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There are so many bugs in iOS that are years old and still unfixed. One example is the cellular-data draining bug[1]. The only "solution" for this is to wipe y

There are so many bugs in iOS that are years old and still unfixed. One example is the cellular-data draining bug[1]. The only "solution" for this is to wipe your device, and set it up again, without restoring any backups, at all. Which makes the whole point of backups of the device totally pointless. For a company that spent $6B+ on a (now mostly empty) campus, you'd think they could spare a few $million into proper QA/Testing. [1] https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/07/26/broken-ios-cellular-data-switch/ https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/07/26/broken-ios-cellular-data-...

pxeboot 5y ago
> Which makes the whole point of backups of the device totally pointless. Isn't this exactly how backups should work? Do you really want Apple deciding which settings/data are not important to you?
- aaomidi 5y ago
  Is this how backups work with your personal computers?
  - pxeboot 5y ago
    Yes, if I do a full restore, I expect all files and settings to be restored, including bugs present at the time the backup was made.
    - yegle 5y ago
      iOS backup apparently doesn't work like you described. E.g., when restoring a backup from iOS 14, it doesn't revert your system to iOS 14. Clearly there's a separation of restoring the executables and restoring the configs. I do expect "the config/setup that would trigger a battery drain in <iOS X" to be restored, but Apple can always fix iOS so that the same config/setup won't break >=iOS X.
    - aaomidi 5y ago
      If you do a full restore implies that you don't have to do that. And yeah as the other commenter said, that's not really how the ios one works.
- sebastien_b 5y ago
  The backups aren't the problem - what is the problem is Apple's "solution" to a clear bug being "don't restore from backups" (for the cellular-data draining bug). Instead of asking you to lose all your data as a workaround to a bad bug, they should actually fix that bug properly, so that it's no longer a bug. Likely the same with the bug described in this story - if someone ends up affected by it, they're basically pooched: they can't do any more new backups, and likely if they do restore from a previous backup where data exists that triggers this, they're just going to get into that same loop of problems. And because it's not a "high severity" (RCE) bug, it's likely never really going to get fixed as there are "workarounds for it" (read: wipe/setup the device and omit your data) or "other mitigations implemented already (previous versions of the OS be damned!)" as noted in the story.
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    I don’t see any indication that Apple recommends this workaround.
    - sebastien_b 5y ago
      I was told this by Apple when I brought up the problem through their “support” for the cellular drain issue.
      - bjoli 5y ago
        For the record, so was I, but by a repair/data-wipe technician.
- dv_dt 5y ago
  No but it would be nice to be able to selectively restore a subset of backups.
  - wang_li 5y ago
    Backups should be able to be merged with data on the phone. The use case is I want to travel overseas but I don't want various border control entities to make copies of my phone contents, so I back it up and reset the phone to factory defaults. Then I go on my trip and take pictures and receive texts and etc. When I get home I should be able to merge the pre-trip backup and the during trip stuff into a single set of contents on my phone.
mjsweet 5y ago
I had to do this last year. Three calls to Apple Support... in the end I just wiped the phone and started over. The first time in 10 years. I was burning through my entire quota in 20 days and then racking up $10 per Gb over the quota with Optus. Very frustrating.
- codeisawesome 5y ago
  Happened to me as well just a month or two ago! A total reset was the only fix…
kmlx 5y ago
i haven’t restored a backup on a new iphone in years. i was doing it for a while and always ran into issues. there were so many issues each time i restored that i simply didn’t have time for all the bs. since i stopped restoring everything went back to normal. now i just buy a new iphone every couple of years and simply set it up as new.

pxeboot 5y ago

> Which makes the whole point of backups of the device totally pointless. Isn't this exactly how backups should work? Do you really want Apple deciding which settings/data are not important to you?

aaomidi 5y ago
Is this how backups work with your personal computers?
- pxeboot 5y ago
  Yes, if I do a full restore, I expect all files and settings to be restored, including bugs present at the time the backup was made.
  - yegle 5y ago
    iOS backup apparently doesn't work like you described. E.g., when restoring a backup from iOS 14, it doesn't revert your system to iOS 14. Clearly there's a separation of restoring the executables and restoring the configs. I do expect "the config/setup that would trigger a battery drain in <iOS X" to be restored, but Apple can always fix iOS so that the same config/setup won't break >=iOS X.
  - aaomidi 5y ago
    If you do a full restore implies that you don't have to do that. And yeah as the other commenter said, that's not really how the ios one works.
sebastien_b 5y ago
The backups aren't the problem - what is the problem is Apple's "solution" to a clear bug being "don't restore from backups" (for the cellular-data draining bug). Instead of asking you to lose all your data as a workaround to a bad bug, they should actually fix that bug properly, so that it's no longer a bug. Likely the same with the bug described in this story - if someone ends up affected by it, they're basically pooched: they can't do any more new backups, and likely if they do restore from a previous backup where data exists that triggers this, they're just going to get into that same loop of problems. And because it's not a "high severity" (RCE) bug, it's likely never really going to get fixed as there are "workarounds for it" (read: wipe/setup the device and omit your data) or "other mitigations implemented already (previous versions of the OS be damned!)" as noted in the story.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  I don’t see any indication that Apple recommends this workaround.
  - sebastien_b 5y ago
    I was told this by Apple when I brought up the problem through their “support” for the cellular drain issue.
    - bjoli 5y ago
      For the record, so was I, but by a repair/data-wipe technician.
dv_dt 5y ago
No but it would be nice to be able to selectively restore a subset of backups.
- wang_li 5y ago
  Backups should be able to be merged with data on the phone. The use case is I want to travel overseas but I don't want various border control entities to make copies of my phone contents, so I back it up and reset the phone to factory defaults. Then I go on my trip and take pictures and receive texts and etc. When I get home I should be able to merge the pre-trip backup and the during trip stuff into a single set of contents on my phone.

mjsweet 5y ago

I had to do this last year. Three calls to Apple Support... in the end I just wiped the phone and started over. The first time in 10 years. I was burning through my entire quota in 20 days and then racking up $10 per Gb over the quota with Optus. Very frustrating.

codeisawesome 5y ago
Happened to me as well just a month or two ago! A total reset was the only fix…

kmlx 5y ago

i haven’t restored a backup on a new iphone in years. i was doing it for a while and always ran into issues. there were so many issues each time i restored that i simply didn’t have time for all the bs. since i stopped restoring everything went back to normal. now i just buy a new iphone every couple of years and simply set it up as new.