Synching vs. Back-up

[Myron]

When connecting via cable my iPhone 5 to my PC, it offers me a choice of a back-up or a synch. What is the difference? Why does a synch take over 2 hours? Can a synch be done with the phone turned-off? I hate to waste the screen for 2 hours. Usually, I just want to make copies of new photos so how can I just safeguard the new photos into my PC without doing a total synch? Thanks for your help.

 

[willerz2]

Syncing and backing up are 2 different processes. Syncing is to ensure that whatever is on your iTunes library and iPhone are matching one another, so anything that's missing or new will be synced over. Backing up is when you create a backup/archive of everything on your phone, allowing you to perform a full restore of your device in the occasion that you need to restore your device or if you get a replacement device if your current device is broken.

 

[EWyatt]

Willerz... what I've never been able to understand is the "synching" concept on the iPhones. Simply put, will a "synch" put ALL data (pics, music, Contacts, etc) onto a PC's iTunes to match the iPhone, or will the synch put all that "stuff" that's on a PC (in iTunes) onto the iPhone? It's got to be one or the other, right?

Example: I somehow managed miraculously to put several gigabytes of music from iTunes to my iPhone. Now I want to delete all those files from my PC to recover hard drive space and only put NEW music files into my iTunes library. When I synch those NEW files, will all my music on the iPhone disappear and only transfer the new music files from iTunes?

Hope I got all that written clearly enough....

 

[willerz2]

It's from the PC to the phone. I personally do not use iTunes, and if I do, it's all manual drag and dropping, I never sync. But from my past experience, it views the changes from your PC compared to the phone, and whatever's missing, it would be added onto your device.

As for pulling data from the device like photos, you would import it from the device, which is separate from syncing in the general sense

 

[EWyatt]

Thanks, willerz... I understand, but in my scenario above where I delete all my iTunes Library music and put in a few new songs in the library, will my iPhone simply accept those few new songs and leave the rest of them in place on the phone? Or will iTunes delete all but those new ones?

Sorry to belabor this....

 

[willerz2]

It shouldn't affect the current songs. But generally, for syncing music and such, I'd recommend using Manual Sync instead.