I’m a little perturbed, but not completely insensed, at not being given the option to NOT backup up my iPhone every time it’s connected to my computer. And since upgrading to 16 GB of potential songs, apps and photos to backup, I’ve drawn the line and decided to take matters into my own hands. I’m telling iTunes to stop doing it. 10+ extra minutes of sync time due to backing up in my book is not acceptable, much less feasible.

If you’re using a Mac, here is a solution.

It requires a little bit, not whole lot of, geekiness. If you’re comfortable in the terminal (c’mon, it’s only one line for goodness sake), you can switch the backup process on and off at will.

Force iTunes to skip the backup process by doing this:
1. – Quit iTunes.
2. – Open Terminal.app
3. – Copy and paste this in, then hit return:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true
4. – Open iTunes
5. – Plug in your iPhone (2.0 or 3G) and sync.
To turn it back on, just repeat step #3 with:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false

Now, if some inspired applescripter would be so nice as to  create a little app to do this, the process would be even more painless!

Please keep in mind that I’m certainly not recommending that you never back up your iPhone’s data; you should absolutely do this periodically anyway. This tip just takes advantage of a hidden feature that in my opinion, shouldn’t be hidden at all.

What it looks like in action

If you’re interested in disabling your backups in Windows, it’s only slightly more tricky. There’s a walkthrough here: How to disable slow iTunes Backup for iPhone/ipod touch on Windows

Happy faster syncing!