Why is my iPhone backup taking forever?

I’ve been backing up my iPhone for what feels like forever now. Started it last night and it’s still going. Is this normal? I know iCloud backups can be slow, but this seems extreme. Has anyone had a similar issue? How did you make it go faster?

Yeah, I’ve had this problem too. It’s usually because of a lot of big files, like photos or videos. If your internet connection is slow or unstable, that can make it take even longer. Have you tried backing up using iTunes on your computer instead of iCloud? It’s usually faster.

@Lyle
I haven’t tried iTunes yet, but I’ll give that a go. My internet connection should be fine, but maybe it’s slower than I thought. Thanks for the tip!

Shawn said:
@Lyle
I haven’t tried iTunes yet, but I’ll give that a go. My internet connection should be fine, but maybe it’s slower than I thought. Thanks for the tip!

Using iTunes should definitely speed things up since you’re not relying on the internet. It’s all stored locally on your computer, so as long as you have enough space, the backup should be faster.

@Hadi
That’s good to know. I’ve got plenty of space on my computer, so I’ll try this later. Hopefully, it works better than iCloud!

I had the same issue a while back. Turns out I had a lot of large apps and media files like photos and videos. That can slow down your backup. I went into my iCloud settings and turned off the backup for apps that were using a lot of space but weren’t really necessary. It helped a lot.

@Hayden
That’s a good idea! I’ll check my settings and turn off backups for apps I don’t need. Hopefully, that speeds things up.

Shawn said:
@Hayden
That’s a good idea! I’ll check my settings and turn off backups for apps I don’t need. Hopefully, that speeds things up.

Also, make sure you’ve cleared out any old data or apps you no longer use. That can free up space and reduce the backup size.

If this is your first backup, it’s always going to take longer because it’s backing up everything for the first time. After that, future backups should be much faster since it’ll only back up new or changed data. Just hang in there!

@Sloane
Exactly! My first backup took hours, but now it only takes a few minutes. It’s a pain, but you only have to go through it once.

I found that my backup was slow because of my internet connection. I switched to a faster Wi-Fi network and it went much quicker. It’s worth checking if your connection is stable and fast enough.

SignalSeeker said:
I found that my backup was slow because of my internet connection. I switched to a faster Wi-Fi network and it went much quicker. It’s worth checking if your connection is stable and fast enough.

My Wi-Fi is decent, but I’ll try resetting it to see if that helps. I didn’t think of that before!

If you’ve got lots of photos and videos, that can really slow things down. Try removing old files you don’t need anymore. That helped speed up my backup when I had the same issue.

I switched to using an app called EaseUS MobiMover. It backs up everything from your phone much faster than iCloud or iTunes, especially if you’ve got a lot of media files. Might be worth checking out if you’re in a hurry.

Another solution is to back up your iPhone more frequently. If this is your first backup in a while, it’s going to take longer. But if you back up regularly, it will be much faster next time since it only backs up what’s changed.

Make sure you’re not backing up unnecessary large apps or data. You can go into your iCloud settings and turn off backup for apps that don’t really need it, like games or other large apps.

Ellison said:
Make sure you’re not backing up unnecessary large apps or data. You can go into your iCloud settings and turn off backup for apps that don’t really need it, like games or other large apps.

I didn’t realize you could turn off backups for certain apps. That’s super helpful! I’m going to do that right now.

Also, try turning off your iCloud backups for things you don’t need to save. For example, I turned off the backup for large games and some apps I barely use. It made a big difference in how long the backup took.