Inside the Mind of Suz

I don’t know about the rest of the iPhone Nation, but I have a crapload of apps. And by crapload, I mean I have an unhealthy amount. I’m not sure the number, because I have so many of them tucked away in folders (Thanks, Categories app!)

But as one accumulates a large amount of data on their phone, backup takes forever! And iTunes has a default setting where once you connect your iPhone, it not only syncs, but also backs up everything. And that takes forever! I wanted to sync some new apps the other day, and I swear it ended up taking close to an hour! Well, maybe not, but it was like 3 times longer than usual.

I thought, “this is ridiculous! I must turn off this auto-backup!” It’s not like I’m never going to backup, but I want to be able to do it when I want to! If I just want to sync a couple of newly downloaded songs or apps, I don’t want to have to sit around for an eternity while my iPhone backs up.

I found a lot of ways to disable backup for Apple computers and a few for PCs. I would be required to edit the iTunesPrefs.xml file manually, which could lead to me messing something up.

So, I looked for another method and found one that worked well, and didn’t require much work on my end. I did backup the iTunesPrefs.xml file beforehand, just in case, but that wasn’t really necessary. This method, put together into a nifty little program by Mark Wagner.

It’s called QuickDisable and you can get it here. Remember, this particular file is for PC users. Don’t use this if you have a Mac, because it will either not work or will screw your iTunes up.

Next step for me is making an entry in one of my GTD apps that reminds me to make a weekly backup in iTunes. (I’d simply run the program again and enable auto-backups.) Because, with my luck, something unfortunate will happen and I’ll need a recent backup to fix everything! Actually, with the new iPhone 3.0 software coming, I definitely think an up-to-date backup is required after I re-jailbreak.