Upgrading OS From 4.01 on IPhone 4

[ADDither]

I'm having problems updating my wife's iPhone 4 - for some reason I cannot backup her 9gigs of photos & videos she has either through iTunes backup (which runs indefinitely) or directly through Windows picture manager (we have a Windows xp base computer) - the pictures copy but not the videos.

For her, upgrading by deleting her videos is not an option.

The phone's disk space is 16g and is not maxed out.

Any thoughts that can help us?

Thanks

[Sparkee]

Are these videos taken with the iPhone's camera or videos stored in the Movies/TV media section of the iPhone?

[ADDither]

They're just small clips taken by the iPhone

[Sparkee]

You should be able to copy the video using the same methods as photos. I suspect Windows picture manager doesn't support the video files so they don't appear, I am not a Windows user. If the the iPhone shows up in My Computer when you connect it to the computer you should be able to copy them over that way. Alternatively you could also use a better supported photo management program which may see the videos as well. Give Google's Picasa a try, it work well for me when I was using Windows computers.

It is possible the files will be OK through the upgrade, but it is best to get them backed up first. Besides they are highly vulnerable if your only copy is on the iPhone.

[ADDither]

Great! I didn't think of that. Will try it.

Thanks

[ADDither]

Ok - through opening up files in 'my computer' I was able to copy photo & video files by dragging into a folder.

But then going to iTunes & pressing 'update OS' it starts its own backup process which shows the 'backing up iPhone' window indefinitely. This is frustrating to say the least

Perhaps I need to do a full reboot - then proceed to installing new OS?

[rockmyplimsoul]

Since she has 9 GB of pictures and videos, the backup process will take a very long time to complete, so that would be expected. Music and purchased videos are not part of a backup, nor are pictures that you sync to your device from your computer, but pictures and videos in the iPhone's "Camera Roll" are part of the backup. However, I would not rely solely on that backup so extracting these items was the right thing to do (and should be done routinely, not just at iOS updates).

[Sparkee]

Once you ensure these photos and videos are all backed up on the computer (including another copy on an external drive) I would erase them from the camera roll. This would speed up the back up process. The back up is nice since once the new software is installed the iPhone will have all the same settings as the old one.

The Camera Roll should be considered a temporary place for your new photos. I don't think it was really design to store all your photos. Get them off as soon as practicable once you have taken them. Organize them in folders or photo albums with software on your computer and sync them back to the iPod through iTunes. The main photos should live on the computer, and your external back up drive.

[ADDither]

Thanks again - that makes sense. Now to convince my wife that her phone is a temporary storage for her photos & videos (she has over 2,000 photos of grand children lol) )

[Sparkee]

It is not uncommon for people to lose all their photos. Music can be bought again however the photos of the grandchildren are irreplaceable. This is why a good back up routine with at least 2 copies on separate devices is very important. iPods and iPhones can easily become corrupted or lost which in my opinion makes them too vulnerable to house even one copy of a back up.

I can give you countless examples of people I know who lost irreplaceable photos just because they only had one copy. I'm not in the business nor am I an expert, I'm just the neighborhood geek helping folks out. Yet I see people losing their digital files all the time just because they didn't take the time to get an external drive or two for a good back up routine.

[ADDither]

I backed them all up on two hard drives, deleted them from phone, updated the OS, and restored photos back on them (minus the SEVENTY TWO VIDEOS - per wife's instructions lol) - so all is well ! Thanks again for your help