Is my iPhone backing up photos to iTunes in error?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Is my iPhone backing up photos to iTunes in error?

Hello

I'm looking for some clarification with my iPhone back-ups as I think my iTunes back-ups are including photos, when Apple Support states that photos are not included in an iTunes back-up if iCloud Photo Library is being used (About backups for iOS devices - Apple Support). I have around 40gb of photos, which are synced to my iCloud Photo Library and are also on my iPhone SE (128gb).

I noticed that my Application Support/Mobile Sync folder was large (50gb), so deleted my iPhone back-up in iTunes, reducing that folder to around 3gb. When I backed up again, the folder increased back up (to 40gb), and my available hard drive space reduced by 40gb.

The usage breakdown of my iPhone (according to iTunes) is as follows:

Documents & data = 9.9gb

Apps = 5.59gb

Photos = 33.42gb

Other/book/audio = 0.5gb

If iTunes were not backing up my photos, as per Apple Support's page referenced above, I would have expected my Mobile Sync folder to be around 16gb based on the numbers above. Any ideas why it's so much larger and what else can be making the folder so large? Apple doesn't give the option to omit photos from an iTunes back-up, which is what the iCloud Photo Library is supposed to provide instead.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.7.5), 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM

Posted on Feb 4, 2018 9:01 AM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

225,546 points

Feb 4, 2018 9:04 AM in response to waverlong

Apps are not part of the backup regardless of whether you're using iTunes or iCloud to back up.

If you back up to iTunes, the camera roll is included in the backup. It doesn't matter if you're using iCloud photo library. The assumption is that if you're using iTunes cloud services, you're most likely backing up to iCloud... When making an iTunes backup, iTunes doesn't care one way or the other, it just backs up the camera roll along with the in app data and settings. This means restoring will be significantly faster as the photos don't have to download from the cloud.

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Answer 2

Feb 26, 2018 2:11 PM in response to waverlong

Your iTunes backup should not include photos, unless you backed it up prior to enabling iCloud Photos. If that might be what is happening you can delete the iTunes backup and create a new one. If you have a Mac you can actually archive it, which will force a new backup but keep the old one.

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Answer 3

Feb 25, 2018 8:00 AM in response to waverlong

Photos are not included in a backup if you have enabled iCloud photos or PhotoStream. In you have NOT enabled either of these services then photos ARE included in the backup.

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Answer 4

Feb 6, 2018 3:29 PM in response to KiltedTim

This: About backups for iOS devices - Apple Support says that photos are not included in an iTunes backup if iCloud Photos is enabled.

iTunes backups

From your Mac or PC, you can make a backup of your device in iTunes. Syncing your device with your computer isn't the same as making a backup. An iTunes backup includes nearly all of your device's data and settings. An iTunes backup doesn't include:

Content from the iTunes and App Stores, or PDFs downloaded directly to iBooks (You can back up this content using Transfer Purchases in iTunes.)
Content synced from iTunes, like imported MP3s or CDs, videos, books, and photos
Photos already stored in the cloud, like My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Library
Touch ID settings
Apple Pay information and settings
Activity, Health, and Keychain data (To back up this content, you'll need to use Encrypted Backup in iTunes.)