"iTunes could not back up iPhone because an error occurred."

Hi zfigueroa,

Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities!

You may find the steps in this article helpful:

iOS: Troubleshooting backup issues in iTunes

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2529

Best,

Jeremy

I am having the same problem with my 4S on a Dell Infinion laptop. I went through every steps on the above support document including updating the 5 Series chipset and I am still having the same issue. There has to be something else. Any ideas?

If you are using a USB port directly on the computer, not a hub, and you have tried deleting the existing backup completely (by going to the Backup folder and deleting it) the next thing to check is installed apps. There are a few that can cause this error; the most common complaint is about iZip.

Thanks, Lawrence. I deleted all my old backups and that didn't help. I didn't have iZip, but I did archive all photos more than a year old to an external hard drive (over 2,000) and removed all apps I've installed since my last good backup on 7/2/2013 and then about another 30 I don't ever use. Still no luck. I am at a loss. Since I don't have a backup newer than 2 months old I could lose quite a bit of stuff if I do a full restore, but it looks like either that or buy an iCloud 50GB plan and try there.

Have you tried removing like pictures and other information manually from the device?

Thanks for visiting Apple Support Community!

If iTunes can't Backup your iPhone 5 to iTunes and restore everything, maybe you need to check your Wi-Fi.

Best regards,

BillyJimJo.

I haven't tried removing like pictures. I could remove all pictures and put them back on, I guess. It's worth a try.

Did you actually delete the backup folder, not just deleting the backups in iTunes preferences? If you have Windows sometimes deleting the backup using iTunes does not remove all of it. This is a bug in the Windows Explorer. The backup folder locations:

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
• Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
  Note: To quickly access the Application Data folder, click Start, and choose Run. Type %appdata% and click OK.
• Windows Vista and Windows 7/8: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
  Note: To quickly access the AppData folder, click Start. In the search bar, type %appdata% and press the Return key.

Also, you may not need extra iCloud space to back up to iCloud. Music and apps purchased from iTunes does not count towards the 5 GB free limit. Nor does iTunes Match, except for content that Apple cannot find in its vast library.

Thanks for your help, Lawerence. I did delete the whole folder (after copying it to an external drive just in case I need the last good backup).

Thanks for the tip on iCloud. I have about 12GB of stuff other than apps and music on my 32GB phone.

Having this same issue while trying to update to iOS 7.

After you have read the thread you posted to and tried some of the tips in it post back if you still have this problem. Tell us what you tried.

This worked for me too

Good Day Lawrence Finch,

I have been racking my brain as to how to find this location on my Apple computer:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/. I am not computer savy so please break it down for me Barney style on how to do this. I am having the same issue while trying to back up my Iphone 5 on itunes. Thank you...

Launch Terminal. Enter the following lines:

cd ~/Library

cd "Application Support/MobileSync"

ls -l

This will show if there is a backup folder. To delete the backup folder enter

rm -r Backup

You can copy the lines one at a time and paste them into Terminal. You can also do this with Finder, but you first must change settings to show hidden files, as the library folder is hidden.

Last login: Tue Dec 24 09:20:03 on ttys000

Seans-MacBook-Pro:~ CrucianMac$ rm -r Backup

rm: Backup: No such file or directory

Seans-MacBook-Pro:~ CrucianMac$ cd ~/Library

Seans-MacBook-Pro:Library CrucianMac$ cd "Application Support/MobileSync"

Seans-MacBook-Pro:MobileSync CrucianMac$ ls -l

total 0

drwxr-xr-x 3 CrucianMac staff 102 Dec 24 09:23 Backup

Seans-MacBook-Pro:MobileSync CrucianMac$ Last

So this is what happens when I try it. I put the rm -r Backup code but then I still can't back up my phone. And when I try again to back up I still get error code and I still have the message shown above when I go back into terminal to try.