I don't want itunes to backup my iphone all the time

First off all, I don't understand why some people here don't go up to the point and answer the question and then make comments, even unnecessary later:

The question: Can I sync my device without iTunes back it up first? it is a yes and no question.

Answer: No.

Helpful comment like from turingtest2: "If it is backing 20Gb of data each time something is wrong. My 128Gb iPhone 6+ has around 15Gb free. Backup phase of a sync operation takes a couple of minutes." What he is saying is that the backups are incremental, iTunes will only backup what changed since last sync, if you are doing it for the first time, yes it will take a bit of time. If you don't have space on your computer for that backup then you have an issue.

Unhelpful comments:
1. "You really should backup your device" Really? If the poster clearly said that it does not want to backup, don't you think he knows that?

2.(my favourite) "If you don't want to backup on your computer, backup it to iCloud." You clearly didn't read the question fully and why it was asked!

Don't mean to be rude, but, come on ....

curetcd wrote:

What f I don't have an icloud account? I just want to turn off backup altogether.

If you don't have an iCloud account, you really should be backing your phone up when you connect to iTunes. Not having a back up is a very, very bad idea. And, it's almost impossible that you don't have an iCloud account as you logged in here. You logged in here with an Apple ID. That automatically means you have an iCloud account.

I have a same question here hope there would be someone can help. I just want to add few songs or ringtones to my iphone, but each time i click the sync it will start from backup iphone and it'll take about 20 mins to finish the whole sync, any way can skip the backup process and just do the sync? thanks!

I believe you want to open itunes, preferences, Devices icon and choose "prevent automatic xyz syncing."

hmm. Not sure you can turn back up off...sorry.

did u work out what to do as i havent enough room on my hardrive for a backup but want to put on about 5 songs and cant gggrrrrrr frustrating

Hope this can help.

First off, if you prefer to no back up your iphone to your computer I would suggest backing it up to icloud. you can do this by next time you plug in your iphone in itunes,

go to your device on the sidebar -->summary(its at the top) --> then on the summary page go to Backups and select "iCloud" ... or at least make sure the option that says "This Computer" [A full backup of this iphone will be stores on your computer ] is unchecked.

Doing this, it will stop making backups on your computer and make your backups to apple servers

Next just as Powerbook 1818 said you could go to Itunes-> Preferences -> Devices -> and then check the option that says " Prevent ipods, iphones, and ipads from syncing automatically

This will prevent from itunes from automatically syncying your device right away when plugging it in.

Lastly, plug your iphone into itunes,

go to devices -> your iphone -> summary -> scroll down and find the options ( its the box right under the Backup box from earlier in this post)

Then what i recommend is that you have the following UNchecked

- "Automatically sync when iphone is connected"

- Sync with this iphone over wifi"

-Sync only checked songs and videos( I dont think you have to do this, but I have it checked for myself

Then check:

-Mannually manage music and videos

From what I understand this will prevent it from sync and backing up to your computer, when I first plugged in my iphone it sync some other things (browsing data and a few other small things) but it didnt take anything longer than about 10 seconds max

I hope this helps!

Nic

rooboy1818 wrote:

did u work out what to do as i havent enough room on my hardrive for a backup

Then you really should clear you hard drive of old/not needed data.

As a general rulem you should keep about 10%-15% free space on yoru hard drive so things will run better.

The operating system needs this to manage the drive properly.

What f I don't have an icloud account? I just want to turn off backup altogether.

If you don't plug it into iTunes and you also don't have an iCloud account, it won't back up

But you do have an iCloud Account.

Just don't backup to it.

Franklu45 wrote:

.... any way can skip the backup process and just do the sync? thanks!

No, however it should only be doing one backup per calendar day. 😕

tt2

Hey! Did u get any solution / workaround? It's frustrating to see tat copying one dong is backing up 20Gigs of my iPhone data!!!! Donno Y Apple is so complicated in file sharing!!!

If it is backing 20Gb of data each time something is wrong. My 128Gb iPhone 6+ has around 15Gb free. Backup phase of a sync operation takes a couple of minutes.

tt2

NCA_Cycling wrote:

Don't mean to be rude, but,

you'll go ahead and do it anyway in this 4 year old thread...