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Backing up takes a long time

B

bastband

macrumors member
Original poster
May 4, 2010
33
0
When I attach my iPad to iTunes it goes to back up and takes a very, very long time to do it.
Can I alter any settings to cut this time down or am I doing something wrong,
Any help appreciated.
 
bastband said:
When I attach my iPad to iTunes it goes to back up and takes a very, very long time to do it.
Can I alter any settings to cut this time down or am I doing something wrong,
Any help appreciated.
Click to expand...

Happened to me too. For the record I use Windows 7. Found a program that turns the backup off and on whenever I want to, so I skip the backup most of the time.

http://microseconds.com/?page_id=395
 
Interesting. It is supposed to be Vista compatible. Was iTunes closed when you ran the program? Did you run it as Administrator?
 
Backups are Good

You folks may not want to skip that backup. Too many times to count my iPhone has had to be restored to factory settings because an update failed. If I had not had a back-up I would have had to totally re-sync everything that was on it.
 
The backup does not include music or other media, so in the event of a restore those would have to be resynced regardless. What is backed up is a lot of other stuff which, truth be told, in my case, would not be that big a deal to start from scratch. I don't do im or SMS, and my bookmarks are all synched with Xmarks. On the iPhone i understand, but on the iPad for ME the backup is more of a nuisance than it is a critical part of my usage pattern

YMMV. :)
 
My Just received (yesterday) 64GB 3G - Nearly FULL (6GIG left) takes over 3 hours to backup --- Similar time that it takes to backup my non Wifi64. Gotta Love I-Tunes!

ZBoater said:
The backup does not include music or other media, so in the event of a restore those would have to be resynced regardless. What is backed up is a lot of other stuff which, truth be told, in my case, would not be that big a deal to start from scratch. I don't do im or SMS, and my bookmarks are all synched with Xmarks. On the iPhone i understand, but on the iPad for ME the backup is more of a nuisance than it is a critical part of my usage pattern

YMMV. :)
Click to expand...
 
There must be something goofy going on. According to this


http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

"Although iTunes backs up most of your device's settings, downloaded applications, your audio, video, and photo content are not included in the backup.

If restoring from an iTunes backup, your device settings, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo contents will re-sync to the device because the "Sync" option under the respective tabs will be checked in iTunes when restoring from a backup."

So what could possible be taking 3 hours is a mystery to me. I Googled it and found some references to app conflicts, corruption issues, etc. I saw some suggestions that reinstalling iTunes helped some people.
 
Eh, I just sent them a profanity filled message via the feedback page. Not too mature on my part, but it was a bad day at work and I needed to give someone feedback on it :D
 
Further to this question, I have looked in my Mobile Applications folder and there are some applications in there that have been deleted from my iPad but are still listed, is it safe to delete them?
 
Strange my backups never take more than a minute. Can't see why yours or others are taking so long.
 
In my experience with both the iPhone and the iPad, the only time a backup can take so long, is when you've recently added a ton of data to a 3rd party app(GoodReader for example). When you do that and backup for the first time, it can take a couple of hours to backup. After that, it's a lot quicker. ;)
 
The initial backup will take time, after that it should be shorter, very quick if you sync often, not as quick if you do not sync so often.
 
sdsvtdriver said:
this happened with the iphone too

reset warnings and stop sending diag info to apple
Click to expand...

+1 for this. This was a notorious problem early on with iPhones as well. As suggested by sdsvtdriver, right click on your iPad in iTunes, reset the warnings and when the pop up box asks if you want to sent info to Apple, click don't send. I previously had a 64 GB wifi that was nearly full and my current 32 GB 3G is also nearly full and my backups take maybe 30 seconds.
 
I never send my info to Apple. I tried to reset the warnings again and it still takes forever. Uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled, still took forever.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it gets updated soon.
 
I'm amazed that as per some of the above responses, people are experiencing super short backup times. Mine just drags on. I tried restoring the iPad, but that didn't help anything.
 
ngenerator said:
I never send my info to Apple. I tried to reset the warnings again and it still takes forever. Uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled, still took forever.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it gets updated soon.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple felt it was a Windows problem an no fix is forthcoming. Like the iTunes fonts when you change the dpi on the screen. iTunes is the ONLY app I have that can't handle this and cuts off the text on all the prompts.

Again, surely it is Windows' fault. (sigh). :rolleyes:
 
Click that little "x" on the right of the status (where it tells you it is "Backing up...") to skip it for that session.

I suggest that you skip it only if you are in a hurry or very impatient.
 
ZBoater said:
The backup does not include music or other media, so in the event of a restore those would have to be resynced regardless. What is backed up is a lot of other stuff which, truth be told, in my case, would not be that big a deal to start from scratch. I don't do im or SMS, and my bookmarks are all synched with Xmarks. On the iPhone i understand, but on the iPad for ME the backup is more of a nuisance than it is a critical part of my usage pattern

YMMV. :)
Click to expand...
can i have a link for xmarks? also is it for mac?
 
ZBoater said:
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple felt it was a Windows problem an no fix is forthcoming. Like the iTunes fonts when you change the dpi on the screen. iTunes is the ONLY app I have that can't handle this and cuts off the text on all the prompts.

Again, surely it is Windows' fault. (sigh). :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Ahh, I didn't even think about that, derr! My bad, I should have assumed. GD Windows 7! :)
 
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