[Tips & Tricks] Speed Up Your iPhone\iPodTouch Backups and Restores

If your iPhone backups and restores are taking a ridiculously long time, Apple suggests you take a quick peek at your Camera Roll.

In a new Knowledge Base article, Apple reminds users that photos are backed up each time you do a sync, even if there are no changes to the Camera Roll. The result can be a sluggish backup or restore.

If you already have the photos copied into iPhoto, you're good to erase them from the Camera Roll. Apple has some advice for getting the pictures back to your iPhone if you need to:

1. Ensure the iPhone is connected to your computer.
2. Open iTunes.
3. Select the iPhone in the Devices list in the left column.
4. Click the Photos tab.
5. Ensure that 'Sync photos from' is enabled and choose the appropriate source from the adjacent pop-up menu. For example, if you imported your photos into an application (like iPhoto), you would select that application in the list. If you imported your photos to a folder (using Image Capture, Scanner, and Camera Wizard, or Windows Photo Gallery), you would select 'Choose Folder' and then the folder in question.
6. Click Apply or Sync.

The article details procedures for Macs, Windows 7, XP, and Vista.

There are other things that can slow down backups, but regular backups will keep the times down. Also, if you've added a lot of new apps, your first backup after adding them can be pretty long, especially if you have a jailbroken iDevice.