Q: Huge iTunes backups contain IOS device iCloud Photo Library data
Have recently done a number of backups of my IOS devices to iTunes and was rather surprised by the huge size of these backups - gigabytes rather than megabytes. Using Time Machine to look back, the size of my backups (iPad2, iPad3, and iPhone 6s) were between 100 to 400 Mbytes, but the new ones were between 2 and 14 Gigabytes.
Investigating further, the only source of so much data, particularly in the 14 GB case, is the iCloud Photo Library data, which is 13.5 GB in that particular case. According to the appropriate knowledgebase item About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support says that such data should not be backed up to iTunes as it is already available from iCloud.
Has anyone else observed this? Or am I unique?
I'm using the latest iTunes 12.2.3.17 on El Capitan 10.11.4 and observe this with devices on both IOS 9.2.1 and 9.3.1.
Edit - corrected link/URL
Message was edited by: JPinCheshire
iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Time Capsule (2013), G-Tech G-Drive
Posted on Apr 8, 2016 10:08 AM