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iPad Pro Handing sync if you have a lot of data on your iPad
- Thread starter sza
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I use the cloud nightly but still do encrypted backups via iTunes.
As far as it taking a long time . . . . you do not have to sit there and watch it. Go do something and it will backup just fine without you watching. If the stuff is really important to you, I would not just depend on the Cloud.
As far as it taking a long time . . . . you do not have to sit there and watch it. Go do something and it will backup just fine without you watching. If the stuff is really important to you, I would not just depend on the Cloud.
iTunes backup on mine is only ~10-20GB, iirc. The rest are comiXology, Plex, Amazon Prime and iTunes video downloads.
To expand on the other answers, your iPad doesn't have to transfer 512GB to sync. Only things that have changed have to be transferred and that will always be much less than the size of your storage. Not only that, it's automatic, and happens without requiring your time or attention.
Note that sync to iTunes with the right cable on the 2018 iPad can run at 10Gbps; so backup of even a lot of data is very fast in that scenario.
Nope. That would mean managing content all the time. Not my idea of fun and I'd find it way too inconvenient.
That number also doesn't include any actual apps. Made the mistake of getting the 16GB model once (my iPad backups were like 1-2GB back then) and there were a number of times I wanted to throw the iPad against the wall in frustration because I couldn't update apps or download any content until I delete something (which I just end up redownloading again later).
I do have LTE on my iPad but network is so congested here I'm lucky if I get 5Mbps. That might be fine for streaming video (even 1080p) but it's too slow when you're waiting on a 200MB - 2GB download to actually finish (and hoping and wishing and praying the connection doesn't crap out during download else it might need to start all over).
Besides, to get unlimited data, I'd need to spend $80 more per month. Over one year, that's already $960 and over the course of two years, that's $1,920.
I backup to iCloud, and backup photos to Dropbox. My iCloud backups are small. The photo backups to Dropbox are a pain, but I’m just patient with it (iCloud photo backup doesn’t work for my workflow). Most everything on my iPad is downloaded from a service, and it’s backed up on that service so there’s no need for me to do anything more.
It's not going to sync 512 GB every time it back up via iTunes. Get the initial sync done and it's not a big deal.
This is one of the painful things about the iOS system and it is finally fixed now with the 2018 iPad Pro which has 10Gbps transfer speeds over USB-C. Before now it was:
- originally iOS syncing has been restricted to USB 2 speed for years. I was baffled that Apple released "lightning" in 2012 at roughly the same time that USB 3 was becoming widely used, but Lightning was restricted to USB 2 speeds.
- then finally the 2015 iPad Pro was the first iPad to allow USB 3 capable sync speeds. I think it got the capability with the iOS 10 update in 2016. But fast sync was only possible using the lightning to USB-C cable. Not even helpful unless you had a brand new 2016 Mac or newer (or equivalent PC). I think some of the newer iPhones also can do faster transfers this way now.
- backing up the old iPad with a standard USB lightning cable took 3 hours for a 180GB iTunes backup
- restoring the same 180GB backup to the new iPad took 35 minutes. I had to use a USB-C to USB 3 cable from Amazon because the included new iPad cable is only USB-C.