Mine cannot even power the phone unless I plug it into a power source, so I only use USB hubs for things like USB flash drives, and other items that do not draw a great deal of power. This was one of the first things that was suggested by several people, since the iPhone seems to prefer a direct connection into a USB port on the computer.