I've seen many posts here about backups taking no time at all, and some saying they are taking a long time. I know why some are fast and some are not, it's a setting you chose when you first set up your iphone which does not normally pop up again. Here is my step by step guide to undoing what most of you with slow backups did and making your backups take about 90 seconds on average.

That's right, the actual backup only takes 90 seconds (if you haven't installed anything new since your last sync), the thing that's making everyone's backup take an hour plus is that your sending your crash reports to apple everytime you backup and apples servers are so inundated that you're having to wait for the crash reports to upload and it's taking forever. This is an option that you clicked on your very first sync that you will now undo.

Plug your iphone in so it shows up under "devices" on the left side of itunes. If it starts to sync stop it right away by clicking the x (top middle of itunes). Then go to devices click your iphone so the middle window displays the iphone info and uncheck the "automatically sync when this iphone is connected" you'll find it under the summary tab of your iphone if you're not already there.

Then unplug and re-plug your phone back in.

Now when the phone shows up under devices right click on it and a context menu will pop up, go to the bottom of this list and select "reset warnings"

Now click sync and a warning window will pop up which you probably flew by the first time you set up your phone. It is the source of your backup woes. It is the one saying apple would like to get your crash reports. Also it will have checked by default "don't show this warning again" which is why you never got a chance to undo your mistake of clicking yes last time.

UNCHECK the don't show this again, you want to see this warning window everytime you plug your phone in because you'll always want to click "DO NOT ALLOW." If you want to see why the backup takes so long then click the button where it says to show you the reports. I'll bet if your backups are taking a while this folder is just chock full of crash reports. Go ahead and empty it.

Now everytime you plug your phone in just keep selecting DO NOT SEND THE INFO TO APPLE. (please note the window will only show up if there are crash reports to be sent, so if you empty the crash report folder above then you won't see the warning window again until a new report is generated) I'll bet your backups go way faster from now on.

Also note, if you have a butload of new apps that you installed on your last sync the next backup will indeed take several minutes since this is all new data. (Remember itunes does a backup first then an install incase any of the new apps cause a major problem you'll have a backup from before you installed them. But this means the next time you plug your phone in is the first time your backup will include any apps from the last sync). For example if you sync now and you get a 90 second backup but then you install Brain Challenge (an almost 100 meg app) the your next backup will probably go up to 5 or 10 minutes since none of this is in the last backup. But that's still a far cry less than what many of you have been experiencing.

And when no new apps are installed the backup takes about 90 seconds now.

enjoy.

No offense but you should take into consideration all aspects of your recommendations before making recommendations for others that may end in disaster. The term "backup" is defined as "the procedure for making extra copies of data in case the original is lost or damaged". What you propose is not a short backup but seems like a complete circumvention of the whole process. From what I gather Apple has the apps installed on a phone store their settings and info internally in the package. If you don't have iTunes backup the entire app you may lose the information contained within. Do an experiment for me. Take a game and get some high scores or unlocked levels. Do your shortened "backup" procedure and then unhook your iPhone and delete the app in question. Now do a restore and tell me what happens to your personal data in that game? Losing data like that in a game may be inconsequential but before you purport to have a streamlined "backup" procedure you had better make sure it is still doing what it needs to be done because people may lose actual important data and blame you. Otherwise post your procedure as "a way to circumvent backup and speed up syncing" just don't mention it is a backup procedure.

This worked great for me!

I had to register just to say thanks.

This appears to work - thanks.

The only thing I could see that you are not sending is diagnostic crash data -- I don't think this circumvents any backup because my iTunes is still reporting that it made a backup.

The only thing I think it does is now prompts whether to send diagnostic information.

Also the option that you are un-checking is related to a menu box that in part say's "No personal information is included"

I did some screen shots and linked it back to the OP here

http://www.geardiary.com/2008/07/27...ple/#more-11087

I don't want to be a party pooper but I'm not sure this is such a great idea...

I'm admittedly new to Apple so I can't say with certainty how the crash data is used but after years of resolving firmware issues on Motorola handsets I would suspect that Apple is similar to Motorola on this issue. On iDen networks when a firmware update of a Motorola phone was executed crash reports stored in the phone were transmitted to the Motorola Technical Support Group. Similar to WEP on Microsoft Windows these reports translated DIRECTLY to future firmware updates which resolved most of the issues that the retail side heard complaints about every week.

The bottom line is that the more data received on a bug the faster the issue was addressed. There are hundreds of posts on this forum about how buggy the 2.0 software is. Help Apple help you and please don't stop sending these valuable reports. As updates are released the time it takes to connect to the crash report servers should diminish. Be patient and give Apple's software engineers the time to process all the data being received.

I'm a beta tester for Microsoft and every single teleconference or web conference the team leaders plead with people to set a policy on corporate PC's that prevents WEP (Windows Error Reporting) from being turned off. I've been told numerous times that service packs would be released twice as fast as they are if consumers and companies alike would stop disabling WEP.

Once again...This is just my 2 cents and I don't really know what kind of crash reports are sent from your iPhone to Apple when you backup but if they are anything like with other manufacturers maybe we should all think twice and do some more research before we disable the sending of this data.

Clearly you don't understand so I'll try to explain.

My method does NOTHING AT ALL to your backup data. It does not in any way alter what is backed up or what is stored on your computer. You are not only backing up part of the data as you suggest. It only stops the computer from sending application crash data to apple.
So with regards to your example YES the high scores would still be there.

For the Poster above. While I do agree the data may have some value, if it takes my sync from 2 minutes to 80 minutes then frankly I don't care how useful it is to them I don't have an hour plus to waste everytime I just want to instal a new app or make one change to my contacts. The bottom line is their implementation of this was piss poor. They very easily could have done the backup/sync first and allowed you disconnect your phone and then said "may we now send the data" which would be fine since I don't have to be stuck there waiting. The data is stored on your computer so there's no reason at all that it has to be sent while your phone is stuck tethered to it.

Please note, application crash data was NEVER SENT TO APPLE BEFORE, which is the soul reason why version 1.x syncs never took so long.

Interesting... I'll have to see how this works out later on.

Cool thanks I was gonna do screenshots but now I don't have to

No He did NOT Circumvent the whole process. What are you talking about?? If you want to CIRCUMVENT the Backup process, just go ahead and click the X button while it's doing the backup.

Basically, what the OP is trying to say is that during the "Backup" process of the iTunes, it is sending all the crash files to Apple server and at the same time, doing the backup from your phone. What he is eliminating here is the "sending" of crash file to Apple server.

Remember, if you want to circumvent the whole process, just click the x button. this process will still backup everything SANS sending the stupid crash report files (in which to my surprise, I have around 700+++ crash files )

My backups have never taken very long save the 1st one which was all of about 2 minutes.
I do send along crash reports to apple.
So not too sure why some are having long backups.

It's gonna depend on the # of apps the # of crashes and the time you sync. If you have few apps, few crashes and sync at a time the apple servers aren't busy you're update will fly by. If like one person posted they have 700+ crashes and apple happens to be busy with all the other crash reports it's getting then you'll have lost the iphone roulette game and be stuck waiting for over an hour like some people here have been.

Also, I highly recommend my method over the "hit x to stop the backup" because when you do that you run the risk of an impartial backup being stored on your computer which will corrupt things should you try to restore later.

Thanks! Worked perfectly.

Good info..Thanks.

I have tried this process a number of times. Each time I do it, after chosing sync after 'reset warnings', I don't get a box popping up where it gives me the option of sending/not sending diagnostic stuff to apple. I have stepped through this 5 times - never see the box. When I sync it goes right back to the long backups. Anyone else this isn't working for?