This Mac tip is provided by Mark Greentree and was originally posted on Mark’s blog – Everyday Mac Support. For more of Mark’s tips visit his site, follow him on Twitter, or browse his archive of posts here.
How To: Warning – iCloud BackUp In iOS 5
CLARIFICATION: Please note when I reference photographs in this article I am by no means referring to Photo Stream. Photo Stream does not consume your iCloud storage allowance. Backing up your camera roll does. They are two independent services of iCloud.
One of the new features in iCloud and iOS 5 is the ability for you to back up your camera roll, accounts, documents and settings when your iPhone or iPad is connected into the power, connected to a Wi-Fi network and the screen is locked to the iCloud service.
This sounds like a fantastic idea and one I was looking forward to use. There is a major concern with this however.
When you turn the iCloud Backup on the service then turns off automatic backups when syncing your device with iTunes on your Mac or PC. Hence, you will be relying solely on the iCloud service should you need to restore the content to your device or a new device you purchase down the track.
With this problems iOS 5 and iCloud have given uses since their release there are obvious concerns that need to be addressed.
You will still be able to do a backup in iTunes of your device but you need to manually select this option.
As we would all agree. We want to backup our data but almost all of us would not do it if it were not an automatic process. Apple removing this automatic process has created a major problem. You can not backup the iCloud backup in any way. You can not put a DVD in and burn a copy of the content stored on iCloud. Nor can you store this content on a hard drive connected to your computer.
Therefore, Apple is allowing you only one automatic backup solution if you select this option and it is on a service which has yet to be proven stable.
Below I will run you through this new option and how to activate and deactivate it along with all the messages it presents.
Simply proceed to the Settings > iCloud as shown below:
Then tap on Storage & Backup which will present you with the following information:
The area I will be discussing is highlighted in the image above. By default this is turned off. I recommend you leave it this way unless you are determined to perform a manual backup of your device which I will address further in this article.
Turning this option on will present the following warning message:
Please be aware that this warning will not be shown a second time or when you connect your device to your computer. Click OK to proceed or Cancel to stop the process.
If you have turned the feature on you will be presented with the following view:
You will notice in the above image that a new button has appeared. “Back Up Now”. If this is the first time you have turned on the service then you should click this. Below the button you will be presented with the last time you have done a backup.
Another concern is the amount of storage iCloud has users given by default and available via upgrade. The default free 5GB option is not going to allow you to do any type of backup as you will simply run out of space after taking two photographs.
If you are shooting video and or a large volume of still photographs you will also notice these files take an excessive volume of storage.
iCloud only allows for a paid 20GB and 50GB plan. If you have a 64GB device and 60GB of the data is photographs and video you have taken then you are out of luck. You will run out of space before being able backup fully.
Apple calls this iCloud Backup but you must remember that a single copy of your files is not a backup.
The good news is you can turn this feature off with no effect to the operation of your device. Simply slide the On switch to the Off position and the following warning screen will be presented:
As you can see when you select OK you will once again be able to automatically backup your device in iTunes when you connect it to your computer.
Should you choose to leave the iCloud backup in place I beg you to set a reminder and make sure you connect your device to your computer and perform the following manual backup procedure:
By doing this you will have more than one backup and applications such as Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner will also backup this file stored on your Mac thereby giving you additional peace of mind.
I understand for many users the allure of having an iPhone without a computer is fantastic. Please remember that without a computer you do not have a 100% reliable backup solution and should you lose or damage you device you may also lose all those precious family photographs and video if iCloud fails.
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