I'm using 2.1 firmware on my iPhone 3G and iTunes 8. I have no problems syncing all my data to and from my iPhone. The only thing is I can't seem to get iTunes to back up my files!! Everytime I try to run a backup, iTunes tells me that my iPhone has been disconnected, although it's still displayed on the devices panel.
The backup seems to be incremental. A more recent backup overwrites only those files that have changed since the last backup. If you do a backup today and then another tomorrow, it may well only take a minute because very few files have changed. If you go to the directory where the backup is stored you will see most of the files have yesterdays date, and a few (the ones that have since changed) have today's date.
If you have erased the backup files(or moved them out of their usual directory) the backup folder will be empty and then all the files on the phone will have to be backed up and this may take an hour depending on USB port type, computer speed, etc.
So... the more often you back up, the faster each backup will be since less files will have changed.
After I backup, I make a copy of those files (all 62megs worth) and keep them in a separate directory on my computer. This way, if something happenes to my previous backup in the apple directory as a new backup is made overwriting the old, I still have an intact backup from which to restore my iPhone.
To see a list of your recent backup, in iTunes go to Edit, Preferences, Devices and you'll see your iPhone listed and the date/time of the most recent backup.
Same solution, you just have to restart "Apple Mobile Device" on your Mac.
Mac must have a place where services can be started, stopped, etc.
As a PC guy, I'm not familiar with where that would be, but there are so many Mac users on here, just ask anyone. Try googling "restart Apple Mobile Device in Mac os X"
The fix, once you find where it is, is soooo simple!! Worked like a charm. I feel sorry for all those people who did what was suggested about 10 replies up... removing all the apps, re-doing everything. Bad advice!!
Ok i have 2.2 iphone 3g and the same started happening to me once i got the 3g iphone. well after reading so many of these things nothing helped lol. well i just went in the ipne in itunes and unsynced all the apps. JUST THE APPS not the music. and tried a backup doing the right click and worked perfect!!!! and super quick!! and after doing that first backup finally i installed all the apps again i had and then it back ups hopefully this solves it for you all. its been a huge pain
Yes! Unsync'ing the Apps allowed me to backup everything else (in, like, 30 seconds). I then just re'sync'ed the Apps again (took several minutes) and everything appears to be working fine. And yes, this has been a ROYAL PAIN for the last couple months!
This same annoying problem happened to me also - my iphone would take 2-3 hours to back up and then at the very end it would say it could not be backed up due to the iphone was disconnected - and no, my cables were not loose or some other goofy reason some people have thought it might be - clearly there is a problem here.
I did what the last few posters have noted and unsynched only my apps - and then re-synched them to my iphone and now my back-ups only take about 2-3 minutes, not hours, to complete - however I am still getting the error message saying the phone could not be backed up due to the iphone being disconnected.
BE WARNED - if you unsynch your apps you may loose some or all of the data stored in those appliations - so proceed with caution.
I think i will just have to live with this and wait for a fix or until a new iphone comes out this summer. I love my iphone but these little things are getting annoying!
Having the same problem on my new MacBook. I am moving my iphone from my old G4 to the new computer; authorized my old itunes account on the MacBook and tried to back up my iphone for the first time on the new computer. It will backup for a long time (getting about 25% done) and then hang up. Eventually I get an error message that my iphone disconnected.
I tried deleting the backup file in itunes/preferences/devices (which was created during the failed backup), but it hasn't made a difference. I have not seen any fixes for this.
i got the failed backup.
the error that saying my iphone disconnet.
i didnt even touch it or anything.
I just got a new macbook pro and my iphone not working
with it.
I just tryed to upload the new 3.0 for my Iphone and now I am getting this same problem. I have tryed to restarting the Mobil syn issue and that did not work. The only change from my last backup was the downloading of 3.0
