iPhone 3g takes soooo long just to backup for the iOS 4 update

Had the same problem numerous times. Did the normal sync before attempting to upgrade to 4.0, phone sat & sat for about 4 hours when I noticed it was getting very warm & killing the battery..
Stopped the download, disconnected all, restarted iTunes, then tried it again..
Sits and sits with no movement on the backup bar.
Also now seeing a very long time lag when doing a normal sync. Had to stop it today after 1.5 hrs. Before all of this I upgraded to iTunes 9.2, so now I wonder, is any of this related to iTunes 9.2??
Gave up on 4.0 until jobs removes head from anus.

It takes forever to get to three green bars, and I kept quitting. Hang in there. Once it gets there, it will take off fast. Unsync your photos too(uncheck them) because it will tediously back up every photo (and I had hundreds and hundreds). That will speed it up. It took me hours and hours but 4.0 is awesome. Everything works better than it did before. Lost 2 album covers only and found those easily.

You do not have to upgrade your 3g or 3gs if you are getting an iphone 4. The 4 come with os4 installed. You do need to update itunes to the latest version though.

Make sure that your iTunes is version 9.2 (61)
Run an OS Software update to check and update iTunes first of all.

1) Connect your iPhone 3G to iTunes.

2) Sync as normal including usual backup as part of synchronisation.

3) Click the Restore button to install version 4.0 NOT the Update button.

4) Select the last restoration that is presented on screen.

5) Restore in Progress will be shown on the iPhone's screen and a notification that iPhone is activated. Agree to update the carrier settings. In iTunes, an animated Restoring iPhone from backup liquid bar will appear "Estimating time remaining..." for about 15 minutes. Leave this to do its thing. Do not interrupt it. It may take 60 minutes or so performing the actual restore whereby the "Time remaining:" will indicate the time (About) it'll take. Just be patient.

6) The iPhone will then beep and display the Apple logo, then revert to install and update all your applications, files and data to it.

7) The iPhone will restart itself. After it is finished restarting, disconnect the iPhone from iTunes and perform your own independent power-off and restart.

8) All done!

What if I don't want the iOS4 on my old iPhone(WiFi only, no AT&T service) but maybe need all the other stuff, Firmware, etc. Suggestions please

Paul Irvine, I tried your way of upgrading my 3G phone til OS4. It worked after after having a **** with following ordinary of upgrading the phone. Takes for ever, and the some.

So, when I restarted the phone after the upgrade, everything looked fine. I can see the changes, and that I have som new features. Like grouping apps or something. But when I did the restore, that function is gone. Also, I belive a friend of mine -after the upgrade to os4, could change the background on the screen.

Do you or anyone else know anything about this. Apple iPhone is really some **** to work with sometimes. I think jailbraking would be better so I can have som controll.

Thanks.

Thank you Paul! I'm happy to say this worked! After several failed attempts at updating a 3G iPhone to the new operating system, your directions for restoring settings worked perfectly!

Your problem was my problem too. But I backed up my phone, then set it to restore to original settings, and then put all my files back onto my iphone. Thanks for solving that for me!!!