Making an iPhone 4S manual backup to a MacBook Pro does not work in iTunes?

randers4 wrote:

Backing up will not update the calendar, contacts, etc. on his MacBook Pro; only syncing does that (and it's bi-directional). Backing up only creates a device backup that can later be used to restore from if necessary. He can confirm that the backup was successfully created by going to iTunes>Preferences>Devices and checking the Backups list.

Or am I misunderstanding your question?

We do see iTunes' device and ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ showing the backups. We thought manual backups did COMPLETE backups including calendar, contacts, etc. That's disappointing. The problem is synchronizing is that it likes to make duplicates which is quite annoying. We would prefer iTunes overwrite iPhone 4S' datas to computer. He nevers updates/add data on the computer. 😟

randers4 wrote:

The backup will include calendar events but only contact settings. And this will not change the calendar (or contacts) on his computer; they are only stored in the backup and are not accessible other than by restoring the entire backup to his device.

Duplicates are often caused by attempting to sync a device with both iTunes and iCloud. If your client is doing this, have him only sync with iCloud and disable iTunes syncing for contacts and calendars on the Summary tab of his iTunes sync settings.

He doesn't use nor ever used iCloud. We checked the settings too! :/

randers4 wrote:

If calendars and contacts are the issue, he can back up his phone to back up his calendar, and back up his contacts using an app like My Contacts Backup, then disable contacts and calendar syncing on the Summary tab and continue to sync his apps, music and other data; or just continue to not sync if that's what he prefers. This will back up his data but not update the data on his Mac.

Another option if he's running OS X 10.7.4 or later, is to start syncing his contacts, calendar and other data using iCloud rather than iTunes. This will not create duplicates.

Hmm, a third party program and he doesn't want iCloud (doesn't trust it). He is using Mac OS X 10.8.2 like shown in the original post. 😉

randers4 wrote:

Well if he doesn't want to sync and doesn't want to use iCloud then his options are limited unless you can determine what's causing the duplicates so he can sync.

Yeah, and he needs to back up in case he loses his iPhone and/or his data. I forgot to mention he has a lot of asian characters in his datas too.

We tried deleting duplicates and rechecking the settings on the MBP's iTunes, Calendars, and Contacts before synchronizing. We still get duplicated songs in iPhone even after deleting in iTunes and synchronizing. However, MBP's softwares didn't show any duplicates this time. Also, some of iPhone's songs are greyed out (can't select to do anything), missing (still shows in iTunes), etc. So weird!!

I also checked Console's logs, but not sure if they look OK? See for the latest logs captured from the latest synchronization after deleting duplicates on MBP: http://pastie.org/private/q86kt5v8ukxex2tuxgg1a ... Maybe there's a data corruption?

randers4 wrote:

Sometimes grayed out song issues can be resolved by signing out of the Apple ID, then back in. To do this on the phone go to Settings>Store, tap the ID, sign out, then sign back in. To do this in iTunes go to iTunes>Store>Sign Out, then sign back in.

Doesn't this only apply for online purchases? My client did not buy any songs online. Only apps.

randers4 wrote:

Yes it only applys to purchased songs. If he has selected to sync only checked songs and videos on the Summary tab of his iTunes sync settings have him confirm that the grayed out songs are checked to sync. If that's not the problem, suggest you post this question over in the iTunes for Mac forum.

He has all selected. Hmm. Thanks.