Backing up

There have been a few MRers who have posted 1st hand experience so hopefully they'll chime in on your thread - in the meantime here's a article to peruse

http://www.macworld.com/article/290...or-adding-storage-to-your-iphone-or-ipad.html

 

What are you backing up?
Properly written apps already save everything to the cloud. Photos / videos ( turn the iCloud photos on ) everything saved, pages, keynote, numbers documents saved to the cloud.

When I replace my phone, I just wipe it, pick up the new iPhone and log into my iCloud account. A couple of minutes, everything is available.

This is why I'm asking, "What are you backing up?". I really am curious to what the heck I'm missing out on! I must be doing something wrong, I never plug any of my iDevices into a computer.

 

A lot of users don't want anything to with iCloud and would prefer to back-up to an external drive - I am one of those so I too am looking for a back-up solution.

 

Thanks, that helps me understand.
I guess I completely cheat by having my iDevices managed. All my email accounts ( 3 ) get automatically added, all my apps get automatically reinstalled ( I do lose my level info on apps that do not persist data to the cloud - I'm looking at you Plants Vs Zombies ), photos come right back ( I normally log into iCloud and pull off any photos I REALLY want to keep forever and store them on a remote server - like the one attached ).

 

How do I say this without looking like a troll? I guess all I can do is type...

What is it about iCloud that makes you prefer to store something on an external drive?
I live in an area that gets hit by hurricanes, and have seen how fast a fire can ruin your day. I would hate to be called at work, rush home and see my house as a pile of ashes and think of all the data I just lost on my external drives. I'd hate to be on vacation and have a hurricane completely remove my house and foundation from the face of the earth and also have to deal with missing old pictures of my grandma or children that may have been stored on any local devices.

--- Post Merged, May 26, 2016 ---

That is very true, curse you Plants Vs Zombies!!!!

 

I travel a lot overseas and access to the Cloud can be challenging for a number of reasons plus I don't have an unlimited data plan domestically to move files up and down hence a portable external back-up is my preferred choice.

 

I travel quite a bit as well. Internet / coffee cafes (free, very inexpensive WiFi) each day keep my code versioning up to date, photos and the extra bits get uploaded to iCloud as well. I haven't been anywhere iCloud is NOT allowed yet.

But I completely understand that relying on that access is quite naive on my part. The external drive at least guarantees a bit redundancy.