Michael Spencer

Q: iphone 128 very slow backup

Having replaced my iPhone 6s 16G with a new iPhone 6+ 128G I no longer run out of room for photos or audio books.

 

But I do notice backup takes a LONG time. Question is this,  before I poke around looking for other issues: should I expect backup to take longer since it has more storage space? or not?

 

(I'm talking 15 minutes before it even gets bast "Backup Up" and starts writing new content).

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), iMac late 2014

Posted on Mar 5, 2016 1:14 PM

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Q: iphone 128 very slow backup

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  • by Michael Spencer,

    Michael Spencer Michael Spencer Mar 5, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Michael Spencer
    Level 2 (266 points)
    Apple TV
    Mar 5, 2016 1:15 PM in response to Michael Spencer

    Should have added that backup is to my computer only, not to iCloud.

  • by Lawrence Finch,Solvedanswer

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 5, 2016 2:02 PM in response to Michael Spencer
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 5, 2016 2:02 PM in response to Michael Spencer

    The first backup can take a long time. After the first it only backs up content that has changed since the previous backup, so subsequent backups should be faster.

  • by Michael Spencer,

    Michael Spencer Michael Spencer Mar 7, 2016 7:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 2 (266 points)
    Apple TV
    Mar 7, 2016 7:07 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    An obvious - and correct! - answer that I should have considered. Thanks.

     

    And for anybody in the future reading this, when I saw a "long" time, I mean more than 2.5 hours. And that's before there's more than 35GB on the phone. I wonder what will happen when I load up 50GB of photos which is why I bought this version.

     

    In some ways what we are observing doesn't make much sense– not being a programmer I'd expect some sort of relationship between the amount of data on a phone and the time required to create a full and new image of that data. That's not what I am observing, although it IS true as Mr. Finch says that this is the first time a new phone is backed up. I just don't remember having the same experience with the old 16GB phone.

  • by Lawrence Finch,Helpful

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 7, 2016 7:52 AM in response to Michael Spencer
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 7:52 AM in response to Michael Spencer

    A backup only includes data, it does not include apps or music because they can always be restored from the iTunes library on your computer or redownloaded. It also does not include anything that you sync to iCloud, such as contacts, calendar events, notes, photos, etc. But even when they don't contain much data a backup of a high capacity phone will take longer than a lower capacity, because the backup process must scan all of the data structures on the phone looking for things to back up.

     

    There's also an unknown factor; sometimes syncs take a long time for no apparent reason. But interrupting a sync causes lots of problems, so it's best to wait until it finished.

     

    See: About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support