[hugh]

Starting a few days ago my iPad starting taking forever to back-up and sync. Click sync and often wait 30 or 40 minutes.

I updated to the new firmware yesterday hoping that might resolve the issue but set it to sync his morning and 15 minutes later its about 20% of the way through backing up.

Anybody else having similar problems?

 

[NeilN]

Yes, certain apps like The Elements have content that takes forever to back up. No idea why. I usually just hit the round "x" button during the backup phase to skip it.

 

[Bdub]

I actually use an app called "Back-off" to prevent iTunes from backing up my iPad. I was having the same issue.

 

[hugh]

Wow, just spent close to 25 minutes on Apple Forum reading pages of complaints about this.

Very frustrating. It's to a point that I am really souring on the device.

 

[notsure]

Hugh, maybe if enough people complain about it they will also give the iPad owners a free case.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[NeilN]

Is the backup issue the main irritation you have with the device? I've had mine for 7 weeks now and am still using it significantly more than I thought I would.

 

[hugh]

I love the device but I don't have that much time that I can wait an hour or 90 minutes to back-up and sync!

 

[NeilN]

Not to excuse Apple for what obviously is an issue, but if you don't feel the need to backup when you sync, clicking the little round x button skips the whole backup process.

 

[LeavingSC]

If you have apps like Zinio which have a lot of in-app downloaded content, it takes a long time. Hopefully Apple will fix this in future, I believe OS4 increased backup speed for iPhones so hopefully it will help for iPad, whenever it arrives.

For now I just cancel the backup most times and only let it go when I have the time to wait for it (overnight for example!)

 

[alpha7]

Back up for me is a breeze. I find it depends mostly on how many apps you've bought since you last sync'd because of course they have to copy themselves to iTunes. Maybe it's time to update the ol' Pentium I?

 

[NeilN]

The app syncing process is completely separate from the backup process. Watch the status messages when syncing.

 

[Wayne]

I agree Hugh the backup does take forever - the upside is that this is something that I only do on a very rare basis, less than once a month. But I am sure the Mr. Jobs will say that devices from RIM, Motorola, etc have the same issues ;-)

 

[JoeSoap]

But I am sure the Mr. Jobs will say that devices from RIM, Motorola, etc have the same issues

But first he'll say that you're backing it up wrong.

 

[Larry]

While on vacation I loaded 1300 pictures on my iPad, along with with the videos and apps already on the device. All in all I have over 40GB on my iPad.

I did a sync, which starts with a backup - this took 8 hours (my PC is a bit older and not all that fast). The actual sync only took only a few minutes.

Now I'm dreading the next time I need to sync.

 

[normancw]

While on vacation I loaded 1300 pictures on my iPad, along with with the videos and apps already on the device. All in all I have over 40GB on my iPad.

I did a sync, which starts with a backup - this took 8 hours (my PC is a bit older and not all that fast). The actual sync only took only a few minutes.

Now I'm dreading the next time I need to sync.

Does anyone know if the entire iPad backed up each time, or only the changes?

 

[Stilgar]

On the iPhones - extremely long backups usually suggest either a corrupt App or App database. I had to troll a couple support forums when my 3GS started taking several hours to backup. Restoring my phone to factory and reinstalling the Apps afterward cleared the problem right up. I imagine it would work for iPad as well.

 

[hugh]

Yeah Apple files and programs seem to get corrupted a lot!

My guess is the Apple back-up process just stinks. I can understand how the first back-up could take a while over USB but honestly an incremental back-up should take minutes at most.

If a file is corrupt - highly unlikely - then it should alert the user and provide some remedy so the back-up is only slow the one time. Next time, the file should be fixed and the backup run smooth.

 

[Larry]

Here are some ideas I got from the Apple forums on this subject:

Some utilities to monitor backup progress:

http://files.m4ko.de/applesync/

Also, an program to disable backups when Syncing (use with caution). If you transfer your purchased apps to iTunes, and have no 'iPad' only data, you should be fine with no backups.

http://techtrickz.com/gadget-and-mobile-phone/speeds-up-ipad-iphone-ipod-touch-sync-with-backoff/

I think the long backup times is due to the large files (or perhaps the large # of files) being backed up. Apparently, its not only the total size, but also the number of files which can affect backup times. The utilities above could help isolate where the time is being used.

 

[hugh]

IMO, turning off back-ups is wrong. Who wants to lose meta data or data?

 

[Larry]

You might want to backup once a month or whenever you choose to, rather than everytime you need to sync. Just an option.