Bugs & Fixes: iOS device backup failure solved

23.09.2011
Recently, when I attempted to sync my iPad in iTunes, the following message popped up near the end of the sequence of steps:

After clicking OK, a second related message immediately followed:

You won’t be surprised to learn that the backup indeed failed, although the rest of the sync proceeded normally.

I had occasionally gotten these messages on previous occasions. Typically, the cause was precisely what the second message suggested: Another open application was grabbing the iPad’s attention. Apparently, iTunes doesn’t like to share. In my case, the competing program was Ecamm Network’s . If I quit PhoneView, the syncing problem in iTunes would vanish. Despite this, PhoneView and iTunes would sometimes get along fine, with no unruly error messages even when they were both open.

On this occasion, however, the iTunes error messages appeared even though PhoneView was nowhere in sight. As far as I could tell, no other iOS-related app was open. What had happened is that, on my immediately prior sync attempt, iTunes stalled at the “Backing up” step. After waiting several minutes, I decided that it was never going to finish. I clicked iTunes' X button to cancel the sync. It had no effect. I ultimately had to force quit iTunes. When I relaunched iTunes and tried to sync again, the above-cited error messages showed up.

Figuring that the iPad’s backup file might be corrupt, I went to the Devices section of iTunes Preferences and selected to delete the backup. I next restarted the Mac. No dice. The sync error persisted.