Biggest problem with iOS

[Small White Car]

What is the problem with this scenario? YOU NEED to use SAME APPLE ID to sync mail and calendar, photos, videos, etc between devices.

...because you need same Apple ID across all devices for sync of Apps, Music, etc to work automatically and correctly.

No you don't.

You can have your mail + another iCloud's mail on your device.
You can have your calendar + another iCloud's calendar on your device.
You can share videos on devices with different iCloud accounts, but iTunes-bought and those not.
You can buy one app or one song and have it sync across different devices with different iCloud accounts.

The ONLY thing you can't share is a Photostream. Yeah, that's a bummer. I agree.

So you got one right. But the rest of your massive complaint is complete hooey. Stop spreading misinformation.

 

[The Doctor11]

*Facepalm* you get 5 gigs of free storage. It you need more than that you can go upgrade it and you only need one iOS device and you still keep your 5 fee gigs. What's wrong with this?

 

[dcp10]

OP's point: If the purchase of a device awards 5 GB of cloud space, it would be fair and logical to award 5 GB for each additional device (which it does, provided you don't combine them).

iCloud is a separate service for which Apple gives 5GB space for free to anyone to provide basic functionality. Nowhere have they said or implied purchase of any device included space in iCloud.

 

[McGiord]

You can get an iCloud account without an Apple iDevice. Like with Google, and Microsofts, etc.
I think Apple can make a significant difference by giving us iCloud Match = cloud storage matching the size of the Apple device.
If you buy an 64GB iPad then you have 64GB in iCloud…MacBook Air with 256GB SSD, then you have 256GB…and so on...

 

[The Doctor11]

You can get an iCloud account without an Apple iDevice. Like with Google, and Microsofts, etc.
I think Apple can make a significant difference by giving us iCloud Match = cloud storage matching the size of the Apple device.
If you buy an 64GB iPad then you have 64GB in iCloud…MacBook Air with 256GB SSD, then you have 256GB…and so on...

But what for? iCloud only counts the data not things like apps and music. And the only ones benefiting from that is us so apple won't do it.

 

[gaanee]

You can get an iCloud account without an Apple iDevice. Like with Google, and Microsofts, etc.
I think Apple can make a significant difference by giving us iCloud Match = cloud storage matching the size of the Apple device.
If you buy an 64GB iPad then you have 64GB in iCloud…MacBook Air with 256GB SSD, then you have 256GB…and so on...

Well.. at least it gives more incentive to go for a higher capacity model, but then if you have higher capacity you probably may not even need icloud except for syncing between devices.

 

[cynics]

I find my iPhone and iPad have similar apps for the most part so if you have both it's not that big of a deal. If you have multiple iPhones with a lot of pictures I'd suggest off loading some/all of the photos from the device you don't carry around to a computer or another free online storage service.

I carry a lot of photos on my phone so I upgraded my iCloud storage to 15 gb.

Would it be nice to get 5gb per device? Yes. However I don't have a problem with the way it's currently handled.

 

[GreyOS]

To those saying you should be grateful for the 5GB you get, come on, stop treating Apple like your master. Nothing wrong with wanting more especially when paying for a premium device.

A Google account gets you 15gb - this covers email, photos and cloud storage - all for free.

Apple *will* up the amount you get for free one day (imagine if hotmail was still only offering 250mb like it was 10 years ago). I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

 

[BaldiMac]

To those saying you should be grateful for the 5GB you get, come on, stop treating Apple like your master. Nothing wrong with wanting more especially when paying for a premium device.

I agree.

A Google account gets you 15gb - this covers email, photos and cloud storage - all for free.

Again, if you are including photo storage, Apple offers close to a terabyte of free storage through shared photo streams.

Apple *will* up the amount you get for free one day (imagine if hotmail was still only offering 250mb like it was 10 years ago). I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

Yep!

 

[Dontazemebro]

Or you could purchase more storage options and not feel entitled that Apple is required to give you more than 5GB.

Just a thought.

 

[GreyOS]

Or you could purchase more storage options and not feel entitled that Apple is required to give you more than 5GB.

Just a thought.

Weird.

 

[phr0ze]

... For example, if I have one iPhone, I get 5 Gigabytes for backup, email etc. If I get an iPad, I would get 5 GB for that device.

Wrong. You get 5GB per account not per device. It doesn't matter if you own 50 devices or 1 device. You get 5GB even if you don't own any devices.

I think they should allow an Apple ID (and associated iCloud) account to have more than 5GB, ....

They do allow this. Just pay for it.

Your logic is just wrong. Apple isn't giving you 5GB as a reward for buying the device. Apple has a separate service called icloud which you can use if you like. They give you a generous 5GB free. If your storage requirements are more, then you can buy more. Nothing makes you use icloud with your device. You can choose to backup to itunes.

 

[Wegee]

To those saying you should be grateful for the 5GB you get, come on, stop treating Apple like your master. Nothing wrong with wanting more especially when paying for a premium device.

A Google account gets you 15gb - this covers email, photos and cloud storage - all for free.

Apple *will* up the amount you get for free one day (imagine if hotmail was still only offering 250mb like it was 10 years ago). I just hope it's sooner rather than later.

This.
Also, and I really hope they'll do one day, a selective backup via icloud control panel or the web interface.

The way the backup works now is simply primitive. Backup all->restore all?
Has someone tried to delete all the picture from camera roll without a computer with ios7 (since we are speaking of cut the cord...)? No? Lucky you, because you need to do that picture by picture or group by group, and if you have thousands pictures is ridiculous.

 

[179202]

FWIW, Apple also includes around a terabyte of free photo storage through shared photo streams.

I'm just starting to do this now. I have a feeling it's a baby step towards a completely iCloud photo library offering from Apple.

It could be a little more intuitive for 'the rest of us' (folk who aren't on this forum). It's a great feature. If they offered something like an 'Make my photos and albums available via iCloud' option when setting up an iDevice or loaded iPhoto. Would take the headache out of it all I think.

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This.
Also, and I really hope they'll do one day, a selective backup via icloud control panel or the web interface.

The way the backup works now is simply primitive. Backup all->restore all?
Has someone tried to delete all the picture from camera roll without a computer with ios7 (since we are speaking of cut the cord...)? No? Lucky you, because you need to do that picture by picture or group by group, and if you have thousands pictures is ridiculous.

What we're talking about is essentially the same as versioning and Time Machine on a file-by-file or app-by-app basis. It would be great.

 

[jrswizzle]

The biggest problem with iOS and iOS devices is the glue between iOS devices. Namely the requirement that the service of iCloud be the only way to sync between devices. For example, if I have one iPhone, I get 5 Gigabytes for backup, email etc. If I get an iPad, I would get 5 GB for that device. HOWEVER, I would need to create different Apple ID accounts for all my iOS devices, AND ONLY THEN do I get 5GB per device. If I use the same Apple ID for all the devices then ONLY 5 GB is used for ALL devices!

What is the problem with this scenario? YOU NEED to use SAME APPLE ID to sync mail and calendar, photos, videos, etc between devices. Which means if you have more than 1 iOS device, there are NOT ENOUGH STORAGE to do backups. YOU CAN'T SYNC unless you forgo backups, because backups will use up all of your 5GB if you use more than 1 iOS device.

Why can't they make it so that you can get 5GB PER iOS device, instead of forcing 5GB per Apple ID? This means everyone will be forced to use different Apple ID per iOS device in order to get enough free storage to do basic mail, backups, etc. Different IDs means NONE of those devices will sync with each other, making iCloud USELESS because you need same Apple ID across all devices for sync of Apps, Music, etc to work automatically and correctly.

So what is happening to people who buy more than 1 iOS device? They end up not using the same Apple ID, so iCloud is useless. Or they end up not doing backups or email (because not enough space, rendering all iCloud services useless because once you reach 5GB, all syncing operations halt).

I think they should allow an Apple ID (and associated iCloud) account to have more than 5GB, specifically, 5GB PER iOS device added to the same Apple ID account. So if you have 5 iOS devices, you can use one Apple ID that has 25GB of storage.

To be honest this isn't an issue.

(1) Its really not expensive to buy more storage. I have 15 GB for all my iOS devices and I pay something like $25/YEAR for it.

(2) Really after your main device, the others take up FAR less space in iCloud. For example, my main device takes us 1.6 GB on iCloud, then the second only takes up half that at 891 MB.

Plus, you're already getting free storage for things like music, documents and pictures.

Really, if THIS is your only problem with iOS, you're grasping at straws. I'm an iOS guy, but there are other annoyances that exist. This isn't one of them.

 

[charlituna]

The biggest problem with iOS and iOS devices is the glue between iOS devices. Namely the requirement that the service of iCloud be the only way to sync between devices.

I don't know where you are getting this notion that you must use iCloud and only iCloud to sync between two devices cause that is totally wrong. There are lots of ways to sync information without going near iCloud.

And if you really have to keep more than 5GB of app data, photos etc on your two devices then you should buy more storage. Tons of folks do just fine with only 5GB having sometimes 4-5 devices on the account, making it hardly THE biggest problem of iOS even with it being your biggest problem.

So what is happening to people who buy more than 1 iOS device? They end up not using the same Apple ID, so iCloud is useless.

as I said, tons of folks do just fine with one account, 5GB and two devices even if you can't handle it.

And from some of your other comments I'm not sure you really understand what is backed up and what isn't. You mention basic mail. Guess what, for the vast majority of users, that isn't in the iCloud backups because they are using an IMAP based service and the server has the emails to dish back out as needed. Same with your apps, purchased music etc. All on the server to come back as needed from the iTunes server so not in the backups. Synced content isn't backed up on the assumption it's on the computer that put it there originally to do it again. And so on.

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The bizarre inability to merge Apple IDs is arguably a far worse problem.

It's a legal issue more than anything else. They need an ironclad way to validate ownership of the accounts and thus far they don't have one that would make every state and country happy.

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Fine print and experience though in fact turn out being that you get the 5GB only for the first device and the 5GB from every other device go out of the window if you want to use the stuff as designed. So it really borders on false advertising to some degree. I think it's a legitimate question and criticism.

No where in the 'advertising' does it even imply that every device gets anything. It's very clear that it's 5GB per account, not device.

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Here is the iCloud back up list directly from Apple.

Photos and videos in your Camera Roll - The more photos you keep on your phone and in the cloud the more space it uses (assuming you have photo stream on).

actually photo stream usage isn't part of that 5GB. it's literally just what's in your camera roll.

[QUOTE
App data -Not a lot of apps have an option to store data in the cloud and the ones that do barely use any space (saved games go here){/quote}

but most still have data files that will be backed up. And some of those apps have large amounts of data. So depending on what you use that can be as big as your camera roll etc

Ringtones - I don't even know why this is mentioned since you download it from iTunes

Because unlike music, movies, ibooks etc, ringtones and audiobooks can't be redownloaded.

 

[lovewd]

At one point I did only have like 200MB of free space,(with both my iPad and iPhone) but the good thing is it's easy to manage space in iCloud. Just delete large backups and make new ones that aren't backing up massive things and it will be fine. But hey, additional free storage wouldn't hurt

 

[abshole765]

I only have two devices (no videos, few photos) and it takes up two gig. I can relate to those saying it isn't enough.

 

[Armen]

I only have two devices (no videos, few photos) and it takes up two gig. I can relate to those saying it isn't enough.

Would you breakdown your iCloud data usage by going to manage storage on your devices and list what is taking up so much space? My combined backups for 2 devices is 200MB.

 

[VinegarTasters]

big problem with ios 7

I should add more information so that people are aware of how big of a problem this could be (5GB per Apple ID account). All the iOS devices (the more recent ones) record video in 1080p using the built-in camera. There is no setting you can change it to use 720p or other lower resolution (or framerate). So what happens is that a 5-10minute video takes up about 1 to 2GB of storage (depending on the complexity of the scenery). Take about 3 videos on one device and you are already over your 5GB storage, so forget about backing it up. Suppose you keep deleting to make it fit into 5GB on your iPhone. Then you record on an iPad sharing the same Apple ID. Guess what? No more backups, as it will complain about lack of storage, as your iPad uses the same Apple ID for iCloud sync. So what do to? Yep make 2 Apple ID's and don't use iCloud.

Lets say you play a game that uses a sandbox environment. Games like The Blockheads, Terraria, Minecraft, etc stores data on your phone or ipad. If they are not backed up, and you accidentally wipe your phone or the firmware upgrade had problems requiring a restore... guess what? Your game is toast because iTunes will only download the app code, missing the data that stores your progress. Games like these eat up a lot of storage, especially when you create different worlds.

Also, there is a big design problem with the current setup. If I use the same Apple ID across all my iOS devices, and someone calls the iPhone facetime, my iPad will also ring (my Mac too if it is same account). They should make it so that each device by default is able to be called even if they all share the same Apple ID. iMessage too. That way you can call PERSON's iPhone and PERSON's iPad, etc. Just like you can call PERSON's Home phone and PERSON's Work phone. If you want them to sync, THEN you add that feature (via forwarding, etc). The current way is not intuitive. Have you ever heard 3 same GameCenter notifications on 3 devices, one following the other whenever someone challenges you or something like that? Or an iMessage that makes a sound across all three devices? Or Facetime across all three devices? It makes for one noisy redundant design setup. Adding a suffix to the Apple ID denoting device when calling via facetime, imessage, etc is not that hard to do. It should be as simple as choosing Home Phone or Work Phone in a contact list. It is very rare that people will carry all three devices at one time. If you leave the iPad and Mac at home and carry the iPhone, it is more intuitive that they don't ring when your iPhone is called (via facetime or imessage). Just like if you are not at home, someone calling your mobile phone should not ring your home phone or work phone (and other people that is not you picking it up). If you want forwarding service, set it up forwarding via phone company (and in this analogy using icloud to set up forwarding from iPad to iPhone etc). Separating it out (but using same Apple ID), would allow you to call your iPad with your iPhone, and vice versa. You can loan your iPad to someone and call them, and they can call your iPhone... without going through the trouble of deleting account and restoring the phone, etc.

 

[Eso]

Why would you need more than 5 GB of storage for your files and data? Ok, sure... your desktop has twenty times as much and your phone and tablet have three times as much storage, but so what? That's just for marketing purposes so they can advertise how many GB they have.

Besides, it's easier to upload a file to the internet on one device and download it on other than it is to transfer it directly between them over WiFi anyways. If your iCloud starts to get full, no problem! Just delete files from it and it will automatically delete them from all of your devices as well (for your convenience). Just think of it as iCloud effectively turning the 32 GB storage on your phone to 5 GB - by magic!

You just aren't seeing the power of the cloud!

 

[mdear]

{snipped because life's too short}

You really seem quite agitated by this, but it appears that you'd rather be agitated than spend $20 or $40 a year to upgrade your storage. So, good luck with that, I suppose.

 

[goobot]

How DARE Apple cut the cord and give me a cloud solution so I don't have to rely on iTunes anymore for my backup!

How DARE they only give me 5GB for FREE and charge me if I need more!

It's not free, that 5 gigs is included in your device purchase price, so when you have 3 devices you are getting ripped off since you don't get 15 gigs.

 

[Armen]

It's not free, that 5 gigs is included in your device purchase price, so when you have 3 devices you are getting ripped off since you don't get 15 gigs.

Uh, the iPhone has been the same price since 2007. iCloud wasn't available until 2011 and even when it debuted the iPhone's price still did not change. So yes, it IS free and also retroactively supported older models at no additional cost.

 

[goobot]

Uh, the iPhone has been the same price since 2007. iCloud wasn't available until 2011 and even when it debuted the iPhone's price still did not change. So yes, it IS free and also retroactively supported older models at no additional cost.

Wrong, the iPhone 2g,3g,3gs, and 4 were 600$ and in 2011 the 4s and on are 650$

Also newer phones have new features, this is a new feature, so even if the price didn't change it is included in the price.

Yes it supported the 3gs and 4, big whoop, it gets people to upgrade again to newer devices and then pay for it there.