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

I am having the same problem. Don't know what to do.

Have you figured out a solution yet? Because mine has been plugged in all days and gets to 4 bars and stops.

I posted a topic about this. I'm having the same problem. I start it at night and by morning it says it can't back up and asks me if I want to proceed without backing up. I chose "yes" and it still didn't update software. Based on what I'm reading I'm not sure OS4 is worth it....

Hello,

I'm experiencing exactly the same process. Have cancelled the slooooooooooooow 9 hour backup on my iPhone 3G and opted for a restore instead. The backup liquid bar is processing faster and there's already a safe and reliable backup of all my media and data in iTunes to restore to afterwards. Let's see. I'll post back with an update when it's done.

Same problem here!!

Uff! I should have done this first time round. This is the way to go. Apple! - better instructions please. Jakob Nielsen will be on the case about this process!

Yes, run a restore. It took less than an hour once it had finished with doing all it's firmware update. The 3G did not loose any data or apps. It installed a safe and full backup from the last sync that I ran prior to the restore.

No problems since. When it's done, power off your iPhone and leave it off for about 5 minutes then switch it back on.

My phone took 11 hours to do the upgrade. After it finished everything looked and worked great except one thing. I now have no service. I can not make or receive calls or use internet except with wifi. Called Apple and ATT and all they can tell me is that they escalated it to a higher service level.

All appearances are that it is better to do a restore to factory settings first, then restore your data from a backup. The update process for me took forever and then my phone sucked after it finally finished. Here's what I did: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2478473&tstart=0

My advice. If you have not updated to iOS4. DON'T.
It cut the speed of apps almost in half and doesn't offer anything new that the 3G can't do with iOS3.
They on;y reason Apple made this OS update available for previous phone is to further induce fools into upgrading sooner to the IP4.
My next upgrade will be to a Droid. No more iPhones for me after this one dies.

I'm in the same situation as others. After 8 hours, I'm about 3 bars into 'Backing up "XXXX's IPhone." This seems to be going no where.

My question is how necessary is it to upgrade an iPhone 3G to OS4? I am planning on purchasing an IPhone 4. Is this upgrade now necessary to synching a new phone to my account?

Forget that the Update button exists on iTunes in the Version area.
It's misleading.

Connect you iPhone to iTunes. Sync as normal.
Then, click the Restore button to install version 4.0 NOT the Update button.

The iPhone will do its thing (Backup and Restore) and revert all your apps and data to it after the firmware update and everything is done.

The linchpin in the whole process is that after you disconnect from iTunes you power-off your iPhone even after the automatic power-off and restart is performed while the iPhone was connected to iTunes.

this because it was taking too much timing due to you have stored may be much more programs,
did you restarted it ,? try again

but back up it will take sometimes more time due to we used space for more data,