IPad – How to stop iTunes from automatically backing up the iPad

Purpose of this folder:

When iTunes synchronizes photos to your iPod, it actually converts and resizes them into 16-bit bitmaps in resolutions appropriate for the iPod. It stores the converted photos in the iPod Photo Cache folder before transferring them to the iPod. This basically allows iTunes to quickly add/remove photos from your iPod without having to reconvert them every time. If you remove a photo album/folder from your iPod (by unchecking the box in iTunes preferences), it will still leave the pictures in the cache in case you want to add them again in the future.

Possible workaround:

Move the iPod Photo Cache folder to the location of your choice, and make an alias (shortcut) to the folder in its new location. Place the alias in the folder where the iPod Photo Cache originally was (usually in the Pictures folder) and make sure the alias is named "iPod Photo Cache". When iTunes looks for the iPod Photo Cache folder in the Pictures folder, it will instead find the alias, directing it to the new location.

You didn't specify the OS of the computer but on Windows that would be a junction point.

For Mac OS X, I had to use this guide: http://osxdaily.com/2011/03/05/how-to-move-the-iphoneipad-itunes-backup-folder-to-an-external-hard-drive/ and create a symbolic link to move the Backup folder, but it worked great.

The main thing is to move the Backup folder to an external drive/partition that has more space and then create a symbolic link like so:

ln -s /Volumes/YourExternalDrive/Backup/ ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

Then execute a Backup by syncing via iTunes to try it out.