iTunes could not backup iPhone because the iPhone disconnected

BTW, this isn't the only extremely annoying bug Apple has with iTunes/iOS. Not having a backup of your phone is a serious matter. However, recently in an Apple Care support case I opened there's another really annoying one:

I've got a fairly expensive Bose Soundlink II BlueTooth speaker that is attached to both my MacBook Pro Retina 2013, and my iPad Mini 2. If I connect both my MacBook Pro AND my iPad Mini to the device and someone calls my iPhone...iTunes will launch (all on its own, even if it's not loaded) and begin to play a random song from my music collection. Very, very annoying since here you are trying to talk to the person who called you and this music has spun up in the background!!

I proved this to Apple Support over the phone. The only work-around, as there is a major Bug here with BlueTooth/OS X and/or Continuity...is to disconnect the Bose Soundlink II from the MacBook Pro ... not ideal, but at least I can get a phone call without being annoyed by iTunes.

I started experiencing this issue after updating to IOS 9.3.2. Couldn't resolve it, and deleting the backup, would allow me to successfully backup the first time, but upon further syncing, I would hit the same problem.

The solution that worked for me was: RESTARTING MY IPHONE! 😝

Hope this helps.

It helps, but not for long, unfortunately. The problem will come back, within a week or so, and all tips posted in this thread are merely workarounds to the inevitable: the problem will occur, and a fix is unlikely to come since Apple seems to only test things on new HW, with new SW and have no QA dept to see if their software endeavours also work on systems that have never been 'installed as new', merely upgraded from a previous version.

Turned off WiFi on my phone and it worked first time...thanks

I’m fully aware that just very few of you guys might benefit from what I found out (if at all). But I decided to write this down anyway…

I was wondering why after deleting a „corrupt“ backup from my iMac and successfully creating a fresh one after that, the next (incremental) backup would be corrupt again. (Never happens on my iPad Air 2). Maybe there are some corrupted files on my iPhone?

I checked all my Apps to figure out where there might be indications of orphan files or something similar that could matter. I found that I had a couple of orphan files in my GPS tracker (Motion X). This App (like many others of the same kind) enables users to download map files at home (over WiFi) so there is no need to download them over Edge or 3G while on the road or on the bike path.

Some of those map downloads, however, were uncompleted (e.g. just x of y tiles had been downloaded). I removed all of these files on the iPhone, deleted the most recent backup on my iMac, did a „fresh“ backup - and since then I have no problems any more. All the (incremental) backups now work nicely - over USB as well as over WiFi. The „disconnected“ alert is simply gone.

Again - I probably just found the needle in my personal haystack. But maybe at least some of you out there can take advantage of this method (or feel encouraged to check their iPhones for incomplete or corrupt data) to get rid of the annoying problem we all share for months now.

Good luck!

Regards from Germany.

1) Thanks for taking the time to write this all up

2) I had a bike tracker app, no idea if it stores files locally, but since I wasn't using it anyway I deleted it. Due to the fact that I also did some more house cleaning I can't say for certain....but your tip has fixed it at my end. So, BIG THANKS for posting your solution.

Signed,

one grateful user.

Me too. Instant fix and previously had failed 20+ times. Thanks

found this info elsewhere.. and it worked for me.

"Only thing that worked for me was resetting the network settings on the iPhone itself. Go to Settings App. General. at the bottom is Reset. Reset Network Settings. Sync again and it should work."

Thanks! I had forgotten that I had Motion X installed - I deleted it, restarted the phone and when I tried again, the back up ran as it should - great detective work!

Well, this problem has returned for me.

I fixed it last time by removing apps, now it has returned.

Even with the latest OS, iTunes, and iOS version...still having this problem.

Not fixed yet...really?

works perfectly, thanks!!!

This certainly appears to have fixed my issues. Until I disabled Wi-Fi sync, I had to reboot all my devices or and/or delete my previous backups anytime I needed to make a new backup.

Thank you!

This worked like a Charm! Thanks!

Excellent! Worked for me too!

renaming backup folder on Mac to Backup.sav worked perfectly - thanks Lawrence!