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jonesjb

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 20, 2009
35
0
So if I have a 64 gig iPad that is full and I back it up to the cloud. Wouldn't this take ages to complete? I mean it has to upload 64 gigs of data via wifi. Am I missing something here?
 

CosmoPilot

macrumors 68000
Nov 8, 2010
1,537
373
South Carolina
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Yes you are. The iCloud back up just save the data and settings and camera roll. What that means, it doesn't save your apps or music, but rather it remembers what apps and music (from iTunes) you have on your device. When you backup, it only save this info. When you do a restore from the cloud, it will install all your apps & Music (purchased from iTunes). Since these apps and music are already stored on Apple's servers, there is no need for Apple to store a million copies of Angry Birds.

Your app data is stored, so you keep that info, just not the actual app.

The biggest thing that will eat at your storage is a large camera roll, or lots of documents, etc.

I currently have 25GB used on my 64GB iP4S and my backups run at apprx. 400MB.

Hope this helps.
 

jonesjb

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 20, 2009
35
0
Thanks for that explanation, that makes more sense, and what of apps like ComicZeal or VLC video player, which stores comic books/videos in the app itself. If someone were to have 30 gigs of comic books or videos in the app data, would this then require all 30 gig to be saved to the cloud?
 

Alonzo84

macrumors 6502a
Dec 18, 2009
845
26
North Carolina
If you're more concerned with the amount of time it takes than with the size of the back up, then it shouldn't matter. It will back up in the background and you will still be able to use the device. Or if you have have it set to automatically back up, it will do so when the device is plugged into a power source with the screen locked.
 

shandyman

Suspended
Apr 24, 2010
6,458
397
Dublin, Ireland
Thanks for that explanation, that makes more sense, and what of apps like ComicZeal or VLC video player, which stores comic books/videos in the app itself. If someone were to have 30 gigs of comic books or videos in the app data, would this then require all 30 gig to be saved to the cloud?

yes, i have both and both back up the videos/comics, but you can turn them off from backing up, which is what i've done, it backs up all my apps apart from VLC and ComicZeal
 

owen-b

macrumors 6502a
Nov 30, 2005
526
0
I'm a little confused about what the 'back up to iCloud' service does. Please bear with me while I ask what may seem to the seasoned pro like st00pid questions ;)

Is it just a cloud-based alternative to the usual backup that occurs when I connect it to iTunes, for the sole purpose of restoring if something goes wrong, or restoring to a new device? I appreciate that function is extremely useful if you want to restore a device and you're not at your computer and that iCloud backups mean you never have to connect it to your computer again and hence will always have a recent backup to use, but other than that does it have other uses?

If I elect not to use my iCloud space for backups what other functions, if any, of iCloud will I be missing out on? For example, will not backing up to iCloud mean that any apps which make use of iCloud for syncing their settings and save-states (in the case of games especially) won't be able to do so? Or is that a separate function that doesn't require iCloud Backups to be turned on?

In short, is the 'backup to iCloud' service literally only useful when wanting to restore a device to a previous state from anywhere with net access?
 

tootall

macrumors regular
Apr 17, 2011
212
3
Quebec, Canada
...In short, is the 'backup to iCloud' service literally only useful when wanting to restore a device to a previous state from anywhere with net access?

That is how I understand it also. My iPod and iPad don't "travel" much so are synched locally only. My iPhone "travels" more and therefore a restore away from home may be useful so it is backup to iCloud.

Does that make sense?
 

boomhower

macrumors 68000
Oct 21, 2011
1,570
56
Thanks for that explanation, that makes more sense, and what of apps like ComicZeal or VLC video player, which stores comic books/videos in the app itself. If someone were to have 30 gigs of comic books or videos in the app data, would this then require all 30 gig to be saved to the cloud?

I don't know about the video but I bet the comic books will back-up. I had to turn off Downcast back-ups in the cloud because it was backing up all the podcasts, considering several are HD it takes a lot of space.
 

shandyman

Suspended
Apr 24, 2010
6,458
397
Dublin, Ireland
I'm a little confused about what the 'back up to iCloud' service does. Please bear with me while I ask what may seem to the seasoned pro like st00pid questions ;)

Is it just a cloud-based alternative to the usual backup that occurs when I connect it to iTunes, for the sole purpose of restoring if something goes wrong, or restoring to a new device? I appreciate that function is extremely useful if you want to restore a device and you're not at your computer and that iCloud backups mean you never have to connect it to your computer again and hence will always have a recent backup to use, but other than that does it have other uses?

If I elect not to use my iCloud space for backups what other functions, if any, of iCloud will I be missing out on? For example, will not backing up to iCloud mean that any apps which make use of iCloud for syncing their settings and save-states (in the case of games especially) won't be able to do so? Or is that a separate function that doesn't require iCloud Backups to be turned on?

In short, is the 'backup to iCloud' service literally only useful when wanting to restore a device to a previous state from anywhere with net access?

'Backup to iCloud' is basically the same as backing up to iTunes. But there's other things that are part of iCloud, such as documents in the cloud, but you can pick and choose in the iCloud menu on the device as to what is used. You can have backup off but photo steam and documents in the cloud on.

I don't know about the video but I bet the comic books will back-up. I had to turn off Downcast back-ups in the cloud because it was backing up all the podcasts, considering several are HD it takes a lot of space.

Like I said both video and comics both back up. I've been using iOS 5 since beta 1 and this is how it functions.
 

donnaw

macrumors 65816
Apr 19, 2011
1,134
6
Austin TX
Like I said both video and comics both back up. I've been using iOS 5 since beta 1 and this is how it functions.

Would you please clarify what constitutes 'video'. It was my understanding that videos on your camera roll were not backed up or included in PhotoStream. If it does include videos I take then that would be great.
 

shandyman

Suspended
Apr 24, 2010
6,458
397
Dublin, Ireland
Would you please clarify what constitutes 'video'. It was my understanding that videos on your camera roll were not backed up or included in PhotoStream. If it does include videos I take then that would be great.

Why do i need to clarify? Have you not followed the thread? :S As per my earlier post in this thread, video in VLC and other 3Rd party apps like cinexplayer, etc.

Photo stream is photo only, thus why it's called PHOTO stream. Which is totally separate to the iCloud backup that we're talking about. iCloud backup will backup photos and videos in the camera roll.
 

donnaw

macrumors 65816
Apr 19, 2011
1,134
6
Austin TX
Why do i need to clarify? Have you not followed the thread? :S As per my earlier post in this thread, video in VLC and other 3Rd party apps like cinexplayer, etc.

Photo stream is photo only, thus why it's called PHOTO stream. Which is totally separate to the iCloud backup that we're talking about. iCloud backup will backup photos and videos in the camera roll.

Sorry, guess I just didn't get that was what you meant by your comment 'yes, i have both and both back up the videos/comics, but you can turn them off from backing up, which is what i've done, it backs up all my apps apart from VLC and ComicZeal'.

And I do understand the definition of 'photo'.

Thank you for your kind reply.
 

shandyman

Suspended
Apr 24, 2010
6,458
397
Dublin, Ireland
Sorry, guess I just didn't get that was what you meant by your comment 'yes, i have both and both back up the videos/comics, but you can turn them off from backing up, which is what i've done, it backs up all my apps apart from VLC and ComicZeal'.

And I do understand the definition of 'photo'.

Thank you for your kind reply.

That's ok, it all followed on from post #3 and it always quoted back to that so that's why I didn't get why I needed to clarify as it tracks back to that and made total sense in that context.
 
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