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I have an old first gen iPhone that I want to use now as an iPod Touch. It still has the sim card but it wont sync. The error message says, "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because the backup session failed." The phone still has the sim card. I was able to upgrade the software to iOS 3.1.3.
I already tried powering down the phone and restarting it. I used iTunes to do a restore to the original settings. Any other suggestions?
Thanks for the very fast and helpful reply. I moved that entire backup folder to my desktop and synced again. Same error message.
I also checked my permissions for the backup folder and I have both read and write privileges. I never installed any security software. Any other ideas?
You need to delete/move the contents of that folder, but not the folder itself. Can you manually create a backup by right-clicking the phone in the left device pane & selecting "Backup"?
When I moved the folder, the contents moved with it. iTunes created a new backup folder when I tried to sync again. Isn't that the same as just moving the contents?
I tried to manually create a backup as you suggested and I got the same error message. Thanks for your continued help.
Security software can interfere with the backup process, try disabling all firewalls and all security software. Re-boot your computer before doing so. Go back to that backup folder & make sure there is absolutely nothing in it.
I have never installed security software. I never changed the default settings on the built-in firewall.
iTunes created a new backup folder and put one item in it when I tried to sync just now. That's all that's there.
BTW, I have never had any problems syncing my current iPhone.
Delete everything in that folder.
OK, I deleted everything in the folder. I synced again and got the same result. Any other suggestions? Thanks.
Create another user account on your computer, launch iTunes and under preferences, disable auto-sync when an iPod/iPhone is connected. Connect your phone, do not sync, right-click & select "Backup". What happens?
OK, I finally did that. I got the same error message.
So, this is it? There isn't any way to get this iPhone to work as an iPod?
Hi,
I'm having the same issue with my 1st Gen iPhone. Did you ever find a solution?
Nada. Did you go through all the steps in the Apple support article? I did, but it didn't help. Please let me know if you find anything.
In a few hours, I'll have my new iPhone 4S. I hope I don't have the same issue converting my current iPhone into an iPod Touch.
Thanks for the reply. It had been working fine, but I stupidly said yes when it wanted to upgrade the software to 3.1.3 and wound up with a bricked iPhone.
I tried the steps in the Apple support article, to no avail. I've also seen some advice saying that it's caused by a problem with the backup file, so I've delted the backup file, which didn't work. I was hoping that the updated iTunes 10.5 would have fixed the problem on an OSX machine, but had no luck with that. I've also tried syncing with my work computer (Windows 7), hoping that I'd have better luck with an iTunes install that had never been synced with an iPhone. Neeless to say that didn't work. One of these days I'll try to downgrade the iOS version and see if that works.
I'm waiting for UPS to arrive with my new 4S too. Have fun wih the new toy.
I can't sync my old iPhone
