[griffman]

Yep, same here. As noted in the article, it's seemingly random. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes ten minutes, never a few seconds ... and apparently independent of any app purchase behavior (on the iPhone or via iTunes).

-rob.

[bgg71]

I've been syncing (backing up in fact) my iphone 1 from 3:30pm PDT and is 5:17 pm PDT now. It is not even 1/2 through. It ha snever happened to take more than 5-10 min with the old software. I simply can't wait any
longer. Apple, are you reading this? Should I get a balckberry instead?

[SheLivesRed]

bgg71 said:

I've been syncing (backing up in fact) my iphone 1 from 3:30pm PDT and is 5:17 pm PDT now. It is not even 1/2 through. It ha snever happened to take more than 5-10 min with the old software. I simply can't wait any
longer. Apple, are you reading this? Should I get a balckberry instead?

I decided to test the theory of 'it only does it when you have new apps on the phone". Problem is, my experiment can't get underway because it's been backing up (to get everything in sync) for the last 90 minutes. This is very frustrating for me. This new 'feature' is only going to have the negative effect of discouraging regular syncs. And then when people lose their data, their gonna be even more bitter with apple. Updat 2.0.1 can't come soon enough. I'm hoping they'll fix it then. Because i won't always remember to hit the X when i set it up to do a 'quick' sync while i run of an do something. Then i'll come back, and have wasted my time. Can you tell i'm frustrated. I wish i were one of the lucky ones who had to wait 'only' 5 minutes.



For the record, i do have a boatload of apps installed, about 50. But isn't that what Apple want's, for people to use the app store. What good are they doing me if they aren't on the phone. And especially in these early stages, while you decide which one of the million (insert app here) does the job best for you. For example, i've already bought 4 Shopping List Apps, and i'm using them all in tandem to see which suits my needs best. With this whole sync/backup debacle, make me want to datch all but the really essential. And worse, it makes me not want to add anymore. Come on Apple, we're waiting for the fix to your new "feature"...

[SheLivesRed]

RonAnnArbor said:

Hmm...a few thoughts....first, the backup is for the apps themselves -- it only takes a long time the first time you do it and then a few seconds thereafter...

It takes 10 times as long to do a backup if you purchase your apps over WIFI rather than directly on your iTunes on your desktop, since it has to backup the entire program, not just your settings. Don't do it if you don't want to wait -

Also, it takes several minutes to backup every new program -- don't add 10 at the same time.

And finally -- if you really don't care about the settings for your games and the levels you achieve, just touch the X next to the bar and it will skip ahead to the sync as usual. If you purchased your games etc via iTunes rather than the App Store wirelessly, all your games are safe on your computer and will reinstall if you have to do a backup.

Unfortunatelty, i think you are VERY wrong. I did my first sync, icluding transfering new app from the phone to the MacBook, and it took a whopping 131 minutes. Then i disconnected the phone, and reconnected it without changing anything, without even using it.The second sync took over 30 minutes. Obviously it's doing more than you seem to think. Again, for the record, i do have a whopping 50+ apps. But like i said, for that second sync, i did not do ANYTHING with the phone.

After the second (30+ minute) sync, i set it to sync again, this time without disconnecting the iPhone. Thanksfully, this one only took 25 seconds or less. I'm not sure what the real deal is with these backups, but they'll continue to be a problem, regardless of whether or not you've added programs to the phone.

[louielu12]

I think I found a solution!!
In iTunes preferences (iTunes>Preferences or Command+,), click the syncing tab, then click the checkbox "Disable automatic syncing for all iPhones and iPods"
This seems like a good solution to me.

[railrider]

The local backups go in your user account folder at:
/Library/Application Support/Mobile Sync/Backup
Mine is only 64MB, but there's 1700 files in there!
I think you can turn backups off in iTunes prefs. It's on the last tab, but I don't want to hook up my iPod right now lest I need to play that lottery.

[Eytan]

I too am seeing INCREDIBLY long waits, over an hour usually. It seems to have gone up the more programs I install. SInce I am a Podcast addict, I use the iPhone for that. I used to be able to use the iPhone in my bedroom as my alarm, and then plug it in and sync before I go to work Now I don't have enough time to sync before I go to work without just canceling out on the backup. Apple has a LOT of bugs to fix for 2.0.1......

[People_Eater]

Yep, I'm getting this same behavior on my iPhone 3G. And (to MacGod), I don't think it's backing up music and movies at all - they are already kept in the iTunes library. And I was getting excrutiating 15-20 backups, when I had no music or videos at all stored on the iPhone. That's right, it was brand new out of the box, no music library, and I had installed maybe 5 applications from the store. So, my basically empty iPhone was taking an eternity to back up.
I just want to know what the heck it's actually doing during that process. It can't be transferring data, because my device didn't have that much data on it, and syncing a substantial portion of my music library was much quicker.
To suisunca: I don't really care what problems people have with their gadgets on Windows. That doesn't make this any more acceptable. I've always been a Mac user, so why should I compare my experience to Windows? I compare my experience to what I expect from Apple, not Microsoft.

[People_Eater]

I just checked my iPhone's contents:
Music: 5.37 GB
Video: 681.8 MB
Other: 616.7 MB
Free space: 8 GB
The approximately 6GB of music and video takes very little time to copy across.
But the 616.7 MB of "other" takes forever to back up. This is what I assume is being backed up - applications, the Operating System, etc.

[TAllenSr]

It's NOT a Pocket Book...it's a EUROPEAN CARRY-ALL.

:D

[sheilanolan]

I've noticed this variable time as well. The longest on was when I realised that syncing with my calenders, mail and contacts wasn't selected. I found the easiest solution was to cancel the backup/sync and then do it manually.

[whshep]

My iPhone says "Syncing" for five minutes even before it gets to the progress bar. Then it takes two hours or so to backup—except the backup doesn't finish at all now. I've tried three times since yesterday, but I have nothing but the backup from the day before.
When I had to restore iPhone because all third party apps were crashing, none of the third party apps nor their data were restored from the backup. So basically all that backing up was a waste of time.
Unchecking "automatically sync" has no effect. I usually just hit the cancel button once I see the progress bar, and it moves on to sync contacts etc.
If there were a way of permanently disabling the backup, I'd do it. I don't see the point of it—if the system crashes, the data is probably corrupt anyway. And it doesn't work.

[cmderive]

Sync is now wireless for the PIM apps? Did I miss something here? I know you get Push data over the network with MobileMe or Exchange, but how do I perform a wireless sync? Thanks!

[pdmarsh]

I have a .Mac/MobileMe account. Whenever I make a change to Contacts, Calendar, or Bookmarks on my iPhone it automatically pushes them up to the Mobileme cloud. My Desktop Macs sync on their regular schedule, acquiring those iPhone changes at the next sync. Similarly, if I make a change on a Desktop Mac to iCal, Address Book, or Safari Bookmarks, click on on Sync Now (I checked the box in MobileMe/Sync/Show Status in Menu Bar to display the icon in the top Menu Bar), it pushes the changes immediately to my iPhone via the MobileMe cloud.

It does not wirelessly sync music, photos, videos, other stuff. So, if I want to add those extra items to my iPhone, I DO have to plug in to my Mac, and sync them over the USB connection. However, I seldom change my iPhone's music, so wirelessly syncing my iPhones daily used stuff (contacts, calendar events, bookmark changes) means I now just pop my iPhone nightly into a charging dock.

On my iPhone I have Settings/Fetch New Data set to Push. It works perfectly for me.