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Hello, I would like to introduce you to the average user who doesn't understand backups.

by vmasto 10y ago

eridius 10y ago
You don't need to understand backups, you just need to follow the prompts to set up iCloud and turn on backups, at which point it all happens seamlessly without you worrying about it.
- chadgeidel 10y ago
  Unless iCloud is being stupid and your paltry couple-hundred megabyte phone won't back up to 5GB free storage. No info other than a "backup failed" message. Or a phone backup mysteriously decides to make a 2nd copy and there are no tools to delete the first. Both of these things have happened to me. I'll pay for iCloud backup when the tooling improves, not before.
  - eridius 10y ago
    What do you mean, no tools to delete the first? There certainly are tools to cull stuff from your backups. The simplest way is to open the iCloud preference pane on OS X, and click "Manage". It then gives you a comprehensive list of everything in iCloud, including all backups. You can also do this on your iPhone by going to iCloud preferences, tapping Storage, and tapping Manage Storage. IIRC, the dialog about having no space even offers a button to manage your storage (though I haven't seen it in a while so I can't confirm that).
    - chadgeidel 10y ago
      Yep, and after doing all of that I still couldn't delete the backup. I tried deleting it from the iPhone iCloud UI as well as the iCloud settings UI on the Mac. Neither option actually deleted the backup. For giggles I tried to dig around in the iCloud drive app but that doesn't expose anything. The Web UI is equally useless. It would be nice to have a button that just "resets all iCloud storage" but that doesn't exist either. I did find a workaround. Back up phone manually (in iTunes), wipe phone, restore the (months old) iCloud backup. I was able to delete the "newer" iCloud backup after that. I then restored my backup from the computer and the iCloud backup mysteriously started working again (registered as a single backup for my phone instead of two). This was all over a year ago, so maybe they fixed it since then. The other phone on another account still won't back up to iCloud. The backup size is a fraction of the "free space" on that iCloud account and the error message is still the cryptic "failed to back up" message.
- andrei_says_ 10y ago
  Set up iCloud and back up the 200+gigs on my phone? Possibly via LTE?
- devopsproject 10y ago
  All I ever saw was "This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough storage".
  - glasz 10y ago
    and that's the thing. i just recently had to deal with an iphone owner who had backups enabled. but his 6 gb of photos just don't fit on the standard 5gb free icloud storage. ppl just don't want to pay for backup space. now imagine ppl with 256gb phones. they are supposed to pump even more ridiculous amounts of money into tim's ass just for storage. don't get me wrong. in general i think apple's prices are justified. but icloud storage with ppl having backup enabled by default ist just one giant rip-off.
    - devopsproject 10y ago
      I think it is less about paying than understanding what it is actually doing with your files. I know a few reasonably intelligent people who could not tell you what their paid iCloud is Apple did create a nice little automatic revenue generator. It forces you to pay apple, disabled backups (with scary delete messages), or trying to navigate the backup interface to cull things to stay withing the 5 gb limit.

Hello, I would like to introduce you to the average user who doesn't understand backups.

by vmasto 10y ago

Hello, I would like to introduce you to the average user who doesn't understand backups.

You don't need to understand backups, you just need to follow the prompts to set up iCloud and turn on backups, at which point it all happens seamlessly without you worrying about it.

chadgeidel 10y ago
Unless iCloud is being stupid and your paltry couple-hundred megabyte phone won't back up to 5GB free storage. No info other than a "backup failed" message. Or a phone backup mysteriously decides to make a 2nd copy and there are no tools to delete the first. Both of these things have happened to me. I'll pay for iCloud backup when the tooling improves, not before.
- eridius 10y ago
  What do you mean, no tools to delete the first? There certainly are tools to cull stuff from your backups. The simplest way is to open the iCloud preference pane on OS X, and click "Manage". It then gives you a comprehensive list of everything in iCloud, including all backups. You can also do this on your iPhone by going to iCloud preferences, tapping Storage, and tapping Manage Storage. IIRC, the dialog about having no space even offers a button to manage your storage (though I haven't seen it in a while so I can't confirm that).
  - chadgeidel 10y ago
    Yep, and after doing all of that I still couldn't delete the backup. I tried deleting it from the iPhone iCloud UI as well as the iCloud settings UI on the Mac. Neither option actually deleted the backup. For giggles I tried to dig around in the iCloud drive app but that doesn't expose anything. The Web UI is equally useless. It would be nice to have a button that just "resets all iCloud storage" but that doesn't exist either. I did find a workaround. Back up phone manually (in iTunes), wipe phone, restore the (months old) iCloud backup. I was able to delete the "newer" iCloud backup after that. I then restored my backup from the computer and the iCloud backup mysteriously started working again (registered as a single backup for my phone instead of two). This was all over a year ago, so maybe they fixed it since then. The other phone on another account still won't back up to iCloud. The backup size is a fraction of the "free space" on that iCloud account and the error message is still the cryptic "failed to back up" message.
andrei_says_ 10y ago
Set up iCloud and back up the 200+gigs on my phone? Possibly via LTE?
devopsproject 10y ago
All I ever saw was "This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough storage".
- glasz 10y ago
  and that's the thing. i just recently had to deal with an iphone owner who had backups enabled. but his 6 gb of photos just don't fit on the standard 5gb free icloud storage. ppl just don't want to pay for backup space. now imagine ppl with 256gb phones. they are supposed to pump even more ridiculous amounts of money into tim's ass just for storage. don't get me wrong. in general i think apple's prices are justified. but icloud storage with ppl having backup enabled by default ist just one giant rip-off.
  - devopsproject 10y ago
    I think it is less about paying than understanding what it is actually doing with your files. I know a few reasonably intelligent people who could not tell you what their paid iCloud is Apple did create a nice little automatic revenue generator. It forces you to pay apple, disabled backups (with scary delete messages), or trying to navigate the backup interface to cull things to stay withing the 5 gb limit.