Why does the Iphone take so long to sync

[4SFORFUN]

I have the Ipod 80gb classic and it seems to sync very quickly, where the Iphone takes 3x as long to sync any video or apps. I would have thought it would sync more quickly since it is a flash drive vs hard drive. Just wondered if it took as long for others.

Additionly, when you take someones pic & link it to your contact list, does it take up much space. I would think that the Iphone would resize the pic to a very small resolution.

[dcuk7]

I've noticed when mine takes a while to sync its because its backing up my personal stuff before syncing. That's probably what's happening to you.

[spot1701]

Apart from the backing up or personal stuff (and now apps), transfer to flash drives is apparently slower than to hard disks.

[baruchin]

I've noticed that too.
My iPod classic syncs way too faster than my iPhone 3G.

Why is that? anyone?

[jhollington]

The sync times for actual media content should be comparable, but the problem is that the iPhone also needs to do a backup, and also sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks if you have those features enabled, all of which adds to the sync time.

The time for backups will also increase with the more third-party apps you have on the iPhone and the more you use them (since every time you save something in an app, even if it's just a game high score, iTunes will re-back-up all of that app's data).

You can view the progress of the iPhone sync at the top of your iTunes window, which should tell you what it's actually doing at any given point in the sync.

[sights0d]

I'm more concerned that it takes up to five or even eight minutes for Itunes to even recognize my iphone... but I kind of took care of that by switching off manual control.

[deftdrummer1]

In my experience I have noticed the iphone 3G to be a considerable amount faster when it comes to syncing than my first generation iphone. I don't know why exactly this is, but I love it.

And I have also noticed that flash based anything takes at least twice as long to transfer data than any hard drive based device I've owned.

[daihard]

The sync times for actual media content should be comparable, but the problem is that the iPhone also needs to do a backup, and also sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks if you have those features enabled, all of which adds to the sync time.

The time for backups will also increase with the more third-party apps you have on the iPhone and the more you use them (since every time you save something in an app, even if it's just a game high score, iTunes will re-back-up all of that app's data).

My concern is that the time it takes iTunes to "back up" my iPhone can take a prohibitively long time - possibly longer than 10 minutes, and that it doesn't seem to have anything to do with what's on my iPhone. I wonder if there's a way to disable the backup feature or control its behaviour so it will only be performed once a week, or something like that...?

[jhollington]

You can't disable or control it -- about the most that you can do is cancel it. Clicking the small "X" that appears to the right of the "Backing up iPhone" status message at the top of the iTunes window will skip the backup, but still allow the rest of the sync to proceed.

Note as well that iTunes only backs up the iPhone during the first sync each time you connect your iPhone to iTunes. So pressing the "Sync" button to subsequently sync the iPhone will not back it up -- even if you skipped the previous backup. You would have to disconnect and reconnect the iPhone for it to run another backup.

Another option is to disable automatic syncing for your iPhone. This way it won't back up when you first plug it in -- you'll have to press the "Sync" button manually. It will still back up one the first sync after connection, but if you're monitoring that you can cancel it.

Then again, if you're not monitoring it, you probably don't care how long it takes... ;)

[daihard]

Note as well that iTunes only backs up the iPhone during the first sync each time you connect your iPhone to iTunes. So pressing the "Sync" button to subsequently sync the iPhone will not back it up -- even if you skipped the previous backup. You would have to disconnect and reconnect the iPhone for it to run another backup.
Hi Jesse.

That seems to depend upon how soon you kill the initial backup. I just did that, but when I hit "Sync" again, iTunes started backing up my iPhone all over. The only thing I can think of is that I updated a few AppStore applications on the iPhone before I connected it to iTunes. I wonder if iTunes detects a "critical" condition like that and forces a backup until it's been done in cases like that?

[TheMBC]

Yeah, it's incredibly annoying how long the backup is...there should be a feature were it prompts us if we want to back up...or we can tell it to backup every other day or once a week. Imagine if you wanted to add a song or two and you're in a hurry, but you have to go through this backup process!

[daihard]

Yeah, it's incredibly annoying how long the backup is...there should be a feature were it prompts us if we want to back up...or we can tell it to backup every other day or once a week. Imagine if you wanted to add a song or two and you're in a hurry, but you have to go through this backup process!
No kidding... Well at least like Jesse told us we can cancel the backup operation by clicking the x button to the right of the progress bar on iTunes.

[santiagodraco]

Figured this is as good a place as any to rant on this subject.

It's bad enough that backups take HOURS (on any version of 3g firmware I've installed) but initial app installs taking 1-2+ hours? That's just nuts.

I have a total of 43 apps in my iTunes application list. Certainly not a "huge amount" but also, considering the size of the apps themselves, nothing to justify taking 1-2 hours simply to place those apps back on the device after a rebuild (I won't bother going into rebuild pain now).

In light of all the other issues that seem to have higher visibility (dropped calls, spotty crappy 3g performance and the like) I think this is another serious issue that needs attention.

I'm sure many of you have used Palm Treo's, Blackberry's or other similar PDAs in the past, and have you ever experienced even 1/10th of the kind of backup/restore/sync times that you see on the iPhone? I doubt if it's even close.

I have to ask, what's wrong with Apple's dev teams? How about QA? How is it possible to release a product that performs like this without someone inside saying "WTF?"

Jobs, did you EVER bother to really use one of your phones?

Rant off ;D

[lgonse]

I just updated four apps and added one. The one I added was an outrageous 144MB! I thought it was a typo, but now I believe it. One of the updates that hasn't been completely synched is 10MB.

My iPhone is sitting in its dock attached to my computer and all I see is Sync in Progress. A couple of times, I have undocked the iPhone in order to use it. I was thinking that it would start up where it left off. But, maybe it is going through the whole synching process again?

There is no status bar at the top of the iTunes window to see the progress of the synchronization as someone suggested. The iPhone window doesn't appear because the device doesn't appear while the synch is in effect. In fact, the iPhone no longer shows up in iTunes as a device. It appears when it is first plugged in to the dock, but after I click to Apply the updates the device disappears from the list on the left. I only see the iTunes store window.

One drawback is not being able to synch just one app. I have about 40 apps on the iPhone. If you don't select the ones you want to keep, they are removed! Yet, my iPhone shows only four apps that needed to be updated and resynched. Any way I can just synch the upgrades?