Lifehacker [Japan version] Reprinted from an article published on August 16, 2021
It has long been said that iCloud should never be used as a primary backup service, and a disastrous encounter with a Google employee is a reminder of this.
Erin Sparling lost years of drawings and other data due to Apple's policy to "delete old iCloud backups."
What Happened?
Sparling backed up the iPad to iCloud in late 2020 and erased the data from the iPad so his family could use it to teach. said on Twitter.
Later, over 6 months later, I bought a new iPad and tried to restore the iCloud backup.
That's when he realized his iCloud backup was gone.
The data is not stored anywhere else, so there is no way to access years of data. So how did this happen?
Why Do iCloud Backups Disappear?
That's because Apple has a policy to delete obsolete iCloud backups 180 days after they've been disabled or unused by the user. .
This is documented on the Apple Support page under the heading "Delete backups and turn off iCloud backups on your device."
There is nothing wrong with this policy. Data that is no longer needed or used cannot be stored forever, and it increases server costs and is probably bad for the environment.
However, Apple's big mistake in this case is not to warn the user that the backup is about to be automatically deleted.
Many people can avoid unnecessary loss of data by emailing reminders to restore a backup to a new device before deleting.
When you turn off your iCloud backups, it would be nice if Apple gave you a clear warning about the date your backups will be automatically deleted.
What's next for Apple?
Giving users the option to keep these backups longer, in exchange for a small fee, isn't such a bad idea for Apple. is not.
As Sparling pointed out on Twitter, the problem is that "Apple's version of the abandoned data is not his own."
For a giant company like Apple, automatically deleting data when it is no longer in use is a reasonable policy.
However, that may not be enough. Losing a few gigabytes of data can be devastating to some people, even if it's not a big enough problem for Apple to pay attention to.
Backing up to a location other than iCloud is recommended
Until Apple decides to fix this issue, iCloud is not the only backup service and should be used for additional backups. We recommend using it as a service.
For example, you can easily back up your iPhone or iPad to your PC at the same time you create an iCloud backup.
Source: Twitter, Apple
Original Article: Thinking of Using iCloud Backups on Your iPhone? Read This First by MakeUseOf
