Seems like it takes FOREVER to back up my iPad when I sync mine. I mean forever: like 45 min. And I have a measly 16GB, of which about 2GB is free. Is it my computer? Or is this normal?

Also, is there a way to tell iTunes NOT to back up my iPad when it syncs? I mean, it seems like backing up is something I might need to do only once every three times I sync.

If your using a mac you can get this app:
Disable slow iTunes Backups for iPhone/ipod touch with a single mouseclick

If your using windows get this app:
http://www.decimation.com/markw/files/QuickDisable.zip

My backup is slow also.

I have a 16gb and it is half empty and a total sync, including backup is maybe 5 minutes... maybe. Of course sync time varies depending on how much stuff I have added through iTunes or on the iPad itself.

depend on how much music, videso and Apps you have loaded.

Thanks for the links Mike. Will try them out.

Great tip, thanks. The iPod Touch used to have the same problem with very slow backups. But after an upgrade (I don't remember if it was a firmware upgrade for the iPod or an upgrade of iTunes) the problem was over. My 16 GB iPod Touch is filled much more than my 16 GB iPad, but the iPod backup takes perhaps 5% of the time it takes for the iPad. Hopefully Apple will solve this soon.

64gb 3g + wifi with 12 movies, 1500 songs, 300 epub books, lots of apps and back-up and synch take less than 5 minutes. First-time iPad synch takes much longer but subsequent synch takes about the same amount of time (that is, of course, unless I've made a lot of content changes.)

I just did the 3.2.1 upgrade.

The required backup took over 30 HOURS (!) but the update went smoothly.

My iPad is a 64 gByte Wifi model with around 12 gBytes free. The PC used with iTunes is an older dual-core Pentium with 4 gBytes RAM and around 175 gBytes free disc space on the system/iTunes drive.

The backup performance is completely unacceptable and I hope Apple can come up with a fix. I could copy the entire contents of a 1.5TB drive via USB in a few hours, so 52 gBytes should be less than an hour even allowing for data compression.

LH

LH

I've backed-up with a full 16gb and it took a while, about 20 mins I think. Before that I only had a coupla gig full and it took... a coupla minutes.