Why, Why, Why does backup and restore take so long?

For my case, the long backup is a result of the first backup after adding a bunch of files to GoodReader. Note that a single file of 100MB would backup much faster than 100 files of 1MB each. Every file gets backed up as a separate mdinfo/mddata pair and then the Manifest.plist file is updated to include that file. The copy of the file itself is extremely fast, the processing of each individual file and updating of the manifest is relatively time consuming. My backups were just fine even with the GoodReader app, but I added what constitutes a website with 10,766 files totaling only 272MB and now it is extremely slow.

I will be rethinking this particular item in GoodReader!

Completely agree with the last post. I just bought my iPad a couple of days ago and was really enjoying it until the backups started taking hours.

In frustration I did a system restore to factory defaults. Following the restore, the backup was instant. Installed a few apps, and the backup was still very quick. I then added one 30 MB pdf to GoodReader, and the backup took about 10 minutes.

Think I'll go and take a look around GoodReader's site see if this is a known issue.

I have just bought a 64gb iPad 3G and am now experiencing the same issues on it I have been with my iPhone 3G for months and months now. Not only do backups take forever, but occassionally (and increasingly), it would appear no music or videos have synced which is not the case. The status bar in iTunes will accurately indicate how much space is being used BUT a "no content" message appears on the device.

Hugely frustrating. There are lots of threads in the iPhone forums as well as on the web, and it seems to be a hangup of iTunes 9.x and OS 3.x

If I may interject, why do a back up at all? If you restore from a corrupt backup, you have effectively put the same problems back on your device and will continue with the same issues. Resoring from a backup is like doing an oil change and then putting the used oil back in. I provided info regarding disabling backups. It is posted a few lines above.

Is Backup Disabler not Mac only?

That all depends on what the problems are. The backup is not a raw image of the device. It's a snapshot that could very potentially be prior to any issues occurring in which case it is effectively new oil.

Sorry about that. Yes it's only for Mac.

If you are using a Windows computer you can determine which application is causing the backup problem. I am using Windows 7 and will describe the procedure. I believe you will find similar information on previous versions of Window and on a Mac with slight location and nameing differences.

First, what a backup does is to copy your information to a location on you hard drive (I know, we all knew this but needed to start at the beginning) On a Windows 7 computer you will find it at the following location: C:\Users\kschipper\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\b0fa9840a350ec400e966556b4fed968145b9285

To view this information you will first need to go into you View options and to tell Windows to display hidden system files. (Windows...Open Windows Explorer, press the Alt key...Choose tools from the Menu which will now be available...Choose Folder Options...Select the View Tab...Click radio button "Show hidden files, folders, and drives")

Now navigate to the folder shown above. Note that the user name will not be my name but will be your user name and the long folder name follwing Backup will be a Guid (random number). If there is more than one GUID then choose the one with the latest date.

Inside the folder you will find a listing of hundreds of files (especially if you have tried backing up in the past, successful or not.) Sort by date and look at the most recent files. (Note that you can do this while a backup is occuring, just make sure you do not try to open the most recent file as that is the one currently being written to.)

If you double click on one of the MDINFO files listed under File Type you can find the out which file is being backed up. (Tell windows to open the file with your text editor Notepad. Be sure not to make any changes to this file. The MDINFO lists the file while the following MDDATA file contains the actual data being backed up.

On my current backup (now running over 6 hours) I opened files randomly up through the listing until I found one that appeared over 5 1/2 hours of that 6 hour period (all other data was backed up in less that 30 minutes). Turned out it was the Zinio data (could be other applicaiton you your iPad. Every text item and every photo was being backed up separately.

Example of Text File:
bplist00Õ
^StorageVersionXMetadataWVersion[AuthVersion[IsEncryptedS1.0O¸bplist00ÔTPathWVer sionXGreylistVDomain 9Documents/Users/822511155/500431154/416122744/page206.pdfS3.0AppDomain-com.zinio.ZinioiPad'.jno S3.0S1.0 " + 3 ? K O


Note the AppDomain-com.zinio.zinioPad at towards the end of the file. All MDINFO files have an indication in this area of the app or data being backed up.

Unfortunately knowing all of this only provides you with information and very few options. 1) Delete the offending application. (Tested on Zinio by individuals elsewhere on Apple support forum)2) Just endure the long backup times until this is fixed.

I have sent the above information to Zinio but have not received any response.

Hope this helps.

One more note to add to my previous response.

The information is also true for the iphone.

Ken

The first time, I waited All Day! It never restored. The second time I was that it should take no longer for my WiFi/3G 64GB to Restore. It got down to 7 minutes left message, but after 40 more minutes, I pulled the plug and received a message Restore Complete so I was hopeful. But after Apple and white bar completed, machine rebooted and only basic apps showed up...EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!! The entire day and night wasted.

This is great information to help troubleshoot! Thanks for sharing.

I started a back-up at 6:00AM so I could take my 64Gb wifi iPad to work, but it didn't finish before I had to leave. When I came home at 6:00PM the back-up was still running! That is obscene!

Solutions attempted:
(1) Deleted back-up folders
(2) Removed Zinio and almost all comics from ComicZeal
(3) Gave iTunes administrative privileges

Now I'm backing up again but watching the back-up files to see which application is the culprit.

Message was edited by: unlimitedvision

If not already suggested in this long trail. It takes a while to restore but when I did the initial connection ensure the photo library, movie, etc is off. That will critically eat the time up and take long time.

Thank you kschipper! Deleting Zinio worked for me. It was getting to the point that I was apprehensive about connecting my iPad to my PC. I'll keep an eye on the Zinio app for a later version.

This may help others.
The app that seemed to be slowing my back up, down was "Offline Pages" when this was removed backup was done in seconds.

Offline pages stores web pages for viewing when no access to the web - probably stores a fair bit of data.

I think you have to try to figure out what apps have been installed recently and which one could be slowing things down - then remove them one at a time

Den

Removed Zinio and Good Reader..synch went from many hours to 5 min.