I'd like to hear what others are doing with their iTunes Backup. Some time ago, since I installed SSD's in my MBP, I disabled iTunes Backup in the Terminal as I didn't want all the unnecessary writing to the drive. I figure if I am doing clones on a regular basis, iTune's automatic backup at each Sync is unnecessary. Would others agree on this? To Restore my device, isn't the iTunes folder in my Clone on an external drive sufficient?
With that, what other methods are there to disable iTunes backups other than through Terminal or just clicking the X when iTunes starts backing up?
I'm not sure if this quote is accurate about iTunes Backups. My backup folder is over 4GB in size:
"The backup folder stores everything other than the actual apps and other media (contact info, calendar info, settings, app settings, etc.). That's why it's so small. All your actual apps and media (music, videos, etc.) are stored in ~/Music/iTunes and ~/Movies."
Last edited by csonni; Apr 24th, 2012 at 10:21 AM.
That quote is accurate. For me I find my camera roll tends to be the biggest offender. But apps that edit video and or photos also tend to take up a chunk of space for saving these. Games generally don't take much in terms of the saves themselves though the apps can be quite large. You can check how much space individual apps are using to store their documents on device: settings -> general -> usage -> app in question.
As for your concerns about the backups, by disabling them you will not be able to fully restore a device, you will lose all app data and settings, your camera roll, device settings, and anything on device not being synced wirelessly (bookmarks, notes etc).
With ios 5 you can use iCloud to back all that stuff up, and with 5 gb free you shouldn't have issues with space, I pay extra as the combination of an iPhone backup and iPad backup takes more than 5gb. The downside to iCloud is it uses Internet bandwidth, so if your usage is limited that could be a problem, and the initial backup could take a long time to complete though future backups are quick and automatic. Mine generally happen overnight as that's when I leave the phone plugged on to charge.
So manually copying the iTunes folder won't include what the iTunes backup does?
As far as the Cloud goes, I'm having a hard time with trust there. It sure would take a long time to Restore the device through the Cloud. I always have favoured using the dock connector.
Another thought- is there any way to change the place where iTunes backs up to. such as an external drive? You know what? I think I remember this discussion some time ago in one of my threads.
Yes, manually syncing/copying over will only get you what is not stored in the backups (movies, music, apps(without data)), I'm pretty sure there is a way to change where iTunes stores backups, I'm not sure what it is off the top of my head but I know there was a guide online for changing the media library location, so I assume there is one for changing the backups location.
I successfully changed my backup folder location. On my iPod right now so can't remember exactly how to off hand. Try a search here, that's where I found out how. I think it had something to do with changing your idevce backup folder in your library to an alias of a same named folder on an external drive. Worked for me. Mine seems to continually grow. I usually delete it in iTunes once it hits 10 G and start over.
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2.66 x 4 Intel Mac Pro, 4G RAM, 160G System 500G Scratch, Media, 320G Photo Capture, 320G Video Capture. 733 Quicksilver 1G Ram 120G system 60G backup 160G and 200G capture.
This is what I am typing: ln -s /Volumes/Misc 3.5/IOS Backup/ ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
I just copied the command from the instructions and entered the name of my external volume (Misc 3.5) in place of their "External." Should I not be typing in "Volume?"
The "Misc 3.5" is actually one of 3 partitions I have created on my external drive. Could this be the problem?
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