How can Apple be so bad at cloud services???

[Rogifan]

So I got a new iPhone (XS) and Watch (Series 4 aluminum). At the Apple store they told me when I unpair my watch from my old phone it creates a backup. I did that and then I did a backup of my old phone before setting up the new phone. When I finally got the new phone set up I had no historical health/activity data on my new phone (and I was also missing photos take on Sep 20).

I called Apple and the first support person had to push me off to a senior advisor. When I got that person on the phone she said health and activity data only backs up through an encrypted backup via iTunes. Of course that’s not what I was told at the Apple Store and it’s not what their online documentation says. She claims the documentation is outdated and needs to be updated, but the date of the article is late 2017. Then she told me to go into settings and sign out of iCloud and sign back in. It’s been over a half hour now and my phone still says “Signing in to iCloud...”. This is such BS. How can Apple be this bad at cloud services? If I don’t get this activity data back I’ll return the watch and get a Fitbit. Screw it.

EDIT: I logged out of iCloud and then logged back in and the health data is there now. I’m still missing 2 days worth of photos though that don’t even show up on icloud.com.

 

[Julien]

So you backed up and restored from iTunes or iCloud? You post is confusing.

 

[matrix07]

So you backed up and restored from iTunes or iCloud? You post is confusing.

iCloud I guess. It should be there. I pray for you, Rogifan. Losing historical health data is very big deal. This is why I always backup to iCloud and iTunes both when changing the phone.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Did you have your health and pictures set for iCloud backups?

 

[Julien]

iCloud I guess. It should be there. I pray for you, Rogifan. Losing historical health data is very big deal. This is why I always backup to iCloud and iTunes both when charging the phone.

Actually the iCloud Backup doesn't contain Health/Fitness data any more. You must have iCloud Health cut on and it is then stored in your iCloud account. This is because people wanted to set up a new iPhone without losing all Health/Fitness data.

 

[Rogifan]

So you backed up and restored from iTunes or iCloud? You post is confusing.

Backed up and restored from iCloud. No one at the Apple store told me health and activity data from the Watch can only be backed up via encrypted iTunes backup. Also that’s not what Apple’s website says:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518
Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your companion iPhone, so you can restore your Apple Watch from a backup. When you back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes, your iPhone backup will also include your Apple Watch data.

• Health and Fitness data, such as history, achievements, Workout and Activity calibration data from your Apple Watch, and user-entered data (To back up Health and Fitness data, you need to use iCloud or an encrypted iTunes backup.)

Also in the iCloud section of the settings app on my phone Health was turned on. The support staff said that was only for syncing. If that’s the case then why wouldn’t it show up on my new phone so long as I’m logged in to iCloud?
[doublepost=1537798209][/doublepost]

Did you have your health and pictures set for iCloud backups?

Yes.
[doublepost=1537798246][/doublepost]

Actually the iCloud Backup doesn't contain Health/Fitness data any more. You must have iCloud Health cut on and it is then stored in your iCloud account. This is because people wanted to set up a new iPhone without losing all Health/Fitness data.




View attachment 787944

Yes I had that turned on. And it’s on right now on my new phone.

 

[Julien]

Backed up and restored from iCloud. No one at the Apple store told me health and activity data from the Watch can only be backed up via encrypted iTunes backup. Also that’s not what Apple’s website says:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518
Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your companion iPhone, so you can restore your Apple Watch from a backup. When you back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes, your iPhone backup will also include your Apple Watch data.

• Health and Fitness data, such as history, achievements, Workout and Activity calibration data from your Apple Watch, and user-entered data (To back up Health and Fitness data, you need to use iCloud or an encrypted iTunes backup.)

Also in the iCloud section of the settings app on my phone Health was turned on. The support staff said that was only for syncing. If that’s the case then why wouldn’t it show up on my new phone so long as I’m logged in to iCloud?

That is an outdated page and again Health/Fitness is NOT in the iCloud backup but in iCloud. Here is the current iCloud backup support page.

...It doesn’t include information already stored in iCloud, like Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, Mail, Notes, Voice Memos3, shared photos, iCloud Photos, Health data, and files you store in iCloud Drive...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428

 

[jun180]

I believe the health cloud data option in the iPhone iCloud settings is specific to the health data measured in the iPhone, and does not include the watch health data.

Unfortunately, I think you may have lost your watch health data. I believe the watch backup saved on the phone is not synced to iCloud, but is synced to a iTunes backup.

 

[bruinsrme]

Backed up and restored from iCloud. No one at the Apple store told me health and activity data from the Watch can only be backed up via encrypted iTunes backup. Also that’s not what Apple’s website says:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518
Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your companion iPhone, so you can restore your Apple Watch from a backup. When you back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes, your iPhone backup will also include your Apple Watch data.

• Health and Fitness data, such as history, achievements, Workout and Activity calibration data from your Apple Watch, and user-entered data (To back up Health and Fitness data, you need to use iCloud or an encrypted iTunes backup.)

Also in the iCloud section of the settings app on my phone Health was turned on. The support staff said that was only for syncing. If that’s the case then why wouldn’t it show up on my new phone so long as I’m logged in to iCloud?
[doublepost=1537798209][/doublepost]
Yes.
[doublepost=1537798246][/doublepost]
Yes I had that turned on. And it’s on right now on my new phone.

So you went there on launch weekend?

I can imagine the person helping you set up your watch probably heard your question.

From what I saw those specialists wanted to ensure the device turned on and restored to some extent. Then move on to the next 20 people.

Here the health article I usually reference.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203037#applewatch

 

[matrix07]

That is an outdated page and again Health/Fitness is NOT in the iCloud backup but in iCloud. Here is the current iCloud backup support page.



https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428

I guess the important question is.. he should get his data back, right? Since it should sync to his new phone?

 

[Rogifan]

I believe the health cloud data option in the iPhone iCloud settings is specific to the health data measured in the iPhone, and does not include the watch health data.

Unfortunately, I think you may have lost your watch health data. I believe the watch backup saved on the phone is not synced to iCloud, but is synced to a iTunes backup.

I was able to get historical activity data back by logging out of iCloud on my phone and then logging back in. I’m still missing most of my photos on my phone. Perhaps that takes longer to restore?

 

[jun180]

I was able to get historical activity data back by logging out of iCloud on my phone and then logging back in. I’m still missing most of my photos on my phone. Perhaps that takes longer to restore?

That’s great, I guess I was wrong about the watch health data not being backed up to iCloud.

Your phone is probably redownloading your photos which does take a while, particularly if you have a lot of photos and videos.

 

[Rogifan]

So you went there on launch weekend?

I can imagine the person helping you set up your watch probably heard your question.

From what I saw those specialists wanted to ensure the device turned on and restored to some extent. Then move on to the next 20 people.

Here the health article I usually reference.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203037#applewatch

Yeah I was there on launch day. The person I spoke to at the store went and asked another person because he didn’t know the answer. Apple really needs to do a better job training support staff and store employees on iCloud backups and especially Apple Watch.
[doublepost=1537799429][/doublepost]

That’s great, I guess I was wrong about the watch health data not being backed up to iCloud.

Your phone is probably redownloading your photos which does take a while, particularly if you have a lot of photos and videos.

Yeah unfortunately I’m missing 2 days worth of photos. I’m assuming if I don’t see them on icloud.com they’re just gone?

 

[jun180]

If your phone successfully ran an iCloud backup after the photos were taken, they should be there. But if you’re not seeing them on iCloud then that might mean they didn’t get backed up.

 

[Newtons Apple]

iCloud I guess. It should be there. I pray for you, Rogifan. Losing historical health data is very big deal. This is why I always backup to iCloud and iTunes both when changing the phone.

THIS!!!

I would never trust all of my data including heath to the cloud. When replacing phone I always use a encrypted iTunes back up. It is fast and complete.

I use the cloud nightly but once a week we do a iTune backup just to be sure.

 

[Rogifan]

THIS!!!

I would never trust all of my data including heath to the cloud. When replacing phone I always use a encrypted iTunes back up. It is fast and complete.

I use the cloud nightly but once a week we do a iTune backup just to be sure.

Unfortunately I wasn’t at home when I got the phone. Though I’ve never had luck backing up via iTunes. It gets 3/4ths of the way complete and then gives me some stupid error message.

 

[anup.chavda]

Weird. I too upgraded my iPhone and watch on the same day, and whilst I did use iTunes to do a full backup, I definitely did not encrypt it. Looking at my details I have all my health data and everything. Just like I’d expect it to work

 

[Newtons Apple]

Unfortunately I wasn’t at home when I got the phone. Though I’ve never had luck backing up via iTunes. It gets 3/4ths of the way complete and then gives me some stupid error message.

They only time I have had trouble is when I failed to update both the device and iTunes to the latest version.
[doublepost=1537814578][/doublepost]

Weird. I too upgraded my iPhone and watch on the same day, and whilst I did use iTunes to do a full backup, I definitely did not encrypt it. Looking at my details I have all my health data and everything. Just like I’d expect it to work

Sounds like the Cloud, which is also encrypted, filled in that information for you.

 

[matrix07]

Weird. I too upgraded my iPhone and watch on the same day, and whilst I did use iTunes to do a full backup, I definitely did not encrypt it. Looking at my details I have all my health data and everything. Just like I’d expect it to work

As I understand now from what @Julien posted, iCloud is syncing Health just like it’s syncing Photo so it can re-sync your Health once you logged in. Most likely the data you got was from iCloud, not iTunes.

 

[newellj]

THIS!!!

I would never trust all of my data including heath to the cloud. When replacing phone I always use a encrypted iTunes back up. It is fast and complete.

I use the cloud nightly but once a week we do a iTune backup just to be sure.

Agreed. Belt + suspenders for this data.

 

[DeepIn2U]

iCloud I guess. It should be there. I pray for you, Rogifan. Losing historical health data is very big deal. This is why I always backup to iCloud and iTunes both when changing the phone.

Prudent yes, yet none of us should have to so late in true iCloud game that Apple has been offering beyond 2012. Add to the MobileMe and .Mac experiences iCloud should be a LOt better than what it’s been delivering

 

[tbayrgs]

In short, every item under AppleID iCloud settings that you have enabled to sync with iCloud is no longer part of your daily iCloud backup but is rather saved in real time (or close to it). So if you have iCloud Photos enabled, they’re not saved in your daily iCloud backup. Same goes for Health data, Messages, etc.

Regarding the photos, if you are using iCloud Photos, they should have synced almost immediately upon their addition to your Photo library. Do you restrict photo syncing to only Wifi and if so, any chance you hadn’t been connected to WiFi for a significant period of time over those 2 days?

 

[Julien]

In short, every item under AppleID iCloud settings that you have enabled to sync with iCloud is no longer part of your daily iCloud backup but is rather saved in real time (or close to it). So if you have iCloud Photos enabled, they’re not saved in your daily iCloud backup. Same goes for Health data, Messages, etc....?

The advantage to this is you can setup as new AND still retain your data. You can't do this from a backup.

 

[tbayrgs]

The advantage to this is you can setup as new AND still retain your data. You can't do this from a backup.

Completely agree. At this point, all that’s returning from the iCloud backup is app layout (and some data), wallpaper, and email account settings.

 

[udontno]

I paired my S3 with my new XS Max today and had to go through hell to get my health data all in there. Signing out of iCloud and back in was ultimately what brought it back for me.