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iPhone back up takes too long!

When I sync my iPhone 3G (8GB) with iTunes on my computer, the back-up part takes hours! I have restored the phone to its factory settings and this seems to have fixed the problem, but only temporarily - after 2 or 3 back-ups that took 5-10mins (acceptable!), the back-ups are again taking a few hours to complete.

My question is does anyone know any apps that could be causing the back-up to be so slow? or any ideas as to what else may be causing the problems and how to fix?

3G 8GB, iPhone OS 3.1.3

Posted on Mar 10, 2010 8:58 AM

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8 replies

Mar 10, 2010 9:28 AM in response to mh1984

Do you have a significant number of photos in your iPhone's Camera Roll that haven't been imported by your computer or if already imported, were the photos erased from the Camera Roll after the import process was completed?

Photos in your iPhone's Camera Roll are included with your iPhone's backup and if you regularly capture new photos adding to the existing photos that remain in the Camera Roll, this can effect the backup time.

If not, it is possible that your iPhone's backup has some corruption since it can include a significant amount of data. Do you use a number of apps that create and store data? If so, data created and stored by a 3rd party app is also included with your iPhone's backup. If you regularly use the FaceBook app, it has been known to cause problems with the backup time.

May 27, 2010 3:36 AM in response to mh1984

I have the same problem. my iPhone 3G 8GB takes more than 4 hours to back up! I'm only using 3GB of it. The only "sync" I'm allowing is contacts and calendar to Outlook 2010 x64. Applications, photos, music, ringtones, etc. are not being synced.

And that's after I formatted my PC's HDD, clean installed Win 7 x64, clean installed iTunes. This is my first backup and it's taking forever, just like it did with Win Vista Ultimate x86.

I read that poorly installed apps or an excessive amount of photos may be the culprit, but I'm not even attempting to sync apps or photos. I do have almost 700 contacts but seriously they should only take up a few kb each. My USB cable is a real one purchased from Apple and plugged into a real USB 2.0 port in the back of my PC so it shouldn't be the hardware's fault.

After backup finally finishes it says "Syncing calendars with jPhone." *** was it backing up then? I left the box checked that says "do not sync events older than 30 days." This calendar phase also takes more than 10 minutes when I think it should take less than a minute.

Jun 21, 2010 8:10 PM in response to mh1984

suspect enough is the sheer fact that prior to the update it prompts you to back up before initiating the update and install... which i dutifully obliged. seemingly that back up did not take that long. although i have noticed extreme increases in the amount of time to back up, factory settings with every single thing that comes in whether phone call, email, photo or text is deleted, still took quite a bit of time. then began the update. 4+ hours later and i'm grappling with the decision to cancel... this is an absurd amount of time, considering it is first and foremost a PHONE.

to cancel or not cancel. always a tricky call.


probably should have held out a few days until four came into my life.hah (:

Message was edited by: penny gadget

Jun 23, 2010 3:24 AM in response to mh1984

Same problem here with iPhone 3G 16G. The backup was running for 8 hours and had reached +-70% !! I had to disconect it because I needed my phone 🙂
Now I reconnect it and it has been running for 2 hours and +- at 15%
Horrible! I think I'll have to wait and stay with 3.1.3 😟
Please fix this...

iPhone back up takes too long!

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