How to tell iTune to keep every backup?

iTunes has never saved a history of backups. All that it has ever saved is the most recent backup, which is inremental (only changes since the last backup). When you upgrade the phone to a version that is not compatible with the previous backup it will start a new backup, and the old one will still be listed, but this is the only time more than one backup will be saved.

If you want to save multiple backups you will have to us a backup program on your computer. If you have a Mac Time Machine will do this automatically; for Windows you will have to install a separate backup program.

iTunes has never saved a separate backup everytime you sync your phone or manually perform a backup. Only one normal iPhone backup is kept, it's actually an incremental backup in that only data that has changed is actually backed up. If you want to keep separate backups, you'll have to copy the backup folder to a different location after each sync. Why you'd want to do this doesn't make a lot of sense though.

The backups are over writing... Unless you right click on the device in the source list and select backup.

I hope this helps!

Ah, that won't work. Doesn't matter if you sync or manually create an iPhone backup. only ONE normal backup is kept.

joea8888 wrote:

"My iTunes used to create incremental backup everytime I do sync, now I can only see the last sync/backup"

Again, iTunes has NEVER kept separate backups. Only ONE normal backup is kept. Any other backups listed are backups created from restore points. These backups are time/date stamped and are not overwritten.

Not true. On my previous phone, I had sometimes 4 backups in Preferences/device backups.

But you couldn't restore any but the most recent. The others were backups of previous versions. If you have a Mac and use Time Machine you can keep multiple backups, or a PC with an equivalent backup utility that saves multiple versions.

You have no idea what you're talking about. You might want to educate yourself, starting here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946

Wjosten, you are incorrect. In previous versions of iTunes it did indeed allow incremental backups. You used to be able to create and then restore from a myriad of old backups made on your local drive. I don't know when this functionality was removed (it was removed prior to the latest version of iTunes - I just don't remember which one), but it was a great tool that I wish Apple would reconsider putting back.

So, to the OP, as far as I know - no, there is no longer a way to do this. I'm researching it right now to see if I can find a workaround. If I come across anything useful, I'll post it.

Kremzeek, you are soooooooo correct! I've had iphones for over 4 years, and with many (until I deleted them) history backups! New is not always improved!!!! Hope they bring this feature back.

The ability to keep multiple backups was NEVER THERE. Yes, sometimes there was more than one backup, but only if they were backups of older versions. Once you updated the older version to a new one backups would not reload. You could see them, but not use them. However, if your computer is a Mac with Time Machine, or you have a backup program on your PC that keeps version backups, you can still restore one of the version backups.

I had multiple backups, and I restored them many times, every time a different backup. Not sure how you define this, but all I know is that I had at one point 5 backups and I could install any of them as I wanted.

Use some common sense here...if iTunes kept a separate iPhone backup, every time you synced...what do you think would quickly happen, given the fact that many users sync every day, and many have more than one iPhone syncing to the same computer?

You'd need a hard drive measured in terabytes...many, many terabytes. Not to mention there is absolutely no need to keep separate backups, given the fact that, for the most part, not much data actually changes.

Aren't these 2 different thing? Making a backup or sync? And why did the option to back up the iphone dissapear from iTunes? Before I could choose this and create mulitple backups, but this isn't possible anymore? My backup panel in iTunes is empty now. I can only sync now but this doesn't create a backcup.