Yesterday my partner’s Android phone broke and some worry ensued over lost data (especially Whatsapp histories). In the end we will have the screen repaired to access things and squeeze some more life out of the device, but it got me thinking…
I have belt-and-braces backup routines for my MBP. But I don’t back up my iPhone or Ipad, and I never have. Moving to a new device is so simple, but I’ve never considered these need to separately be backed up in the event of damage or theft.
I am on the free tier with iCloud (an no desire to pay for more since I already pay for Dropbox, and I get OneDrive from work), and only use it to sync some app data between iOS and MacOS. That means I don’t have enough space to back up full devices. So I am wondering…
can you backup selected data to iCloud from your i-devices? I’d be interested in retaining apps and settings, but almost entirely unbothered by in-app data stored on the devices because virtually all is loaded from server-side applications (ToDoist; Outlook; DevonTHINK, Spotify; Podcasts; Drafts). All my photos are backed up to Google Photos).
are there alternative back-up services (not iCloud?) that are worth considering?
are there other easy ways to restore a potentially lost or damaged device?
@WayneG has listed all the options dealing with backups for your iPhone that is not iCloud as far as I am concerned.
I am using iCloud backup. As of now, my iPhone is using 105 GB locally. I have iCloud Backup turned on. I have just checked: the iPhone is using 8.4 GB of backup space in iCloud. What I am trying to say here is that turning on iCloud backup does not necessarily have a huge impact on the amount of data being stored in iCloud. Apple does quite a good job to only backup what really has to be backed up. Huge iCloud storage “killers” typically are photos and iCloud Drive - if used.
There are no options to select the data you want to backup to iCloud. It is either iCloud backup being turned on or off.
iMazing does an awesome job of backing up stuff locally and automatically as long as you are within WiFi range on a regular basis.
I do not think that there is another cloud solution that offers the same features iCloud is offering. I think it might be related to iOS and security restrictions.
And of course there is always the free solution connecting the iPhone via a cable to the Mac. But it is a hassle that might be an issue on a day to day basis (I for sure would forget doing so regularly).
This didn’t used to be the case, but when I’ve gone to look the options have been removed.
Per Christian’s experience, I have 126gb of storage used on my phone, my iCloud backup is 19gb.
The money paid for iCloud space is worth it, especially for backup. If anything happens to your phone. There are 3 steps
Buy new phone
Restore from backup
Wait for restore to finish
Any other solution will be more cumbersome and require much more time to get back to where you were and there’s a chance you’ll lose more data. (I.e. the window since the last time you backed up will be longer)
I’m looking into getting the middle tier of iCloud storage at 50gb or 200GB (£0.99 or £2.99 per month in the UK), and see how I go. The latter should be enough then to back up both devices.
Thanks to all for your views. I knew you’d (mostly…) advise me send more money Apple’s way…
Experience has taught me that there might be some important data somewhere that I don’t know exists. So I back up all my devices, using multiple methods, to multiple locations. My monthly cost to do this is less than I spent at Starbucks this morning and with the exception of testing my backups occasionally it is all automatic. YMMV
Sadly, Apple has never produced a backup application for mobile that allows for granular restoration of data. This is a bad move for the user and disallows some really useful troubleshooting/emergency procedures. It’s definitely something that could be done but it’s likely they never will.
I don’t backup my iPhone or iPad to iCloud, largely because Apple can access them. Now that they’ve introduced Advanced Data Protection, I may revisit that.
I do backup my iDevices to my home server (Mac Mini) which, in turn, gets backed up via TimeMachine and BackBlaze. Whether or not I choose to enable iCloud backup, I will continue to do local backups because (if they’re encrypted) they preserve more data and make recovery easier.
This may be true, but in 10+ years of using an iphone and nearly as long with an iPad has never been an issue.
I do have some processes though. I only allow people to email documents, never to send them via messaging systems. All my passwords are in a password manager that connects with my laptop. All my daily drivers; Craft, Ulysses, Things, Logos, and Ninox, sync to my desktop.
In the good old days on ios apps stored their data in the app. This is now not the case and removes the need for me to backup the device. I used to be fussed with message threads, but 99% of this is now on Whatsapp and has a 90 day deletion set by default. This makes me copy out any data I might need.
I don’t back up my phone, but I backup my Mac and that has everything on it. There’s nothing in any messaging app such as WhatsApp that I’d really miss.
On a couple of occasions I’ve had to recover personal files that had been deleted more than three years earlier. Once I had to recover accounting files for one of our executives that had been deleted for almost seven years. And I know of two businesses, that did not test their backups, that closed their doors within 30 days of a major data loss.
I guess forty years of watching people lose their data has made me a bit of a backup “enthusiast”.
Not quite correct, when I tap on Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → iCloud Backup → (device name) to get to the backup detail screen there’s a list off apps + app data with toggles next to each app to turn off those apps one does not wish to be backed up.
All pf the third party apps and a couple of Apple apps show in that list, but the majority of pre-installed Apple apps do not show up in the list.
I have totally forgotten about that thread. Thank you for reminding me. I have to admit that I have not been using iMazing for automatic backups in the more recent past. So I did not experience these issues that have been introduced with the mentioned iOS update.
@liminal, thank you for pointing out those options for more granularity in backing up app data in iCloud.
I know that I probably do sound like a fanboy saying this, but I just turn on iCloud backups and then I do not really think about it any longer.
In a household with 4 iPhones and 4 iPads, I pay (now) £8.99 for 2TB of storage which means that we’re all backed up and can access our photos at any time.
We also have a shared Photo Library. My youngest daughter alone has about 300GB of photos.
A few times we’re had to reset to factory defaults and restore and the grief it’s saved me is worth it.
But of course everyone needs to make their own decision. I’m lucky that I can afford it. iCloud storage is on my 2nd level of priority for bills that must be paid I.e. not “Nice to have” but not “We’ll be living In a cardboard box if we don’t pay this”
I still use iMazing to back up bith iPad and iPhone but it’s not automatic anymore. I will not use iCloud for backup.
However, a big gotcha is that I am now months into a bug in Calendar where I cannot backup or restore calendars on any mobile device from my Mac. The formerly tried and true method of connecting via cable, selecting info and then selecting to sync calendars does not work. Worse, I cannot overwrite whatever is on my iPhone with what is on my Mac (the canonical source for my calendar) After going through factory resets, trying to sync only individual calendars at a time, safe morde, new user and more it still is broken. Just like the printcalednar to list format if I want more than 15 days in the list still crashes the Calendar app.
I have to admit that I have not been using iMazing for automatic backups in the more recent past. So I did not experience these issues that have been introduced with the mentioned iOS update.
I’m not on a percentage.