iPhone 101: Speedier iPhone backups, three ways

Since the introduction of the App Store, the iPhone and iPod touch backup procedure has become quite time-consuming. The Panama Canal was constructed in less time. Fortunately, the impatient can speed up (or kill) the process in one of three ways.

The first is the simplest. When the backup begins, simply click the small "x" that appears in iTunes' main window. This will halt the backup but continue the sync, so those new podcasts you've downloaded will get transferred.

The second procedure is a bit more involved. Open a Terminal window and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true

That will kill the backup procedure until you enable it again by typing

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

Just be aware that this method also kills SMS message backups.

Those of you uncomfortable with Terminal can use this tiny application which essentially runs the commands above at the click of a button.

Finally, you can follow the steps outlined at iPhoneFreak that involve disabling the option to send diagnostic information to Apple at sync.

So there you have it -- three ways to make your backup procedure more pleasant. If you need to recover files from a backup, you can use the mdhelper application, written by our own Erica Sadun.

Update: The DisableBackup application in method #2 above has been updated to take advantage of a new feature of iTunes 7.7.1. Details here.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/category/iphone-101/

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Since the introduction of the App Store, the iPhone and iPod touch backup procedure has become quite time-consuming. The Panama Canal was...

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moonmen

The last instruction you gave doesn't work and the first two were dumb...some apps cause the long backups, period. Whether it is the apps fault or itunes is up for debate...

August 05 2008 at 6:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

apple.doesntexist.com has a utility for Mac only that allows you to disable and reenable backups, the tool listed does only one of these things? I only assume I havent used it.

August 05 2008 at 2:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Biffo

More sound and clearly thought out advice from TUAW.

You guys are about as reliable as Apple at the moment, and that's nothing to be proud of.

August 05 2008 at 1:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Josh

Caution:
"simply click the small "x" that appears in iTunes' main window."

This is known to cause corruption in your previous backup leaving you with no backup at all. The latest iTunes may have fixed this but I haven't checked.

August 05 2008 at 12:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

rhanley315

Be careful when you "skip" those backups; One time when I was having problems with the audio I did a restore to find out that my backups where corrupted, I had to start from scratch :(

August 05 2008 at 12:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Fred

Not to be funny, shouldn't this be listed as iPhone 201? Seriously, anything in Terminal should be considered mildly advanced (compared to the average user) and anything involving changing the way your iPhone backs things up is definitely advanced.

August 05 2008 at 11:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cahya

Thanks.

August 05 2008 at 11:48 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris

I was actually looking for the "speedier three ways" part of the article. Where is it?

August 05 2008 at 11:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bjoggi

WTH?

This article is horrible. Take away "Speedier" and replace it with "Disable".

Or just upgrade your phone to 2.0.1..

August 05 2008 at 10:41 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex Oughton

Or, for the sensible:

Just upgrade your iPhone to 2.0.1. My backups fly now!