10+ hours slow backup time through iTunes

Question

Level 1

21 points

10+ hours slow backup time through iTunes

Hello,

Every year, we upgrade iPhones for 40+ employees in my company using a standard procedure for backing up and restoring through iTunes.

For the last 4 years, only 1 employee out of the 40 gets a backup/restore time of 12 hours while the rest are under 2 hours.

We've moved everyone from XS to 11 this year and all took under 2 hours using the wireless transfer option.

He had 256 GB XS with 20 GB free, when we moved him to iPhone 11 512 GB using the wireless transfer option, the 512 GB gave an out of storage error.

We switched to iTunes, and like previous years the back took 10 hours and stored 640 GB on the drive. Restore took 2 hours.

The IT team have no idea why his backup takes 3X storage every year and takes 10 hours to complete.

Only one other employee had a similar case last year and no issue this year.

I know this is a low priority case for Apple and affects a very small percentage of users, but any hints or workarounds would be appreciated to avoid this in next year upgrade cycles.

iPhone XS

Posted on Feb 10, 2020 10:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Courcoul

Level 6

18,684 points

Feb 11, 2020 7:50 AM in response to thamir78

Given the common Windows back end, first thing I'd check if any antivirus software may be "overseeing" the process and slowing things down.

My 128GB iPad 6 @60% full will do a full/complete backup using iTunes 12.6.3 (not the newest) and the Lightning cable onto a MacBook Pro 2015 (internal SSD) with 10.11.6 ElCapitan in about 3 minutes.

Reply

Answer 2

Courcoul

Level 6

18,684 points

Feb 11, 2020 9:21 AM in response to Demo

Demo wrote:

If your listed version of iTunes really is 10. Something, that version is very old. I believe that iTunes 12.8.xx would be the most recent version. You might want to update iTunes as well.

I pondered on that too, but decided it must be a typo. Do not think iTunes 10 would be even capable of talking to iOS 13, as required by an iXs or i11. Even then, iTunes 12.4.2 is also too ancient for modern iOS and could explain the delay.

Reply

Answer 3

Courcoul

Level 6

18,684 points

Feb 11, 2020 9:36 AM in response to thamir78

thamir78 wrote:

Thanks. We’ve debated using a MacBook to bench mark it against windows in previous years. Might try asking again. Agree with anti virus, we’ve seen it slow other things down, not just backups. I’ve disabled it but didn’t make a difference.

On the hardware side, a fresh or known-good cable? Had one, now ditched, that would only work properly in one of the two USB ports and then only if not twisted. Adequate amount of room in the drive? No other 'heavy' process running? Maybe even 'Run as Administrator' the iTunes instance?

And obviously, iTunes signed in to the same AppleID the phone is registered under.

Reply

Answer 4

Demo

Level 10

166,747 points

Feb 11, 2020 8:09 AM in response to thamir78

If your listed version of iTunes really is 10. Something, that version is very old. I believe that iTunes 12.8.xx would be the most recent version. You might want to update iTunes as well.

Reply

Answer 5

thamir78 Author

Level 1

21 points

Feb 11, 2020 8:37 AM in response to Courcoul

Thanks. We’ve debated using a MacBook to bench mark it against windows in previous years. Might try asking again. Agree with anti virus, we’ve seen it slow other things down, not just backups. I’ve disabled it but didn’t make a difference.

Reply