My iphone won't back up to laptop/iTunes

As of last week I am no longer able to back up my iphone 5 to my Laptop (macbook pro G4 OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion) with iTunes 11.0.1. It gives me the following error message: "iTunes could not back up the iPhone because an error occurred."
I reinstalled itunes. I tuned off all Apps on iphone. I restarted iphone. I restared laptop. Nothing has worked. Itunes sees the phone and begins the back up process but always gives me the error message. BTW I am still able to upload photos into iphoto no problem. Thoughts anyone?

I had the same issue. Iphone would not sync or backup to my laptop. I tried reinstalling, even to another directory, nothing worked. Then I thought about what software I most recently installed. On a recent trip I installed a Sprint USB Broadband Modem on my laptop. I realized that I had trouble with syncing and backing up my Iphone since that install. I uninstalled the program "Sprint Smartview" and rebooted my laptop. As a result, my syncing and backup functions were restored and Itunes works perfectly. Hope this helps. It was definitely a conflict issue with the Sprint software.

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My Iphone won't back up to my itunes account on my computer when I plug it in, It syncs but when it tries back up I get an error message. I have tried to restore it to the last time it was backed up but still it didn't work.

Hi,
I got my iphone last year and It was working just fine until June of this year and I didn't notice it until I tried plugging my iphone into my computer to get more songs on it. Error message came up saying that it was unable to backup iphone because an error occurred. So I did some research and tried to delete old backups and restore to the last one. After all that it still won't back up and some of my apps just don't work, thought the new ios would help but it did not. Everything works fine its just that I want to be able to back my phone up and I haven't been able to sync June. Any help would be appreciated.

For your computer first get iTunes to see it by:
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
or
iPhone, iPad, iPod touch: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
- The transfer iTunes purchases
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
- Or redownload them by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
- Transfer other music by using a third-party program like one of those discussed here:
newer copy
- Connect the iPod to your compute and make a backup by right clicking on the iPod under Devices in iTunes and select Back Up
- Restore the iPod from that backup
Note that the backup that iTunes makes does not included synced media like apps and music.

My iPhone won't back up to iCloud it says backup failed after I increased my storage plan. How can I fix that and which email can I sen to if I want to refund the storage I bought on iCloud. It says I have 15 days to return.

Which email should I send to for a refund on iCloud storage within 15 day period. Also the iPhone won't back up to iCloud it keeps saying backup failed even when I log out of iCloud and log back in how can I fix that?

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.
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.

Help! My iphone won't sync on my laptop, even though the itunes stores says it is authorised. We have 4/5 computers authorised at home so it should work. I'm a simple soul so a simple explanation would be lovely thanks!

Help! My iphone won't sync on my laptop, even though the itunes stores says it is authorised. We have 4/5 computers authorised at home so it should work. I'm a simple soul so a simple explanation would be lovely thanks!

Do you get an error message when trying to sync?

IPhone won't back up to iTunes

I had trouble on an old laptop when backing up my iPhone to iTunes, suddenly out of the blue it wouldn't work. I tried all the suggestions, deleting old backups, uninstalling all apple products and reinstalling and still it was always hit and miss whether it would work or not. Anyway cut to today I have bought a new laptop, installed iTunes connected my iPhone and it backed up. At last I thought. Now just tried to backup again and it won't do it. Comes up with the iTunes can't back up this iPhone to your computer. Aargh. Please any ideas as I am desperate. I need a backup of my phone before something goes wrong and I lose it all!

Here are Apple steps to this problem.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2529
Some users post that you must remove the backup from both iTunes and the backup system folder.

Help my iPhone won't connect to my laptop.

Hi... So basically I recently got new music so I naturally added into my iTunes account, however when I tried to connect my iPhone 5 to sync with my new iTunes library my phone and my laptop wouldn't keep a connection for more than a minute it just kept on connecting and then almos immediately un conneting again... Any ideas?
(I have updated both my phone and my iTunes on the laptop and have also tried re-installing iTunes on the laptop and still no luck)

Hi Emma0899,
If your iPhone is recognized by iTunes on your computer but disconnects shortly after appearing, you may find the troubleshooting steps outlined in the following article helpful:
iOS: Troubleshooting USB-related alerts when syncing
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5254
Regards,
- Brenden

TS3992 My iPhone won't back up to iCloud.

The iCloud pane in the settings app told me that to create an iCloud backup, I had to connect to Wi-fi, plug in my iPhone and lock it.
I did all that, and even left it that way all night long, but the next morning I checked my iCloud backup and it still hadn't backed up to iCloud.
Now I haven't backed up my iPhone to iCloud for almost five weeks.
What can I do?

I just discovered I'm in the same boat.
I happened to check my iPad 2 and found that the last icloud backup was in mid-July. I completely turned off the device (Home-Power buttons) as is advised in the Apple troubleshoorting guide. Started up again. In Pages, I created a new doc and went to my mac, logged into icloud.com and checked iWork. The new file was there - so my iPad connection to iCloud is okay. Pressed the Back Up Now button in Settings>icloud>Storage & Backup. The progress meter made it a little more than 3/4 of the way through, and with less than one minute go to, the process gave up and the error is the usual "the last backup could not be completed".
I've searched through many past posts on the topic and the only advice I find is to shut down/start up the device and to reset Network settings. I've done the first. Since I'm able to get files to iCloud from Pages, the connection to icloud is okay. But the backup is the problem. Any other ideas before I consider a Network reset (which I assume means losing many settings). Or maybe I go back to backups to iTunes.
I should add that backups work flawlessly on my iPhone. Also have more than 20 GB of free space on iCloud and about 10GB free space on the iPad.

TS4605 I restored my iphone with a back up on my itunes and deleted all my information on the phone...

Well, actually, it's a little more complicated than that.
It all started because out of the blue, all my contacts became unidentifiable(just numbers without any names/labels.) So I looked online for some feedback and most sites said that I should restore settings with back ups from either Itunes or icloud...so I did. I tried to restore it through my itunes because it was the most up to date with my phone, my icloud hasn't been backed up since almost a year ago! Anyways, restored the thing and it went to it's beginning feature greeting me with a "Hello" in many different languages(with a white background and simple black font.) It then asked me to choose a language, then a country/region, wifi, and then set up iphone option-which included-"set up as new iphone, restore from icloud backup, and restore from itunes backup"...I chose itunes backup, which didn't go through...or something because it kept looping from it's "connected to itunes" screen and "connect to itunes"...and restore anything(at least from what i'm seeing.) Anyways, so I idiotically decided to restore from icloud backup just to test if it would work, and it did...erasing all my current data/information and restoring something from January 2014!!! I've been trying to re-restore it back to not having contacts but having my current information on my phone because I could just manually type in all my contacts, that would be better than losing all my current information. Please help me figure out the most effective way to restore/backup my phone back to its normal state!
info:
iphone4s-software up to date since yesterday Aug 28, 2014 (and has a back up on itunes from this date as well, which I;ve been trying for a back up format)
Thank you,
Payten

update:I tried using the itunes back up through a software called "iBackup" and it seemed promising...but now it's stuck on the turning on screen(black background with a white apple icon in the middle.) It won't go past this screen!!! Ahhhh please help me!

My iphone won't pass the connect to itunes. when i try to restore is says that there is an error. please help!

hi my iphone is broken. it won't pass the connect to itunes. when i try to restore is says that there is an error. please help!
thanks,
jg2013
<Subject Edited by Host>

Hello, 02633.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
If your iPhone is disabled, you will need to process the steps in the article below.
iOS: Forgotten passcode or device disabled after entering wrong passcode
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1212
Cheers,
Jason H.

IPhone 4 won't back up (among other iTunes sync problems)

I've posted this issue in the iPhone forum (https://discussions.apple.com/message/18962855?ac_cid=op123456#18962855) but I'm having a series of overlapping problems related to my iPhone 4 and iTunes so I'll post here as well. Here's the long diatribe
1) 90% of the time that I try to open up the "Music/iPod app" on my iPhone, it crashes before it loads anything viewable or listenable.   5% percent of the time it simply loads an empty interface with no music. I know that there is music on there becuase the reamining 5% of the time it does work, and even when it doesn't work I can hit play on my headphone remote and listen to tracks. These symptoms are present regardless of whether I have iTunes Match turned on or off on the phone itself (yes, I'm a paid user)
     1A) During the 5% time that the Music/iPod app does work, iTunes Match, or iTunes in the Cloud, or whatever the **** ya wanna call it, doesn't work in any stable shape or predictable way.   Although I can "see" my tracks, any attempt to download them to my phone (even with WiFi connection) usually causes the phone to get confused about what it's downloaded vs what it hasn't. For example, if i choose an album and click download all, then it'll start playing the songs as they come in (sometimes with hiccups, presumably from unfinished downloads).    Fine, no problem. However, even if all song completely download as intended, I will eventually get an alert on the iphone saying "can't download track from the cloud" or "error downloading track from cloud" (I don't have this alert committed to memory so I'm paraphrasing).   When this happens and I go to the Music Store to view the download que (which is somewhat odd since I'm not buying the tracks, but I digress) ALL of the tracks that I have selected to download show a status of "waiting" even though ALL of them have actually already downloaded and I've listened to them. The only way to alleviate the neverendign cycle is to do a restart on the phone.
2) I wanted to back up my phone and do a complete restor to factory setting but I can't sync through iTunes. When I connect the phone with the USB connector, iTunes sits in a perputual state of "Syncing iPhone (Step 1 of 5)" while the never ending sync clock spins at the top of my iPhone.
     2A) If I disconnect the phone manually (pull the cord), the syncing arrows still spin. The only way to stop it is to do a restart on the phone.
     2B) I've tried deleting previous backup files and manually backing up with no success. Someone on the iPhone forum suggested manually deleting from ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup but that path doesn't even exist on my system. Sounds like that could easily be the culprit but even a new install of iTunes isn'ts solving the problem and it raises other questions of where my backups are currently residing.
3) When the phone is connected to my laptop with the USB dock conector, iTunes says that my 32gb iPhone 4 is over capacity by 3.1gb.    However, when looking on the iPhone itself, it says that I've used 17.4GB and have 11.2 available.
Notes which may or may not be of significance:
A) I had a corrupted iTunes library on my external hard-drive a few months ago.    I don't know if this was the cause or the result of the above problems but that issue has since been taken care of. Sadly, my phone problems still persist.
B) I've just learne of the application iExplorer and was thinking of using that to address any bad iTunes library that might exist on my phone. However, because I can't back up my phone yet (see 2 and 2A above), I'm reluctant to use any third party solution just yet.   I would love to know anyone's feedback on this product however.

I just updated my iTunes to 9.2.1 and my iPhone 4 backed up just fine. Did you make sure you did a restart of you computer after update. Check in your iTunes prefs and see if you have your auto sync disabled under devices. Let me know what happens

My iphone won't backup ro my laptop anymore

Well I'm trying to backup my iphone of the same laptop I've been using for years. Now its giving me a message saying "This iphone can not be backed up on this computer" Why is that ??

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2529
Is that the error you're getting?

My iPhone won't register on my laptop!!!

My iPhone charges fine from the adaptor but will not charge when plugged into laptop through USB and will not appear in My Computer or iTunes either. Does anyone know why this may be?

I've tried all USB ports on my laptop, it was working on my laptop about 2 weeks ago before the update of iTunes. It also charges when plugged into other laptops, just not mine.

IPhone won't back up to iCloud

I get a notification saying it needs to be backed up because it hasn't yet but when I try to back it up it won't load or anything. I think it works when plugged into my computer but I don't know how to check.

MadyWeaver wrote:
when I try to back it up it won't load or anything.
Sorry. This makes no sense. What exactly are you doing and what is the result?

My iPhone won't back up to icloud

Hi Apple Community,
I can't backup my iPhone 4 16GB to the iCloud if iam connected to wireless.... Everytime i try to back it up in the iCloud settings on the iPhone i recive the message saying "There was a problem completing the backup. Please try again later"..... I have been trying to back up to the iCloud since thursday and i even restored my iPhone still it dosn't work..... Apple is starting to **** me off!

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.
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.

My Iphone won't back up to Icloud anymore and My photos won't sync

For some reason I can't get my phone to back up to icloud or my photos to show up on my Mac photo stream. My phone is connected to wifi and plugged in to the power. What should i do?

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.
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.

My iphone won't back up to laptop/iTunes

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