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Difficulty synching iPad or iPhone with iTunes

Var

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Over about the last two-three months, I have experienced long times to synch iPhone or iPad to iTunes (sometimes, they just hang up on contacts). I spent two hours on the phone with an Apple tech about a month ago but no luck. We uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled (he also had a specific process for the uninstall). He also admonished me to upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10 which I have subsequently done: no joy.

Through trial and error, I have learned that I have to shut down Microsoft Outlook and reboot the iPhone or iPad before trying to synch - this prevents the hangups, but the time to synch is still unbearably long (used to 2-3 minutes at most; now 20-3o minutes). This really reduces the utility of these devices as I synch them often to keep my calendar up to date across all platforms. Any suggestions?
 

twerppoet

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Watching iTunes, is it the actuall file syncing, or the backup phase that is super slow?

The first sync and backup are always long. After that the syncing and backup only record changes, and should be a lot shorter, unless something is going badly. Sometimes this is a corrupted backup file.

If you have not done so, try deleting the old backup(s), suffer through the very long backup to follow, and see if backup/syncing works better afterwards.

Good luck.
 
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Var

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Thanks for the suggestion. First, to remove all doubt, it is the synch that takes the time. I specifically queried the Apple help person at the time as it had sometimes taken 5-10 minutes on either contacts or calendar (other times, it just flat out got hung up; usually on contacts). This long time makes no sense for contacts as I don't change them often; I have also labored under the assumption that this was a differential process, so a lack of change should result in little time taken on contacts! Now, on to the results. I presume that the only way to delete "corrupted backups" is to go to iTunes, edit-preferences, and then devices. Under devices, one finds the backup files - I deleted those for both iPhone and the iPad (superstition). Parenthetically, I used to see a list of multiple backup files with dates/times for each one; now, I only had one file for each device (even though they have been backed up multiple times). Anyway, I executed the new backup (with Outlook open and without rebooting the phone). I am pleased to say that it executed the backup and synch in a reasonable time (although, my feeling is not as quickly as before, but still reasonable); something it just wouldn't do before. I am cautiously optimistic that your suggestion has cured my problem (I will try the iPad next). A final question: since I removed and reinstalled iTunes with the help person, wouldn't that have deleted old, corrupt backup files? Also, do you recommend deleting the backup file before every subsequent backup/synch event? Many thanks!!!
 
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Var

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Update: well, I plugged in the iPad at 7:02; by 7:10 it had finished the backup phase. Unfortunately, it is now 7:25 and the synch is still hung on contacts. As I said in my previous comments, I deleted both the iPhone and iPad backup files before I backed up my iPhone (by backup I mean backup and synch). Don't see why the iPhone backup file would affect the iPad so I left it in place. I suspect if I default to once again exiting Outlook AND rebooting the iPad, I will be able to execute the backup/synch. I will try that later - dinner is waiting :)
 

twerppoet

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Hmm, not sure how much help I can be then.

I haven't used iTunes to sync contacts or calendars for a long time. Syncing via Google, iCloud, or even Yahoo is faster and more reliable. Syncing more than one iOS device to one or more computers is also a problem. You can end up creating loops that duplicate contacts and events if you are not careful to sync each device back to the the same compuer. Even then, if you edit on more than one device you tend to get conflicts.

If it sounds like I'm hinting that it's better not to use iTunes for calendar and contact syncing, you are right. Unless your contact and calendar events require an unusual amount of securtiy, it's more trouble than it is worth.
 
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Var

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iPad and iPhone are synced only to the same computer and iTunes app. I tried the cloud a long time ago - it took my several thousand contacts that were organized in specific folders (think phone books for different organizations with whom I work) and collapsed them into a single folder. As I told the Apple rep who responded to my complaint, "if you folks ran the phone system, you would have one phone book called USA". Anyway, I have no plan to try the cloud again. Getting back to iTunes: this worked fine for five years, now all of a sudden it's a problem? Clearly there is a problem with either the newest version of iTunes or the iOS - just trying to get to the root cause is not easy. I need to perform the synchs on iTunes; any other suggestions would be appreciated. By the way, any thoughts about my previous question re why I only had one backup file and no previous backup files or if the removal/re-install of iTunes didn't erase all backup files? Again, thanks for your time and effort!
 

twerppoet

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iTunes only keeps one backup file per device. To create a new one you either have to convince it there is no backup file for that device; either by changing the devices's ID (hard to do) or changing the backup file's name. Sometimes this happens by accident, making it look like iTunes is keeping multiple backups.

A good reason to backup your computer is that you are also creating a history of backup files, in case the most recent one turns out to be corupted. I use a combination of Time Machine (local) and BackBlaze (online).

While you can neither create nor manage groups/folders in Contacts on iOS, it does support folders if you create and maintain them in Contacts on the Mac, at iCloud.com, and a few other services.

Another trick I've discovered is to add emoji or unique keywords in the Notes field. Using these you can do searches for group-like results.

I don't expect either of these appeal to you, but I mention them just in case.
 
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