How to Prevent iTunes From Backing Up My iPhone

Disabling iTunes backup can be done through the command line.

iTunes is the music application that is used as an interface between your iPhone and your computer. When you plug your iPhone into your computer, iTunes automatically begins backing up all of the data on your iPhone. Although this is a useful feature, it can often slow down your computer and take a long time to complete. Even though you can manually stop the backup in iTunes, if you want to prevent iTunes from backing up entirely, you will have to make changes in the command line of your computer.

Instructions

1. Terminate iTunes if you have it running. iTunes needs to be closed in order to make changes to the program via the command line.

2. Launch the "Run" utility on your computer. You can do this by clicking "Start" and then "Run." Alternatively, you can press "Win" on your keyboard then "R." If you are on a Mac, launch "Terminal." Click "Command" on your keyboard followed by "Space bar" and type in "Terminal." Press "Enter" to launch "Terminal."

3. Type in ""%CommonProgramFiles%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin\defaults.exe" write com.apple.iTunes AutomaticDeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true." Note that there the quotation marks in the beginning are part of the code and need to be included. Click "Enter" on your keyboard to execute the command. If you are on a Mac, enter "defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true" in "Terminal" and press "Enter."

4. Open iTunes and connect your iPhone to your computer. You will notice that the iPhone is not automatically backing up. If it was, you would see the backup progress at the top of the screen in iTunes.

5. Sync your iPhone with your computer like you normally would without the burden of the automatic iTunes backup.

References

• Gizmodo: How to disable iPhone backup process
• klauskjeldsen.dk: Disable slow iTunes backup