Forcing iTunes to perform a complete iPhone Backup

Is there a way to force iTunes to perform a complete backup of my iPhone?
I have has some anomalies regarding the data on iTunes vs. the data on my iPhone.
I want my data on the phone backed up completely.
Thanks in advance.
Frank
iTunes 10.4, Mac OS X (10.6.8), iPhone 4

Delete the existing backup at iTunes > Preferences under the Devices tab.
Control-click on your iPhone under Devices in the iTunes source list and at the menu window that appears, select Back Up.

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Windows 8.1 and iTunes 11.1.4.62 iPhone Backup Lost

I synced my iPhone 4 yesterday, then reset it to factory settings. I have done this several times, and everytime I am able to restore my iPhone from backup. However, that was on Windows 7 and earlier iTunes versions. This time, with Windows 8.1 and iTunes 11.1.4.62, I wasn't able to restore from backup. It does not show my phone's name when I click Restore Backup, and I can't find the previous backup anywhere on my hard drive. Please help!

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.
Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.
tt2

Why can't iTunes find all of my iPhone backups?

This has happened to me a few times, but the story is this: I back up my phone to my computer and yet when I then wipe the phone and try to restore from backup, iTunes cannot find the backup. I have an iPhone 5 and a mid-2012 Macbook Pro with Retina Display. The list of backups in Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup includes the backup I want to use, but iTunes just doesn't see it. This is what the Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder has in it:
3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00
3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00-20130918-161854
3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00-20130918-162244
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3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00-20140320-131702
3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00-20140508-191124
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3d91fca9e1ef559f5fd5ac236fda1f9bbd68bb00-20140916-161645
I am trying to restore from today's backup (20140916-153119) from before I restored my phone. The second one from today (20140916-161645) is from after I wiped the phone. Unfortunately, iTunes gives me the option to restore from every backup in this list except for the one I want. Why is this happening and how can I get iTunes to see my backup?

HI THanks for this helpful post. I will try this. I have 2 iPods. One is 3rd Gen. I love the little small square, so I bought it on ebay. Then I got a little iPod nano ( again a tiny square shape)
So I tried to sync them today and update them.
This is the response I got.
I get a message that the original file cannot be found and asks if I want to try and locate file. I locate the file and it's empty?!
This freaked me out because I have all this music I love. The only thumb drive is my back up drive which is not a thumb. Will the back up drive have my music files too?
Thanks-Peace Out

Uninstall then Reinstall itunes--Will I lose my iphone backup files?

My "other" capacity on my iphone ballooned to 8.88GB's (a currupt file I guess).
To fix it, I sync'ed my iphone with itunes, restored it to factory setting successfully, and now there seems to be no way to restore to MY previous settings. The iphone works, but the itunes screen will not change when I click on the phone on the left to allow me to sync it or anything now.
If I uninstall/reinstall itunes will it keep all my data and allow me to get to my backup to restore the phone?
Basically, my phone is now restored to my factory settings, and my itunes is not working correctly so I can't access my backup files.
Any suggestions?
Win XP
iphone software 2.01 (I think)
Itunes 8.1
http://discussions.apple.com/edit!default.jspa?messageID=8235288

^^^I was also getting and error about "dataclass information from sync services." A few threads about that error lead me to uninstalling all apple software on my PC and then reinstalling itunes.
It worked and now I'm in the process of restoring my phone with minimal lost data I hope!

ITunes 9.2 wont complete the Backup

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I'm not sure if this is related to the installation problems but when I try and activate my iPhone (4g) the iTunes doesn't recognize the phone. It doesn't show up at all.
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My suspicion here is that you've got damaged GEAR drivers for iTunes, and they are interfering with your attempts to install iTunes.
Perhaps try a manual uninstall of ther GEAR drivers (quit iTunes first):
http://www.gearsoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=DRIVERS:Windows_-_Updating%2C_removing%2C_64_bit_versions%2Cetc
... and then try reinstalling iTunes. Does the reinstall go through any better?

ITunes won't show my iPhone backup file

I was trying to upgrade my iPhone 4 (GSM) to iOS 5.0 GM, so I updated my iTunes and everything, BLAH BLAH BLAH!
All of a sudden, my backup that I made earlier didn't appear in the Devices tab in iTunes Preferences. It's still in the Mobile Sync folder, everything there, but for some reason iTunes won't recognize it, so I can't restore all of my contacts, photos and such to my iPhone. PLEASE HELP!!!!

did you ever get it resolved, i am having same issue?

Is there a way to tell itunes the location of an iphone backup?

the backup i want is in the correct folder but itunes won't recognise it.

OK one way is to simply change the location in iTunes preferences under "iTunes Music folder location" from the current external to the new external. Then use the consolidate command and iTunes will copy everything to the new external AND change the links in iTunes to point to the new location.
Cheers,
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Can't play iTunes on Win-PC after iPhone backup.

Before and after backing up iPhone 4s on newer Win-8 PC,...iTunes can't "locate" my music on the PC.
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Thank-you...

Hello FretLogic,
iTunes may have become associated with an incorrect library.
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
Cheers,
Allen

HT1386 I replaced my iPad and now don't see the iPad backup in iTunes. Any advice? Should I use my latest iPhone backup or will that create problems?

I swapped out my broken iPad for a new one, and went to sync in iTunes and only see my iPhone backups. Should I use those to back it up (most of the apps are the same across both, and same with the email, calendar, and contacts settings). Will that create problems if I use the same backup for two devices? Thanks!

No it will not create problems but if the iPad that you got is running an iOS less than what you are running on the iPhone, you will have to update the iPad first, before you can restore from the phone backup. You can't use the backup of a newer iOS on a device running an older iOS without updating the device first.

Lost my contacts list and try to restore from backup and it ask for my password to unlock my iphone backup. I don't remember creating a password for it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Lost my contacts list and try to restore from backup and it ask for my password to unlock my iphone backup. I don't remember creating a password for it. Can anyone help? Thanks.

If you encrypted the backup, there is no way around it. You will need to configure your iPhone as a new device.
From iTunes: About iOS backups:
In the iTunes Summary screen, select "Encrypt iPhone backup" if you want to encrypt the information stored on your computer when iTunes makes a backup. Encrypted backups are indicated by a padlock icon, and a password is required to restore the information to iPhone. You may want to write down the password for your backup and store it in a safe place. If you use a Mac, when you set a password you can select to store the password in the keychain. With iOS 4 and later, you can transfer the iOS keychain backup to a new device if you encrypt the backup.
Warning: If you encrypt an iPhone backup in iTunes and then forget your password, you will not be able to restore from backup and your data will be unrecoverable. If you forget the password, you can continue to back up and use the device, however you will not be able to restore the encrypted backup to any device without the password. You do not need to enter the password for your backup each time you back up or sync.
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How do I save my iPhone backup once my computer is wiped?

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I'm scared if I do that, that i'll erase everything on my iPhone (contacts, photos etc) once I plug it back in after everything has been installed and everything is new.
I have put most of my music and photos on a hard-drive so worst comes to worse I can put those back on manually. But i'm more worried about my apps and contacts.
How can I save these once the computer is wiped and I start with a new iTunes?

If you back up your iTunes library, everything including the iPhones backup will be saved"
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
A much easier solution is to backup to iCloud.
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes Apps can be re-downloaded from the App store.
Contacts will be backed up in iCloud but you can also sync contacts to an iCloud account without having to rely on restoring a backup

I want to recover a previous iphone backup data

I backed up my data from my iPhone on my Macbook Pro, and accidentaly synced it again, which over-wrote the previous back up. And now I need my original back up as it contains all my data. How can i recover data from my previous back-up? Please Help!

Unless you use Time Machine or another backup plan, you can't. iTunes only keeps one normal iPhone backup, it's actually an incremental backup in that only data that has changed is actually backed up or overwritten.

TS1368 Itunes can't save the phone backup to my computer does any one know why thanks

itunes can't save the iphone backup to my computer does anyone know why thanks

Troubleshooting backup issues in iTunes

IPhone not syncing... I've deleted my iphone backup... Can I force iTunes to create a backup?

Hi guys! First time poster. I've searched the web before posting. Hope you can help...
iTunes has been telling me my iphone has been syncing, but when I looked at the date on the backup file, my phone backup file located here:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
...hadn't been updated for months.
So I have safely made a copy of the backups that were in that folder, and trashed the backups hoping that would force iTunes to backup my iphone from scratch... But that hasn't happened.
Instead, when I sync my phone on itunes, it takes about 15 seconds and then says "sync complete"... But when I look in the backups folder:
~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
There are NO BACKUPS of my iphone... And this is confirmed in the iTunes preferences - see screenshot below:
So is there a way to force iTunes to make a fresh backup of my iPhone?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tina

Hi iDome90,
That screenshot was helpful, because I didn't have "Back Up" as an option. Check out this screenshot:
So I trashed my iTunes preferences
I went into my user preferences and trashed all my itunes-related preferences:
User>Library>Preferences... Anything beginning with "com.apple.iTunes".
I then reopened iTunes, and guess what? I now have the option to "Back Up". So I chose it, and a few minutes later, I now appear to have a backup of my iPhone!
A BIG THANK YOU!
Thanks to both kelseyaudrey and iDome90 for taking an interest and helping me solve this issue. I hope this thread will help others in the future.
Cheers,
Tina99

HT4847 my iphone says that an icloud backup has not been completed in 2 weeks , but I have tried several times to complete a backup, & each time , after a certain amount of time where it says it is 'backing up", it then says "the last backup could not be

My iphone says that icloud has not been backed up in 2 weeks...but after several attemps to back up, it continues to say "the latest backup did not complete"...I did have the phone plugged into my computer & connected to wi-fi..and it was locked...any idea why it won't complete the backup? it says total storage is 5.0 GB & available is 3.3 GB

Welcome to the Apple Community.
You might try a forced shutdown to begin with, hold down the top and home buttons together until the device shuts down, then restart it.
First check that your device is correctly connected to the wifi/internet (settings > wifi)
If your back up continually fails, you might try turning off back up on your mobile device (settings > iCloud > storage & backup) and then deleting the backup file from iCloud by swiping the backup file on the mobile device (settings > iCloud > storage & backup > manage…) and then turning back up on again.
If this doesn't help, try turning off some items for back up in a pattern to try to establish if your problem is being caused by specific data on your device.
Being able to back up to the cloud can be very useful, especially if you don't have access to a computer or have infrequent access to one, however unless you specifically need to use iCloud for back up, you will find backing up to iTunes significantly more convenient and possibly more reliable.
More about iCloud v iTunes Back Up

Forcing iTunes to perform a complete iPhone Backup

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