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Level 6

13,226 points

Prevent automatic backup?

Sorry if this may have been asked a hundred times, but I am an almost complete iPad noob (it belongs to my wife.)

All the steps in this KB article describe backing up manually to iTunes, which is what I would like to be able to do. However, as soon as I connect the iPad to the Mac, it both syncs and backs up automatically and replaces any prior backup. (Note: iCloud is disabled.) This seems rather pointless, as the only reason I would want to have a backup would be to be able to restore from a prior backup. So how do I sync without having an immediate automatic backup?

There is an iTunes option in Preferences>Devices to disable automatic syncing. Does that take care of this? Seems like I wouldn't want to disable automatic syncing, but I did notice when I checked this, it did not then proceed to backup automatically.

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 4:30 PM

Best reply

sberman

Level 10

264,033 points

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 4:37 PM

Correct, disabling automatic syncing does end the automatic backup.

Perhaps clarifying terms is in order here. In this context, "backup" is used to recover your device in case something goes wrong with, say, the iPad hardware or you upgrade the iPad.

What you're trying to do might be called "archiving". I think you're trying to take occasional snapshots of an iPad's state in case you want to return that iPad to that prior state in the future.

That is not something that is typically done with i-devices.

You may also not run across the term "backup" being commonly used this way, but it is in the iOS context.

Hope this helps.

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32 replies

Jan 7, 2014 11:24 AM in response to WZZZ

Thank you WZZZ. I got it.

Cheers

Aug 2, 2014 11:35 PM in response to WZZZ

Wxxx. I don't have an answer. But I have the same question, and unless I am mistaken, your original question was never answered. I believe the question is, 'How do you turn off automatic backup, specifically when you plug in your device'. What I think is implied, is that you want to sync your device so that any files (music, movies, etc) you updated on your computer, transfers to your device. This question does not imply you want back-up a good copy, or anything else; you dont want to do a bcak-up at all. I believe that is the question. Another scenario might be, what if you don't have the space on you computer, or, a complete restore of the device is satisfactory if the device malfunctions.

Prevent automatic backup?