iPhone will not backup

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iPhone will not backup

I have an iPhone 3Gs, 16Gb that for the past couple months won't complete a backup. Backing up, the phone prepares for backup for about 1-2 minutes then backup begins. It reaches about, maybe 10% progress in about 5 minutes then essentially freezes. I've let backups proceed overnight and they make no further progress to completing after 6-8 additional hours.

For example, this screen shot was taken after about 7 minutes of backing up:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Ankhanu/backupprogress1.jpg
This one was taken after another 50 minutes..
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Ankhanu/Backupprogress2.jpg
This one was taken at just past the 2hr. mark
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y108/Ankhanu/backupprogress3.jpg
SOME progress was made, but it's pretty miniscule. If I let it go for several more hours, there's be almost no difference in progress.

If I cancel the backup at any point, the rest of the synch proceeds just fine, synching content (contacts, applications, music, pictures, etc) in a normal time. It just won't backup.

I've been looking for a fix for a while; I think my last successful backup was in maybe November 2009. I've come across references to certain applications causing backup issues, and to delete them; I did, with no result. I've deleted my old backups; no result. I've reset warnings, no result… I did a completely fresh install of Snow Leopard when I upgraded, and did a completely fresh install of iTunes… no change. I've tried giving the phone some hard reboots… no change.
I have seen one suggestion to delete all apps on the phone and then it will work… but this somewhat defeats the purpose of making a backup of your settings (I want to maintain my app settings)… and, well, that's a lot of deleting.

Any thoughts on how I can get a current backup of my iPhone?

iPhone 3Gs 16Gb; OS - 3.1.3
iTunes 9.1 (and prior versions back to maybe Nov.09)
System - 13" Macbook C2D 2.0; 2Gb RAM; MacOS 10.5.x through new install to 10.6.3

Macbook 13", Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 20, 2010 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

Ankhanu Author

Level 1

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Apr 22, 2010 6:22 AM in response to Ankhanu

Gonna give this a bump and mention that after posting, I tried to do a backup on a system running Windows XP with the same lack of result.

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Answer 2

Apr 22, 2010 6:53 AM in response to Ankhanu

It sounds like you have a corrupt app. I had this happen to me after downloading a Wallpaper App, the backup would just freeze and not complete. Luckily I had just backed it up a few days before and it only took the usual minute or less. After deleting the app it was fine.

Since you have not been able to backup for so long it sounds like you may have to delete all apps. A pain I know, but if your phone dies and your most recent backup was in November you may be in a worse situation than having to restore your apps.

Maybe try starting with Apps that take a lot of space on your phone?

Not much help I know.

-PM

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Answer 3

Texas_SR

Level 1

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Apr 22, 2010 7:26 AM in response to Ankhanu

I was having a similar problem except sometimes iTunes would lock up while the "candy cane" was still showing in the progress bar. I would lose functionality of my USB mouse and USB keyboard and the only escape was to power off the computer. I researched the problem on the internet and tried every recommended fix I could find - nothing worked. I have no videos nor podcasts on the phone, just music and apps and a handful of pictures.

I finally called Apple support and it eventually turned out that my problem was the cable I was using to sync, using my iPod cable and not the cable that came with the iPhone. Even though they look similar and "fit" each other, they are different. Make sure you are using the right cable as they are NOT interchangeable.

I personally think that is poor product design on Apple's part and adds to their costs in terms of inventory, support that has to be provided for such a simple problem, etc.

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Answer 4

Ankhanu Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 22, 2010 8:09 AM in response to Ankhanu

Interesting info on the cable. I am using my iPod cable... but I've also ALWAYS used my iPod cable (the cable hasn't even been taken out of the box) and it had worked just fine. I haven't encountered the other problems (freezups, etc) and it always proceeds to the backup progress, then it stops.

I have been deleting some of the extraneous apps that I really don't access that often and/or don't have any stored settings that I'll have to reset, and deleting some of the content from Good Reader to lighten the load a little on the phone. So far it hasn't helped, but I may not have deleted the right app yet; chances are it'll be one of the ones that I have to input account details into 😉
I have another attempt in progress as I type, we'll see how it goes.

If this attempt doesn't work, I'll unwrap the synch cable that came with the phone and see if that makes a difference.

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Answer 5

Texas_SR

Level 1

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Apr 22, 2010 8:28 AM in response to Ankhanu

I, too, had used my iPod cable in the past seemingly without problem. Maybe something has changed in my computer setup or maybe just the way the cable is inserted...who knows, but switching to the cable that came with the phone solved my problem. The support agent said one of them is 13 pins and the other is 15 so they truly are not 100% interchangeable. I hope it works for you.

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Answer 6

Ankhanu Author

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Apr 22, 2010 8:50 AM in response to Ankhanu

I allowed each synch attempt (some deleted apps, some deleted apps + iPhone synch cord) to run for about 20 minutes before stopping them; they only got about 2-4% before they stopped, and each behaved the same way... Deleting apps and content has reduced the progress it makes, horrah :P

Guess I'll try deleting more apps.

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Answer 7

Ankhanu Author

Level 1

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Apr 23, 2010 5:42 AM in response to Ankhanu

Deleting more apps and app content had no effect... I basically deleted everything that didn't have stored information, ya know, the info I really wanted to keep :P Then I deleted the 5.3Gb of mp3s and backed up the data from the apps that had their own data export/external data storage features and tried and failed again.

In the end, I ended up giving the phone a factory restore and am repopulating my app data. Once I have things set back up, I'll try a backup of the whole new setup, see if that works. If it doesn't, well, maybe the problem is hardware related.

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Answer 8

diesel vdub

Level 7

22,178 points

Apr 23, 2010 6:47 AM in response to Ankhanu

Ankhanu, you missed a step.

After restoring the phone to factory settings, connect it to iTunes and allow it to do a backup BEFORE restoring any of your apps or your data. If this is successful, then the issue with your apps or your settings.

I highly doubt that any hardware error exists that would prevent iTunes from being able to do a backup.
Until you eliminated your settings and apps from the equation, you cannot make a definitive conclusion that the hardware is the culprit.

If you can get the backup to work after a restore and without any of your apps/settings on the device, then start reloading your apps one at a time until you find the culprit.

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Answer 9

Ankhanu Author

Level 1

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Apr 23, 2010 9:18 AM in response to diesel vdub

Ah, true true.

Either way, I just completed a backup in about 45 seconds, so we have success... kinda :P Complete failure backing up all my prior information, but success in getting the phone to back up again, at least.

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