How To: Backup your iPhone with iTunes
February 17, 2008 – 8:16 pmYet another how to post. FWIW, I write these posts largely so I can reference them later. I hate searching around the intarwebz to find some obscure piece of info only to have to do it again 3 months later.
Moving on, should you, enterprising reader, want to backup all your iPhone data before jailbreaking said iPhone or something, read on.
Short version: Delete your iPhone backup then Sync. This will force iTunes to create a new backup.
Long version (meant for OS X but Windows users should be able to figure out the differences):
- Open iTunes
- Go to Preferences
- Choose the syncing option
- Remove the iPhone backup
- Press OK and exit Preferences
- Sync your iPhone
Thats it. You now have a fresh backup of your iPhone. Have fun.




3 Responses to “How To: Backup your iPhone with iTunes”
I had to also unplug the iPhone then re-plug it in. Then THAT sync did the backup.
By Tom on Feb 18, 2008
I want to backup because I need a new iPhone. I don’t want it to sync with my outlook though. Can I sync/backup without it writing or reading from my outlook?
By Jessica on May 14, 2008
Backup worked like a charm after unplug/replug sync.
By Kel on Jun 12, 2008