I plugged up my iPad to do a backup but there's no option to backup only to restore...what do I do?

File a law-suit against iTunes for willingly lowering your productivity by hiding the backup option.

On a more serious note, have you done any recent changes? Installed a jailbreak, etc.? Not that a jb would prevent backups, but it just seems odd that the backup option suddenly goes missing.

Originally Posted by AppleNut

I plugged up my iPad to do a backup but there's no option to backup only to restore...what do I do?

Can I just be a little clearer about this? You are plugging your iPad into your PC using the Apple USB cable? Does iTunes automatically start up? Would this be the first backup that you've done?

Tim
Scotland

I just did a Google search and found the following:

How To Backup iPad - iPad Backup

"Since the iPad is a computer like any laptop or desktop, backing up the iPad is just as important as with any other device. Luckily, Apple makes backing up the iPad very easy. In fact you don't really have to do anything.
Every time you sync your iPad to your computer, an iPad backup is automatically saved on your computer. This backup contains your settings and some data (though it doesn't backup apps and music. Those are stored in your iTunes library and need to be backup as part of your computer backup). So, if you ever need to restore your iPad from backup, you'll be able to choose this backup and - assuming you haven't also lost music or apps from your computer's hard drive - you'll be back up and running in a snap."

Back up your content on your main computer as always.

Originally Posted by DontUnderstandMyIpad

File a law-suit against iTunes for willingly lowering your productivity by hiding the backup option.

On a more serious note, have you done any recent changes? Installed a jailbreak, etc.? Not that a jb would prevent backups, but it just seems odd that the backup option suddenly goes missing.

This is just jibberish

Thanks all for your help. I did some googling and had to delete a plist file. Once I did that the backup option reappeared.

I had the same problem with my iPad in Windows7

The following advice was from Apple for a different problem but
it solved mine!!!!!!!!!!


Remove iTunes Preference files
Some of the files that iTunes uses to store settings and
preferences may be unusable and cause issues. iTunes has two
folders where preferences are saved. Move one of them to the
desktop and test to see if the issue persists. If it does, move
it back and remove the second folder. The location for the two
preference folders are:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes

* C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes

I found that if I removed the second one ie in the ROMING folder
it solved the problem.

1. Close itunes
2. cut and paste the folder
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
to the desktop (just in case it needs to be replaced)
3. restart iTunes and then plug in the iPad.

Originally Posted by AppleNut

Thanks all for your help. I did some googling and had to delete a plist file. Once I did that the backup option reappeared.

Might be helpful to explain which plist you had to delete, and what steps you took, just for others who might find this thread.

Sent from my iPad using iPF on my first gen iPad, sadly.

This worked perfectly for my iphone 3GS. I didn't realize that my iphone was not backing up. It did not backup since 2009. I ran into a problem and needed to recover my phone but then found out I did not have any backups or the option to backup or restore. After renaming the directory as you mentioned I now have the option to backup - I only spent about 5-6 hours trying to fix this before I found this information - Thanks!

Hey guys. I am trying to back up iTunes on my pc. There is not an option to backup can anyone tell me what to do about it?
Thanks,
Carol