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Compared to Google, moving out of icloud is mostly pretty easy (mail, photos, contacts, calendars, files). imessages, safari tabs and bookmarks, and health dat
by gumby 3y ago
Compared to Google, moving out of icloud is mostly pretty easy (mail, photos, contacts, calendars, files). imessages, safari tabs and bookmarks, and health data less so, but not sure there are many others from Apple.
Proprietary programs that store their data in icloud are harder to export but that's the problem of the app vendors. This includes Apple office apps like Pages or Numbers, but for them at least you can use applescript to export those files in non-apple formats. Easier than Google, TBH.
- Gigachad 3y agoGoogle has Takeout which makes it pretty trivial to export everything.
- ishanjain28 3y agoDoes takeout include backups to drive made by applications on your phone?
- TheNewsIsHere 3y agoApple also has a Takeout-style service, although it is unavailable when Advanced Protection E2E is (edit: ~~available~~) enabled (arguably understandable that exporting a bunch of encrypted blobs is not helpful to most users). You can also revoke iCloud web access from an authenticated Apple device, which disables the exporter service too.
- TheNewsIsHere 3y agoI’ve done an absolute ton of iCloud data management in the past few years and one of the most frustrating things is how easy some data exporting is, but is not documented at all. For example, you can copy a list of every URL open in a Tab Group, and just paste it somewhere. Unless you have a ton of Tab Groups, it’s the fastest way I’ve found. I never have more than 20 or so, so it’s barely worth scripting. On Macs, depending on your configuration and apps, a lot (or all) of the app-specific iCloud data is synced to the local file system. Finder refuses to interact with that hierarchy, but Terminal and third party file browsers don’t care. Not that it shouldn’t be even easier, mind you. I think it absolutely should.