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iMazing Sucks

K

klspahr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 30, 2013
123
207
Central PA
I bought iMazing. So far I haven't been able to do one thing I wanted to do with it. Plus the 2 or 3 hour wait for it to back up everything. My MBA M1 doesn't have the space for a 1TB backup from my phone so I have to use an external drive.

This time I just wanted to export my Safari Bookmarks, (since iCloud has been unable to sync my bookmarks for about 6 months and three calls to Apple Support) I can update the bookmarks on my Mac by hand quicker than imazing can maybe export them.

I tried to get other info off the phone and after the long wait I still could get the info.

What a total waste of $60
 
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Disagree. I use iMazing w/ many devices in the house. Have for many years. Like it a lot. First backup will be huge but subsequent backups are reasonable. If your external storage is HDD (not SSD) than any large file/number of files written will be slow, especially if your external storage is USB. I recommend you read through iMazing's very comprehensive documentation to learn software's features.
 
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Still on free trial, but it works for me, too (mainly transferring movies from Mac to iPad).
 
Hello! iMazing team member here.

I'm sorry to hear that iMazing has been a source of stress or frustration for you.

iMazing is beholden to requirements Apple dictates with regards to how data can be accessed from devices, and we have always been committed to working within Apple's guidelines (iMazing has never been a tool for jailbreaking or cracking phones, or in any way violating Apple's terms of use). Accordingly, we are dependent on a device backup to access some datasets. We are similarly at Apple's mercy with regards to the USB 2.0 speed of the Lightning connector, which is what causes backups to be so slow (iPad Pro or iPhone 15 Pro with USB-C is at least 5x faster). Kindly note that if you preserve your initial backup, subsequent backups are much faster since they are only capturing the changes.

We did introduce a feature in 2022 called Data Access Only that removes Photos/Videos from your backup to preserve space, but that only delivers space savings, it unfortunately doesn't expedite the total backup time. This is, again, something we're limited to by Apple's design: https://imazing.com/guides/data-access-only-vs-full-backup-in-imazing

With regards to Safari bookmarks, can you describe the issue you're having? It's unclear to me why you wrote "maybe."

We also have a small team of humans who work 7 days/week to respond to customer questions, almost always within 24 hours. They can be reached by email at support@imazing.com
 
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I have used iMazing since September 2021, and it has been very valuable tool.
It works well, but I do not use external drives. As I have more than enough internal storage on my macs, for backup.
But one should not save the backup on the same machine we are backing up. So external storage might be the only solution for you.
The backup process is ok over ethernet. No complaints from me.
 
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Had a good experience with Imazing, saved me when a PC broke with all my files and meant I could restore the music files back off the phone.
 
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klspahr said:
I bought iMazing. So far I haven't been able to do one thing I wanted to do with it. Plus the 2 or 3 hour wait for it to back up everything. My MBA M1 doesn't have the space for a 1TB backup from my phone so I have to use an external drive.

This time I just wanted to export my Safari Bookmarks, (since iCloud has been unable to sync my bookmarks for about 6 months and three calls to Apple Support) I can update the bookmarks on my Mac by hand quicker than imazing can maybe export them.

I tried to get other info off the phone and after the long wait I still could get the info.

What a total waste of $60
Click to expand...
Agreed. The new version three requires you to purchase a new license for every device that you connect at $35 each. This includes accessing all backups from old phones. Once you have linked old backups for an iPhone 5 or six, your licenses, have all been used up with no way to release them unless you purchase more. The old version did not do this. I no longer recommend this software. I did contact Support and they wanted me to provide formal documentation that I recycled these phones in 2016 and 2018. I will not be purchasing future versions or recommending this program until they have a licensing program similar to their previous version.
 
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macrove said:
Agreed. The new version three requires you to purchase a new license for every device that you connect at $35 each. This includes accessing all backups from old phones. Once you have linked old backups for an iPhone 5 or six, your licenses, have all been used up with no way to release them unless you purchase more. The old version did not do this. I no longer recommend this software. I did contact Support and they wanted me to provide formal documentation that I recycled these phones in 2016 and 2018. I will not be purchasing future versions or recommending this program until they have a licensing program similar to their previous version.
Click to expand...
This is exactly why I dropped them from my tools. If they would allow device switching then I would consider returning, but forcing me to buy a new license every time I upgrade my device = subscription model, so I found a program called Anytrans which has a lifetime license.
 
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klspahr said:
I bought iMazing. So far I haven't been able to do one thing I wanted to do with it. Plus the 2 or 3 hour wait for it to back up everything. My MBA M1 doesn't have the space for a 1TB backup from my phone so I have to use an external drive.

This time I just wanted to export my Safari Bookmarks, (since iCloud has been unable to sync my bookmarks for about 6 months and three calls to Apple Support) I can update the bookmarks on my Mac by hand quicker than imazing can maybe export them.

I tried to get other info off the phone and after the long wait I still could get the info.

What a total waste of $60
Click to expand...
Have used iMazing for 7 years or so. Thought it was pretty good overall with some hiccups from time to time.

More recently iMazing has been downright flaky. Voice Memos that are on my iPhone 13 are not visible in iMazing even after waiting for it to always do a full backup .... just to see any files on my iPhone at all. I can play the voice memos on my iPhone that iMazing says are not on the device. Photos are displayed correctly, but if iMazing screws up with voice memos, what other data is not being transferred to my external NAS in the iMazing archive. I can't physically check that it is listing every single data item.

iMazing wants me to upgrade to version-3, but my experience the pass couple months tells me I should look for another iOS backup solutions entirely. Perhaps GlassDoor will be enlightening: are engineers leaving the company because the management is awful and no longer commited to quality software development. The product has sunk noticably.
 
Just got an upgrade offer from iMazing team…50% off…what I find funny was this at the bottom of the email:

Version 3 is our first paid upgrade in 8 years, and with our device-based licensing model introduced in 2020, it will be the last one you have to pay for.

Seems they left out, until you get a new device then you have to pay again…shady advertising at best…
 
I’ve been using imazing forever. I actually upgraded from Diskaid to imazing. After buying the upgrade to version 3 I have buyers regret. All the things that have alway bothered me are still there, only now coupled with crashes and bugs. The screen keeps going dim and I have to relaunch for it to look normal.

It is like some other programs where they make it look different and as a bunch of features nobody wants, but don’t actually fix or improve the core features. As it stands, I think I will go back to version 2. I won’t be recommending it to anyone either unless they sort it out soon.

It’s kind of sad, but between this new version and the popularity of cloud/phone services (iCloud) I am not sure I see much of a future for this product. Maybe that’s why it now says “lifetime upgrades.”

Oh it was a little deceptive how they switched the device limit from the number of devices you can use imazing on, to the number of devices you can use it with. They could have expo this instead of tricking folks.

Mark-
 
Immark said:
Oh it was a little deceptive how they switched the device limit from the number of devices you can use imazing on, to the number of devices you can use it with. They could have expo this instead of tricking folks.
Click to expand...
Worse than that. It is not the number of devices, it is the actual devices. That is, you can't use it with a replacement iPhone/iPad without paying again!
Immark said:
After buying the upgrade to version 3 I have buyers regret
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. For me, I find V3 functionality is an improvement (when I can ignore the glitzy interface). But worth money and next time they "upgrade" - not so sure. I really liked DiskAid.
 
kozz said:
with our device-based licensing model introduced in 2020, it will be the last one you have to pay for.

Seems they left out, until you get a new device then you have to pay again…shady advertising at best…
Click to expand...

that's what device-based licensing is..

I love iMazing, and their Black Friday discounts were so good I future proofed my device count.
 
it will be the last one you have to pay for....

how exactly is it the last one you will ever pay for, if I could call and get it swapped then great...but alas I cannot, feel free to continue to support shady developers...

I have moved on to a better offering.
 
kozz said:
it will be the last one you have to pay for....

how exactly is it the last one you will ever pay for, if I could call and get it swapped then great...but alas I cannot, feel free to continue to support shady developers...

I have moved on to a better offering.
Click to expand...
What offering is better?
 
kozz said:
This is exactly why I dropped them from my tools. If they would allow device switching then I would consider returning, but forcing me to buy a new license every time I upgrade my device = subscription model, so I found a program called Anytrans which has a lifetime license.
Click to expand...
anytrans sounds interesting but seems to have some other tools that are questionable in terms of phone lock bypass
 
I would have stayed if they would allow device swapping making it a true one time license but claiming it’s one time and locking it to a specific device series/model is just a fancy way of hiding a subscription model. You can’t tell me they know most users of their software most likely upgrade their phones yearly. They knew what they were doing…
 
A couple of years ago I purchased 3 licenses. At the time I had an iPhone 12. A few weeks ago I purchased a 16 and tried to use the software. It gave me a message that I reached my max licenses. I purchased another because I forgot I had three and only used one phone.

Then all of a sudden it wouldn't accept any of my phones. After looking into the software it was duplicating my phones.

Customer support went back and forth with me for over a week. I sent screen shots showing the software was duplicating my phones and his response was like that of an AI that I had to question if I was actually talking to a human.

He got his wish and I just gave up. I ended up purchasing software that was unlimited phones as long as it was on one computer which is fine with me.

The software is really amazing. But the drama of dealing with a company that thinks your trying to get over and add extra phones was not worth the almost $100 I spent trying to add music to my phones.

Extremely disappointed in this company. If you wanted me to get a subscription then why advertise that one can just add an additional license?

I'm happy to hear most of you had great experiences with this company. To me, not so much and anytime I see a place to review this company I will.

On their web site of course they only show the positive reviews.
 
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