Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Do you use iCloud or your computer to backup your iDevice?

I just purchased a new iphone 5s today and prior to that backed up my old phone to icloud and to itunes. Hate to say it but icloud failed me so I resorted to itunes back up and all went fine. I will still use icloud for daily backup but any significant changes get backed up in iTunes from here on.
 
I haven't backed up my phone on my computer in a long time. iCloud works perfectly. The chances of something happening to my phone AND simultaneously something happening to icloud are slim.
 
Old Yeller said:
I just purchased a new iphone 5s today and prior to that backed up my old phone to icloud and to itunes. Hate to say it but icloud failed me so I resorted to itunes back up and all went fine. I will still use icloud for daily backup but any significant changes get backed up in iTunes from here on.
Click to expand...

In which way iCloud failed ?
 
my Mac isn't working, can't update software which means I can't update itunes so I backup everything to the cloud and Dropbox.
 
I got the 64GB iphone 5s and i use iCloud.. pay for the upgrade too. Love every single dollar i spent. Expensive icloud service, but my phone is never synced to my computer! 128GB Solid state so no space to sync!!
 
Do you use iCloud or your computer to backup your idevice?

Bit of both really, most days I use icloud but before I do a software update I do both icloud and iTunes to be sure! Lol
 
Do you use iCloud or your computer to backup your iDevice?

I too use both. My motivation for also using the computer is being able to load older versions of apps onto my iDevice. If a 'bad' app update causes problems for an app I need, I fire up Time Machine, find the version I need, and I'm back in business. This has become even more useful with auto app updates in iOS 7. I know this is more of a sync thing, but for me it falls into the same category :)
 
I do both - nightly (hopefully) to iCloud and weekly or so to computer.

Although I have never gotten any real, definitive response to exactly what is different - if you read the information on iTunes where you select which - it says it backs up important stuff to iCloud but everything to iTunes computer back up. Again, not sure what the difference is but I do both.
Personally, I don't think you can have too many backups of anything. Many threads here you read how do I recover.... etc.

It is easy to just plug in the phone every once in a while and launch iTunes and say back up now.
 
Do you use iCloud or your computer to backup your iDevice?

iCloud for anything iOS-only.

Pictures are backed up automatically to Google+ (now supports full resolution backups).

Music is backed up to the cloud on Google Play (synced to iTunes).

Contacts, calendars, notes, documents, etc. are backed up to Google/Google Drive.
 
I think a biggie is that a restore via iCloud is going to take a lot longer than via a local iTunes backup.

Also, iTunes backups can be done via wifi, so you don't even have to plug it in :)


CTHarrryH said:
I do both - nightly (hopefully) to iCloud and weekly or so to computer.



Although I have never gotten any real, definitive response to exactly what is different - if you read the information on iTunes where you select which - it says it backs up important stuff to iCloud but everything to iTunes computer back up. Again, not sure what the difference is but I do both.

Personally, I don't think you can have too many backups of anything. Many threads here you read how do I recover.... etc.



It is easy to just plug in the phone every once in a while and launch iTunes and say back up now.
Click to expand...
 
wordoflife said:
Well my 32GB iPhone has less than a GB remaining. And my 16 GB iPad has about 3 or 4 GB remaining. I'm assuming it won't fit on a 5GB iCloud account.
Click to expand...

From experience: Apps and operating system are not backed up. All that is backed up is the information _which_ apps are on your phone, so after your backup is restored, your iPhone will start downloading all the apps. You may have 30 GB used for iOS and apps, and only 1 GB is used for backups.
 
wordoflife said:
Well my 32GB iPhone has less than a GB remaining. And my 16 GB iPad has about 3 or 4 GB remaining. I'm assuming it won't fit on a 5GB iCloud account.
Click to expand...

You can get a preview of just how much space you need for the backup, and make adjustments if necessary, at: Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage. Select the device (eg. "My iPhone"). Under Backup Options you'll learn your Next Backup Size, and can choose to exclude various kinds of data from that backup. (iOS, apps, and iTunes Store content is not kept in the backup, which substantially reduces the space needed for backup- apps and iTunes Store music are automatically re-downloaded if you need to restore from the backup).

The biggest single component of most backups is Camera Roll. Most people just keep accumulating photos right on the iPhone, never deleting a one. Between junk and images transferred to your computer (Photo Stream can automatically save every shot you take to your computer), how much do you really need to carry around with you?

I primarily depend on iCloud for backup (occasional iTunes backups are made, too). Why? I don't have to remember to do it. I stand a much better chance of being covered by a recent backup.

There are several other benefits to iCloud backup. Perhaps biggest is that you can restore from backup no matter where you are. You also have the benefit of any off-site backup - you can lose everything in a fire, and still get your data back.

By all means, backup to iTunes as well. You can't have too many backups. But why have iTunes be your only backup, when you have a free, automatic backup service at your disposal?
 
I try to minimise the amount of data I put in the "Cloud". That said, computer.
 
I use both.

I do a daily iCloud backup, and backup to iTunes on my Mac mini once every 2-3 weeks.

This makes it to where there is a local copy along with the cloud copy. Which is the best way to go with backups.
 
iCloud. But doesn't matter since I copy my pictures to my computer everything else I could care less about its just app data that can easily be re set up.
 
iCloud backups are so painless and quick I do it all the time (without photos). Takes what 10 seconds? All data accessible wherever I go for any reason.

One thing I feel strongly about though is Apple should make it mandatory that all apps have a sync via iCloud option since we are now on iOS7. This is very easy to do but there are many lazy devs. I pay good money for apps that should be auto syncing across devices like iOS Notes. I backup every week but my iPhone died last night so I couldn't do a last minute backup for one of my reference apps so there is some good data lost. Not the end of the world of course but would've been REALLY nice to have been protected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back