Bug in iOS 8's 'Reset All Settings' Option Also Erases iCloud Drive Documents

[Tech198]

opps..


This should have been done on April Fools Day, cos it sure sound like it when half of u go nuts about it being a bad thing

To this degree, if its a bad as it sounds, then why didn't people keep backups ?

Maybe half of the users shouldn't *just* rely on cloud ?

We are coming to expect this now, being so convenient and all.

I have a local backup of everything, even in the cloud under all cases. I'm actually more shocked most Apple users don't do the same than this bug.

 

[moxin]

looks like OS X Yosemite will reset your life

 

[antonis]

Internet keeps getting better these days, isn't it ?

First we learned that if you apply excessive force on a thin aluminum device, it will skew and bend, and that aluminum is not as resistant as steel.

Now we learn that software released to the public sometimes has bugs.

I just can't wait for the next amazing revelation.

 

[Analog Kid]

You mean you don't have a backup of the documents? You saved them to Apple's servers and figured they were safe?

Wow. Just wow.

People need to get off this argument like it lets Apple off the hook. Cloud services are crap, but if a vendor is going to make it look like your data is on 3 of your devices and sitting in your file system, and tell you that you don't need a computer at all anymore, then they should be held to account when the house of cards comes down.

Come on Apple. testing for this sort of software glitch is very rudimentary stuff...I love Apple and I have defended iOS 8 vociferously but I am really starting to get sick of this instability.

Actually, of all the bugs I've seen, I think this was the easiest to miss in testing. I'm guessing that hitting "reset everything" makes a series of calls to various other reset routines, one of which is basically "reset iCloud". That routine is more aggressive in resetting than it should have been, apparently.

This probably fell in the cracks between the iOS QA team and the iCloud QA team. Testing on iOS probably just confirmed that the log in credentials were cleared.

It should have been tested, it's catastrophic because it's data loss, a top tier software developer should have a process in place to cover this, but I hesitate to call it rudimentary.

8.0.1 killing cell service on a cell phone? That's rudimentary.

…And this is why the "cloud" idea is the stupidest idea mankind has come up with in the last century. It's neither safe nor reliable. Doesn't matter who the provider is.

Cloud service are nice as a temporary transport for information, but that's all. Your data is only safe in your own hands - maintain, backup, secure it.

Creating an ecosystem that is *dependent* on the "cloud" is fraught with danger, as so many have just learned.

Shout it from the rooftops, brother! Can I get an 'Amen!'? Can I get a 'Hallelujah!'?

[the irony is that mankind has come up with this one at least half a dozen times in the last century, always with the same end]

 

[DJMeat]

So one person has this issue, it's gets put on the front page and people start whining about it, has this even been confirmed yet by someone technical?

Four or five people in the comments just up to your post, and personal experience, tells me that this is a genuine problem.

 

[n-evo]

So far iOS 8 has been a bitch on multiple levels for me:

- Family Sharing screws up app downloading on my mom's new iPhone and prevents certain apps from downloading altogether
- Overall the OS is a lot less smooth
- No improvements to Maps
- No way to manage iCloud Drive because an iPhone file system app is evil, yet it's okay from within an other app
- Dutch language support lacking (Siri, predictive keyboard)

And now this...

 

[pollaxe]

I read this thread with a heavy heart as I reset my 5s late yesterday so that I could pass it on to my fiancée.

However, after checking this morning, everything on my iCould Drive seems to have survived. I've not got too much on there, just some Pages documents but they're still there. Maybe I was lucky?

 

[LV426]

Instead Microsoft is and has been increasing stability in cloud and enterprise solutions (with the exception of XBox live last month when it was down for a day or two)

Well, to be fair, all cloud providers are getting better at it.

Microsoft's cloud offering (Azure) and Amazon's (S3), do make multiple backups of cloud data automatically. In the case of Azure, three copies of the data in a local data centre and, optionally, another three copies in a remote geographical region. This is pretty excellent redundancy.

But what that - of itself - doesn't guard against is accidental deletion of data. Because legitimately deleting a cloud file will also purge each and every automated backup. That could happen via a slip of the finger or, as may be the case in this context, a programming error.

What is really needed is an additional automated backup layer in iCloud that hangs around for a limited time, so that you can get your data back if/when things go wrong. I'm sure it's a feature that a lot of people would appreciate knowing was there, even if they never used it.

 

[Steve121178]

Reminds me of Vista

There wasn't a bug in Vista or any Windows OS that permanently erased your data!

----------

Internet keeps getting better these days, isn't it ?

First we learned that if you apply excessive force on a thin aluminum device, it will skew and bend, and that aluminum is not as resistant as steel.

Now we learn that software released to the public sometimes has bugs.

I just can't wait for the next amazing revelation.

This is far more serious than a bug when your data gets erased.

The real question is what happened to Apple's QA testing? Apple keep screwing up and I simply cannot trust Apple to host my data. Apple are a massive liability.

 

[OzyOly]

I read this thread with a heavy heart as I reset my 5s late yesterday so that I could pass it on to my fiancée.

However, after checking this morning, everything on my iCould Drive seems to have survived. I've not got too much on there, just some Pages documents but they're still there. Maybe I was lucky?

Copy it to local drive before it syncs and deletes them.

 

[pollaxe]

Copy it to local drive before it syncs and deletes them.

I always keep multiple local and offsite backups of stuff. I don't really have a huge amount of trust in 'cloudy' things (no matter who's peddling it!)

 

[JD92]

I read this thread with a heavy heart as I reset my 5s late yesterday so that I could pass it on to my fiancée.

However, after checking this morning, everything on my iCould Drive seems to have survived. I've not got too much on there, just some Pages documents but they're still there. Maybe I was lucky?

Only the "Reset All Settings" tool causes problems with iCloud Drive. Presumably if you were passing on your phone you would have used "Erase all Content and Settings", which is unaffected.

 

[pollaxe]

Only the "Reset All Settings" tool causes problems with iCloud Drive. Presumably if you were passing on your phone you would have used "Erase all Content and Settings", which is unaffected.

Ah, yes! That's exactly what I did, thanks for the heads up.

 

[ulyssesric]

I think because while in Asia 8 is a lucky number, in USA it would be 7.

Only Cantonese speakers will treat 8 as lucky number. In Cantonese the pronounce of '8' is similar to a word that 'windfall'.

 

[Donoban]

No, I am saying that it's one of the important factors. Apple is a big company, and OS development is quite complex. There isn't a single BIG reason. However, I believe that having HW and SW unified like it is now leads to a loss of overall quality.

No offence but that's just a normative statement.

Ultimately everyone with an iPhone is contributing to improving the quality of ios. Why have 1000 testers when you can have millions.

The integration between iOS and OS X with Yosemite is an incredible fusion of hardware and software. I'd say if you use this as your benchmark the structure is working.

----------

So far iOS 8 has been a bitch on multiple levels for me:

- Family Sharing screws up app downloading on my mom's new iPhone and prevents certain apps from downloading altogether
- Overall the OS is a lot less smooth
- No improvements to Maps
- No way to manage iCloud Drive because an iPhone file system app is evil, yet it's okay from within an other app
- Dutch language support lacking (Siri, predictive keyboard)

And now this...

I lolled hard. You poor bastard. Nothing you're talking about is causing your phone to be a Bitch.

I might give you the keyboard issue, but srs man, I'm sure your phone is adding many more positives to your life.

 

[Michael Goff]

People can bitch and moan about iCloud issues all they want. 99% of the time it is the premier consumer cloud service.

By what measurement?

 

[Liquorpuki]

By what measurement?

ICloud, the best cloud service since MobileMe

Hahaha

 

[Poisonivy326]

This wouldn't be so bad if Apple hadn't made such a stink of saying "you don't need more than 16 gb bc it's all supposed to be in the cloud ..."

I remember when people were bitching about the iPhone starting at 16 FB and a whole bunch of ppl were saying "iCloud. Use it."

 

[nt5672]

iCloud is just this great big mystery, nobody has any idea what goes on behind the scenes. While apple is supposed to just work, microsoft lets you see how it works and lets you mess around with the settings.

Why do you think iCould Drive was introduced. It will be the eventual replacement for iCould that has never worked and is apparently a very poor design. Since iCould it is being replaced, Apple spent no time, zero, nada, on the old infrastructure (typically Apple).

And no it is not a misspelling.

 

[calvz]

Thought I had this problem as well as I was unable to locate some important work documents for a while. I always reset all of my settings and network settings after a major OS upgrade. My documents were not showing up on my iPad or on iCloud.com (which I use on my work computer since it runs Windows).

When I got home from work last night I opened up Pages on my Mac running Mavericks and everything was still there. I was able to save all of the documents to my Mac and then drag them onto the iCloud.com and now everything is back as it should be.

It appears that for me, at least, it wasn't a reset issue but an issue with upgrading to iCloud drive.

Hope this is helpful.

 

[kagharaht]

Thought I had this problem as well as I was unable to locate some important work documents for a while. I always reset all of my settings and network settings after a major OS upgrade. My documents were not showing up on my iPad or on iCloud.com (which I use on my work computer since it runs Windows).

When I got home from work last night I opened up Pages on my Mac running Mavericks and everything was still there. I was able to save all of the documents to my Mac and then drag them onto the iCloud.com and now everything is back as it should be.

It appears that for me, at least, it wasn't a reset issue but an issue with upgrading to iCloud drive.

Hope this is helpful.

^^ Correct.

 

[cjmillsnun]

how and when did that represent itself?

When Snow Leopard was first released. If you had guest account enabled and you upgraded to 10.6.0 your main account was erased every time you logged out or shut down. 10.6.1 fixed the issue.

 

[SusanK]

I think it's a disaster. We're in agreement on that. I was just giving a good natured reminder that comparing software releases before, during and after Forstall's tenure doesn't really imply Forstall was the reason for the distinctions. I should have put an emoticon there to indicate a smile.

I'm trying to find a causal link between Forstall and iOS success/failure, and I'm hoping that one of the people who keep coming to his defense knows something about how he operated in the company-- because I don't. I'm not trying to be argumentative, just making sure I'm not selling Forstall short based on media reports when I shouldn't be. If he's the reason, there's something to learn here.

The problem with relying on correlation is you can fall victim to confounding variables. For example, there is significant overlap between changes in Forstall's influence and that of other prominent executives at Apple. He arrived with Jobs, for example, so was the transition from "before" Forstall to "during" Forstall because of Forstall or Jobs or some combination of other NeXT employees that tagged along.

Forstall didn't stay around past Job's death and the year in between included the Maps debacle. So was the transition from "during" Forstall to "after" Forstall because of Forstall, the loss of Jobs, the rise of Ive and Cook, general mourning and malaise within the company after losing Jobs, or some other combination of factors?

Is it all just a matter of iOS getting increasingly complicated and crufty, and therefore more difficult for anyone to manage and therefore caused by time and not people?

Did Forstall's departure make room for the critical QA manager to get promoted from their role leaving the job to a less qualified person-- meaning Forstall's presence didn't make the difference, but his departure started a series of events that led to iOS8?

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I have no direct knowledge of anything at Apple. I'm a long time end user. I do miss the days when things just worked. No doubt many of us do.

I realize that there were missteps on Steve's watch but not all in one week as things are happening now. The software I used while Amelio was CEO seemed more reliable than now.

I think the quality difference was Steve. His absence is the main reason for issues now IMHO. There are posts on this site indicating that Forstall was not an easy person to work with. The consumer in me does not care about that at all. Not trying to be harsh just honest.

I think the Maps issue was completely overblown by Cook. This is just my opinion. Maps is one app. Who cares? There are other apps the user could easily substitute waiting for/if Apple ever gets Maps together. There must be another reason Cook showed Forstall the door.

If Cook puts an apology on the Apple site for all the issues of iOS8 I may feel differently. Data loss, phones w/o service especially 911 service are very serious issues.

The bending is not something I pay attention to. Time will tell if there is a design issue with the iPhone 6 and 6+. I have no interest in a video of a person buying iPhone or any device to intentionally damage.

Thank you again for your post. I took no offense with the first post. I do appreciate this one as it's thought provoking.

What happened? Steve, the improvement and now what appears to be a decline. I hope Apple execs can get things going in the right direction again.

I will not be using Apple Pay or providing Apple with health data. That's a scary thought. I had an experience in an Apple store on Friday that was the worst ever. I didn't post but the ship to store computer is still there. The staff's treatment was so bad that I reversed the sale.

Never thought that would happen.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Jesus. This bug, ALL of the bugs in ios 8, icloud goes down today, and now this...?

Come on Apple. testing for this sort of software glitch is very rudimentary stuff...I love Apple and I have defended iOS 8 vociferously but I am really starting to get sick of this instability.

I have to agree. These are schoolboy errors.

----------

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I have no direct knowledge of anything at Apple. I'm a long time end user. I do miss the days when things just worked. No doubt many of us do.

I realize that there were missteps on Steve's watch but not all in one week as things are happening now. The software I used while Amelio was CEO seemed more reliable than now.

I think the quality difference was Steve. His absence is the main reason for issues now IMHO. There are posts on this site indicating that Forstall was not an easy person to work with. The consumer in me does not care about that at all. Not trying to be harsh just honest.

I think the Maps issue was completely overblown by Cook. This is just my opinion. Maps is one app. Who cares? There are other apps the user could easily substitute waiting for/if Apple ever gets Maps together. There must be another reason Cook showed Forstall the door.

If Cook puts an apology on the Apple site for all the issues of iOS8 I may feel differently. Data loss, phones w/o service especially 911 service are very serious issues.

The bending is not something I pay attention to. Time will tell if there is a design issue with the iPhone 6 and 6+. I have no interest in a video of a person buying iPhone or any device to intentionally damage.

Thank you again for your post. I took no offense with the first post. I do appreciate this one as it's thought provoking.

What happened? Steve, the improvement and now what appears to be a decline. I hope Apple execs can get things going in the right direction again.

I will not be using Apple Pay or providing Apple with health data. That's a scary thought. I had an experience in an Apple store on Friday that was the worst ever. I didn't post but the ship to store computer is still there. The staff's treatment was so bad that I reversed the sale.

Never thought that would happen.

In some ways I'm glad the miss steps are occurring all at once. It should mean that Apple thoroughly review their software testing procedures. They obviously haven't been doing it properly.

I feel for those who have lost data, but it has uncovered a huge problem at Apple, and now they can work to deal with it.

 

[austinapple]

iCloud has been deleting documents since July

Before anything else, let me first say that I am and have been a dedicated Apple customer for most of my life. Despite my being upset with this situation, my loyalty still does (and likely always will) lie with apple. That said, I need this fixed. Now.

The issue of iCloud deleting documents has been going on for months—and Apple has generally been ignoring it. Searching back through my email, I discovered that I had first contacted Apple about iCloud data loss in late July, immediately after installing the Yosemite beta.

Following a number of AppleCare calls and countless customer relations representatives, I was told in early August that the years of Pages and Numbers documents I had saved to iCloud (including old college papers, my resume, and projects for work—literally hundreds of documents) had vanished completely. I couldn't find them. Apple's engineers couldn't find them. God couldn't find them.

Apple then told me to retrieve them from my Time Machine backup. Sounds like a solution, right? Wrong. While I back up to Time Machine religiously, iCloud documents apparently do not save to Time Machine backups, probably because they are saved to Apple's own servers, not my hard drive. After a few rounds of phone tag, Apple finally declared that the loss was my own fault and that Apple cannot be held responsible because I hadn't backed up my iCloud documents manually. Let me restate that for clarity: Apple faulted me for trusting their own cloud backup service housed on their own servers, insisting that I should have thought to backup all of my documents manually by downloading each one from iCloud.com and saving them elsewhere (even though they initially recommended I use Apple's automated backup application—which I was already using—Time Machine).

So despite there being absolutely no indication my iCloud documents were at risk, or that my Time Machine backup wouldn't suffice as a backup, Apple decided they are not responsible for my loss. Subsequently, their solution to this egregious error and literally devastating loss was to send me a complimentary external hard drive to use with Time Machine—a "solution" I had been implementing both before and after the issue, and one that we had already established does nothing to prevent this from happening again. The irony.

Two months later, my documents are still nowhere to be found. So much for the spreadsheet of which friends owe me money or my resume.

The bottom line is that this issue has been occurring since before the release iOS 8 and can also plague anyone associating their iCloud Apple ID with the Yosemite beta. Furthermore, Apple has taken no responsibility for the data they've lost, instead sheepishly jumping through the loophole of the "beta." While I hope nobody suffers this kind of data loss, I do hope the influx of similar cases inspires Apple to take action and stop blaming the customers.

P.S. While my documents are still missing, iCloud Drive now shows each folder I had created within Pages, just without any documents in them. So that's fun.