Want a quick, easy way to turn off the automatic iTunes backup routine for your iPhone when you ask it to sync? You know the one, the process that can make syncing infuriatingly slow “ especially on those days when you just want a quick sync before dashing out of the house.
You can click the little ‘x ‘ next to the sync status bar where it says it is backing up, but this is only good for that one time and also apparently this may put you at risk of corrupting an existing backup, at least according to this article.
So here is a far, far simpler way to turn backup on and off and keep it that way until you next choose to toggle it. Just download a free app called BackOff, your new iPhone backup-busting best pal. That ‘d be the one shown above, with the lovely, large button that will offer ‘Turn OFF ‘ or ‘Turn ON ‘ according to what the current setting is.
The app is free and available for Windows and Mac. Here are its system requirements:
Windows
(Min. Requirements PC Windows XP SP2 / Vista / 7, iTunes 9.x, All iPhones and iPods Touch supported)
Latest release : January 13, 2010
Mac
(Min. Requirements Mac OS X Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard, PPC / Intel, iTunes 9.x, All iPhones and iPods Touch supported)
Latest release : January 18, 2010
BackOff could not be any simpler to use “ just click that lovely big Turn OFF button and backup will not be slowing down your iTunes sync again until you flip it back to ON. iTunes needs to be closed when you want to toggle the setting, but the app will tell you that if you try to use it when iTunes is active.
It is generally thought to be a good idea to let the iPhone backup on whatever sort of regular basis makes sense for you (based on how often you make any substantial changes to it) “ so you ‘ll want to either make a habit of leaving backups turned on and only turning them off just prior to a quick sync when you ‘re in a hurry, or do regular manual backups. The app also offers a nice link in its main dialog window to an article showing how to do a manual backup when desired (which is very simple and done with just a click or two within iTunes).
Just to give an idea of the impact this app can have, when I tested it this afternoon, a sync with backup turned on had taken over 20 minutes before I canceled it. Sync with backup turned off took under two minutes!
Here ‘s where you got to get more details on and to download this little gem of an app:
http://www.digidna.net/backoff/
I learned of this app via this very useful post over at iPhone Central.
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