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kevmclane

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2017
130
406
Did anyone else notice in the latest iPhone X Imgur leak that there are little cloud-like icons in front of a bunch of the app names?
5740084A-5E72-4746-8200-E1AE2F6EB495.jpeg

I’ve never seen anything like this before. Maybe something only seen on internal developer software? It appears to only be near the removeable default apps, except for iBooks.
 
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coolbreeze2

macrumors 68000
Sep 24, 2009
1,794
1,479
Hmmm...interesting. Does it mean the apps reside on iCloud and not the phone? Back when iPhone had teeny tiny storage, my apps would take up too much precious space. Letting them reside in the clouds would have solved the problem.
 
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Brookzy

macrumors 601
May 30, 2010
4,983
5,575
UK
This is a new thing in iOS 11 called "Offload Unused Apps". You can find it in iTunes & App Store settings. I didn't realise it was possible for the stock apps though! Maybe it is a bug.
 
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akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,841
16,959
This is a new thing in iOS 11 called "Offload Unused Apps". You can find it in iTunes & App Store settings. I didn't realise it was possible for the stock apps though! Maybe it is a bug.

Ah I’ve turned that on but still didn’t see any app on my device with that icon next to it.
 

Brookzy

macrumors 601
May 30, 2010
4,983
5,575
UK
Ah I’ve turned that on but still didn’t see any app on my device with that icon next to it.
Well you won't see a difference straight away - the point is only apps you don't use will be offloaded, and even then only when you are low on available storage space.
 

lesebre

macrumors newbie
Oct 9, 2017
1
0
Or you can manually offload the app's data but still leave the app on your phone; reducing the storage the data takes up on your phone but still have access to the app. I've done this with a half dozen or so seldom used apps.
 

MrGimper

macrumors G3
Sep 22, 2012
8,756
12,519
Andover, UK
I also saw this after a restore ... and it appeared to affect apps that I hadn't used for a while. It's like it knew which apps to restore (ones I used frequently) and didn't bother with ones I hadn't used for a while, therefore speeding up the restore. When I clicked on an app with the cloud, it just downloaded it there and then.
 

ColoArtist

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2012
290
256
Denver, CO
Last night I did a restore on an iPhone 6 running iOS 11. It was a different experience for me in that the apps weren't loaded onto the phone locally from iTunes, rather they were downloaded remotely from the app store.

Some apps had the "download from the cloud" icon next to them. When clicked on it was reported they were no longer available from the app store. It gave me the option to delete the app.

Kinda forces the issue of 16 bit apps not running on iOS 11. The upside was I didn't have to go searching for apps which were no longer supported. It'd be nice if those same apps were somehow identified on my other phone so I wouldn't have to go find them by using a list buried in Settings/General/About/Applications/No Updates Available...or at least make it possible to delete the apps from that list.
 

akash.nu

macrumors G4
May 26, 2016
10,841
16,959
Well you won't see a difference straight away - the point is only apps you don't use will be offloaded, and even then only when you are low on available storage space.

Probably this is why I didn’t see them yet. Still have loads of space left on my phone.

Or you can manually offload the app's data but still leave the app on your phone; reducing the storage the data takes up on your phone but still have access to the app. I've done this with a half dozen or so seldom used apps.

I like to keep it all on auto. If  is right then things should just work automatically.

I also saw this after a restore ... and it appeared to affect apps that I hadn't used for a while. It's like it knew which apps to restore (ones I used frequently) and didn't bother with ones I hadn't used for a while, therefore speeding up the restore. When I clicked on an app with the cloud, it just downloaded it there and then.

That’s good. I guess when it’s needed, it will do on my device as well. I don’t use any older app though. So it’s all good for me anyway.
 

aussiemediaguy

macrumors newbie
May 1, 2017
10
4
Melbourne, Australia
I’m thinking it might be an indicator that the phone is downloading app data from iCloud.

My partner has just received his X today and restored a backup done earlier in the day - but for some reason, there's a multitude of apps with the cloud symbol to the left, and tapping them just brings up an error saying "Can't download this app", asking to retry, which has no effect.

Is there a fix for this ? Or can you re-arrange through iTunes ?
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
My partner has just received his X today and restored a backup done earlier in the day - but for some reason, there's a multitude of apps with the cloud symbol to the left, and tapping them just brings up an error saying "Can't download this app", asking to retry, which has no effect.

Is there a fix for this ? Or can you re-arrange through iTunes ?
Could these be 32-bit apps? Can you see them in the App Store?
 
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