Backing Up for Hours ?!!

[ERASER]

Trying to update my wife's 3G to 2.0.2 & it's taking FOREVER !! Is there a way to speed this up ? Should it really take 3 friggin' hours to do this ?! We've tried 4 times now & no success . .... I'm glad I still use my 1.1.4 Jailbroke.

[ERASER]

Nevermind, I have bigger problems

[forkee]

mine does the same thing. took 2 hours to backup everything. i went out to lunch lol

[jarofclay73]

My 3G upgraded in like 30 minutes. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't hours either.

[xxsirvtecxx]

It shouldnt take longer than 30 min, i believe it only took me that long.

[VIPERxGTx2000]

I think it depends on how full your phone memory is. After I synced my phone with 4 movies and a season of terminator it takes literally over 3 hours to back up my phone every time I come to sync it. I just cancel the backup for everyday syncing but if I were you, I would try deleting any movies you have and maybe even the songs you have on the phone and then trying to do the upgrade.

[Youngbinks]

My 16 GB is nearly full and backups take no longer than 5 minutes. I would suggest trying the steps found on this site:
http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/07/28/quick-tip-speed-up-iphone-sync-times-not-by-disabling-backup/

Many users have reported much faster backup times as a result.

[dturner]

A five min. backup is a long one for me. One thing that will help a little(not a whole lot) is to delete the old app after an update. You have to keep in mind that when you update an app you are really downloading the whole app again. These updates aren't like an update on a computer program where you are just downloading the update portion.
I had 2-3 updates for Aurora Feint and I noticed that each was the same size as the original. So I had about 180mb of space that had to be backed up for that one app.

[Nutchos]

I have no idea how long my Iphone takes to back up. On three seperate occasions I have left it there to backup for FOUR HOURS (or more) and it never seems to get past the 55-60% range.

This may have something to do with 2.02 since it used to backup successfully before hand. I'm only using up around 3gb of my 16gb phone as well.

[jooley]

My 16 GB is nearly full and backups take no longer than 5 minutes. I would suggest trying the steps found on this site:
http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/07/28/quick-tip-speed-up-iphone-sync-times-not-by-disabling-backup/

Many users have reported much faster backup times as a result.

I followed these steps but still takes 2-3 hours for a full backup and sync

[MileHighRob]

I followed these steps but still takes 2-3 hours for a full backup and sync
Have you also tried to delete your old backup file? It sounds like you could have a corrupt backup file. I had a corrupt backup file a while back and once I deleted it and turned the diagnostics notifications off I no longer have any backup issues. My backups complete in less than 5 minutes and often less than 3 minutes.

[OJsakila]

you might very well have a corrupted iTunes. Replacing iTunes completley can be quite a task as it leaves a ton of **** behind. If you can completley remove iTunes, restore it with afresh copy and that will certainly fix the problem. I ended up reformatting my harddrive on my computer. Good luck. Either way, backups should not take that long at all.

[jooley]

Thanks guys. I've deleted my backup files (there were 2) in iTunes, but so far, no luck with speeding up my backup/sync.
Next step I'm going to take is trying to delete iTunes completely, and reinstalling it, but I want to back up my iTunes purchases first.
iTunes is telling me it will take EIGHT DVDs back up purchases, so I'll do that tomorrow, when I have them here.

[MileHighRob]

jooley, when you delete your backup files it does take quite a while for the first backup file to complete afterwards. once that is done the next ones should go much quicker. let the first one do its thing then add a free app and resync to see how long it takes. also you don't have to backup your itunes to dvd before you uninstall and reinstall... those purchases are tied into your account login and will be there once you sign back on. just FYI

[mlass]

I don't know, my back ups still take forever.

Last night I plug it in like I always do and today all ipod stuff is gone and it didn't charge.

I'm not sure what happened yet, but have seen post on here about it. I'll have to check into that.

[MileHighRob]

probably have to reauthorize your computer

[OJsakila]

don't forget QuickTime and bonjour if you elect to delete iTunes. A good free uninstaller is Revo Uninstaller.

[Dallas Phil]

Sometime soon I will be posting a new post about a week in the life of a crashed 3G iPhone, but in the meantime let me comment on backups. With the release of the 2.0 software and apps, Apple has changed the way the backup works. Currently, everything with the exection of your music is backed up. This means, contacts, calendar, and more importantly apps are all included in your backup. I am an apps junky, at least I am not on e-bay anymore, LOL, and I have probably 60 apps or so. Consequently the back up takes FOREVER for me. This also means that if you ever crash, trying to restore your phone from a backup takes even longer than it did to back it up in the first place. A restored backup for me takes over 6 hours. I have talked to Apple extensively about this and everyone I talked to agrees that it is a problem. I think that the backup should just back up your settings, preferences, etc, and then let you re-sync your apps, calendar, and contacts. These huge backups CAN get corrupted and can cause your life hell. Again, as soon as I get everything up and running again I will post my nightmare.

[FlwrPwer]

I have almost 500 songs on my 8 gig, a movie, 150 photos and 24 applications. All of my calendars and emails and stuff are sync'd through Mobile Me, so that doesn't happen with itunes, but my backups take 5 minutes or less.

I'm curious...what happens if the phone is plugged into a USB 1.1 port? Could this be the issue with long back ups?

I was plugging my iphone into a USB 1.1 Hub that was plugged into a USB 2.0 port and it was slower. I finally upgraded to USB 2.0 Hub which is plugged into a USB 2.0 port and the backup time has improved. But I never had a big problem with backup times in the first place.

Just curious, but could USB 1.1 be what is causing all the issues? I mean, I know most new computers come with USB 2.0, but what about older ones? I know this was a huge issue with the ipod when it first became available to windoze users.

Just a thought I had.

[jooley]

jooley, when you delete your backup files it does take quite a while for the first backup file to complete afterwards. once that is done the next ones should go much quicker. let the first one do its thing then add a free app and resync to see how long it takes. also you don't have to backup your itunes to dvd before you uninstall and reinstall... those purchases are tied into your account login and will be there once you sign back on. just FYI

FINALLY!!! I followed the instructions on Apple for uninstalling iTunes, downloaded the latest version and reinstalled. I connected my iPhone (after placing it in airplane mode) and 3 hours later it had completed back up and sync. Then I installed a free app, and started the sync again, the entire thing was completed in under 10 minutes. Yay!!!!!!