How to Disable the iTunes Backup on Windows

Backing up an iOS device can take several minutes on a device that contains a lot of data.

Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices all use the iTunes application to create a backup of their data and sync it with the computer. By default the syncing and backup processes cannot be executed independently; whenever an iOS device syncs with iTunes a full backup of the device is made. Furthermore, iTunes does not offer a simple way of disabling its backup feature. If you really wish to disable the iTunes backup feature, however, you can do so in a few steps.

Instructions

1. Click the "Start" button in the computer's task bar and select the "Computer" option from the Start menu. Double-click on the computer's main drive (usually the "C:\" drive) to view its data.

2. Double-click the "Users" folder followed by the username folder of the account you wish to disable the iTunes backup feature on. Double-click the "AppData" folder then the "Roaming" folder. Finally, double-click the "Apple Computer" folder followed by the "iTunes" folder.

3. Right-click the "iTunesPrefs.xml" file contained within the "iTunes" folder and select the "Copy" button from the context menu. Right-click on the computer's desktop and select the "Paste" option from the context menu. This will make a backup of the "iTunesPrefs.xml" file in case you want to undo the changes you make to it .

4. Right-click the "iTunesPrefs.xml" file in the "iTunes" folder then highlight the "Open With" option and select a text editor that is capable of viewing XML files from the Open With menu. Jujuedit, Notepad++ and Textpad are a few of the text editing applications that have XML viewing and editing capabilities.

5. Scroll through the "iTunesPrefs.xml" file until you locate the section titled "User Preferences." In the text editor window this section should be in the following format:

   <key>User Preferences</key>

   <dict>

6. Paste the following code into the XML file after the "<dict>" beneath the "User Preferences" heading:

   <key>DeviceBackupsDisabled</key>

   <data>

   dHJ1ZQ==

   </data>

   The "User Preferences" section of the XML file should now be in the following format:

   <key>User Preferences</key>

   <dict>

   <key>DeviceBackupsDisabled</key>

   <data>

   dHJ1ZQ==

   </data>

7. Click the "File" tab and select the "Save" option from the File menu. The "iTunesPrefs.xml" file will now be saved and the iTunes backup feature will be disabled.

References

• Eidac: How to Disable Slow iTunes Backup for iPhone/iPod touch on Windows