Mark Wagner - Yet Another Blog

I got tired of waiting for my iPhone to auto-backup when I quickly wanted to sync a few songs or videos before going to bed.  A quick Google search brought up a bunch of results for Mac, but not much for Windows.  After some searching, I found the solution to disable the auto-backup.  I wrote a little program that will enable or disable the auto-backup feature in iTunes when you plug in your iPhone.

It requires .NET 3.5 SP1.  If you aren’t sure if you have it, the program will let you know when you try to open it.

Download QuickDisable

This program was designed and tested on Vista, though it will work fine on XP.  You may have to define the locate of iTunesPrefs.xml if the program can’t find it.

If you want to disable the auto-backup feature in iTunes manually, follow these steps:

1. Locate iTunesPrefs.xml by going to Start->Run and typing %appdata%\Apple Computer\iTunes and hit OK.
2. Backup iTunesPrefs.xml
3. Open iTunesPrefs.xml and search for <key>User Preferences</key>
4. Under the next <dict> add the following:
   • <key>DeviceBackupsDisabled</key>
     <data>
     dHJ1ZQ==
     </data>
5. Save your changes and restart iTunes.  Auto-backup is now disabled.

NOTE: Be sure that you enable auto-backup every so often to get a fresh backup.  It would be a sad thing to be in a position where you have to restore your iPhone but your using a backup that is a few months old.

QuickDisable does not have any type of warranty or guarantee, you are using QuickDisable at your own risk.  I hold absolutely no responsibility for any damages it may cause.