iOS 5 needs a native .csv file import function or we'll always have battery issues

[Calidude]

Can we be honest and admit that the reason we have so many problems with battery life is because we continue to be beholden to using iTunes and now iCloud?

In Apple's neverending quest to shotgun marry us to iTunes, we've been conditioned to continue using iTunes backups and now iCloud backups, which backs up things we really don't need to back up. The backup system currently used today migrates everything (with the exception of your camera roll if you wish) and that causes problems.

Solution:

Apple needs to implement a "contacts only" export and import solution native to the phone itself that is not dependent on iTunes or iCloud.

Do you really need all those texts? Do you really need all those apps? Do you really need calendar stuff that is supposed to be synced with Exchange? Do you really need those email accounts which already sync with a server? Do you really need to have your settings migrated from one phone to another, especially when you do it from iOS4 to iOS5? Do you really need all that data from your apps? Do you really need to migrate stuff that can get corrupted?

No, you don't.

You can set all those up in minutes anyway, and you do it whenever you have a problem anyway. How many times have you been told to "set up as a new iPhone" when you have crappy battery life?

All you need is your contacts. Everything else is unimportant, causes issues, or is already synced to a server.

Importing can be done with:

1) The email app. Press and hold a .csv attachment and that's it.
2) That contacts app. Press the + button to add either contacts or multiple contacts via .csv from a 3rd party app or perhaps...
3) A filesystem. Not having such a thing makes us dependent on iCloud and iTunes. Find the .csv file you downloaded from any app and saved there, press and hold, and it would ask you to import it.

Exporting can be done the same way. Just go to the contacts app and be able to spit out a .csv file to be emailed, saved to the filesystem, to given to a 3rd party app.

Why doesn't Apple do this? Because Apple wants us to always use iTunes or iCloud, and until they let iOS devices interact with tried and true solutions such as .vcf or .csv files, we're always going to have these issues with battery life. It happened this year and it will happen next year, unless Apple stops requiring us to use a PC or iCloud to set up our phones.

 

[vitzr]

Can we be honest and admit that the reason we have so many problems with battery life is because we continue to be beholden to using iTunes and now iCloud?

Really?

And all along I thought it was as simple as the fact that Apple has us by the short hairs...ha..ha...ha...

 

[Calidude]

Really?

And all along I thought it was as simple as the fact that Apple has us by the short hairs...ha..ha...ha...

Is that really a fact?

 

[admanimal]

So your whole premise is that the iPhone has bad battery life because it backs up too much information?

 

[Calidude]

So your whole premise is that the iPhone has bad battery life because it backs up too much information?

Obviously battery issues can be due to bugs in iOS such as poorly thought out location finding and syncing, but the majority of issues people have are completely due to importing backups that are easily corrupted because the backups contain too much unneeded info.

Case in point: How many times have you needed to fix an app by deleting it and then downloading it again from the app store? Clearly, Apple is having an issue with old data conflicting with new data.

Apple clearly thinks its users are morons who won't customize their data migration to their liking, so they use a blanket solution that just backs everything up, but that solution is causing people to have battery issues.

 

[Combustion]

I think you need to understand four things here in relation to battery life and backup:

• Any processing power needed for backups is only used when a backup is being generated, not constantly active.
• Granular control of backup is possible and built in; ie. you can choose what to back up to a relatively specific level (see Settings > iCloud > Storage and Backup > Manage Storage)
• Backups occur only once a day, and only when connected to Wi-Fi when using iCloud.
• The most taxing part of iCloud is push email/contacts/calendar which initiates a sleeping connection to Apple's push servers to retrieve data when changes are detected. This too can be configured to be disabled.
• Restoration of a backup is only ever initiated by a user, it is never automatic.

By the way, the corrupted contact issue was found to be an issue where by it was not corrupted, but instead creating a conflict that the system was not auto resolving properly, and as such was continually trying to fix.

 

[Calidude]

I think you need to understand four things here in relation to battery life and backup:

[*]Any processing power needed for backups is only used when a backup is being generated, not constantly active.

I'm not talking about the act of backing up data. I'm talking about the old data from an imported backup conflicting with new software, causing CPU loops.

[*]Granular control of backup is possible and built in; ie. you can choose what to back up to a relatively specific level (see Settings > iCloud > Storage and Backup > Manage Storage)

1) That option isn't obvious enough to people. When performing a backup, you shouldn't just get a notice saying: "We're backing up your phone". You should get a notice saying: "Here's a list of stuff you can back up. Please select what to include.".

However, Apple doesn't do this, because they think their users are lazy and dumb.

2) The choices or what to back up aren't specific enough. There should be a list of every important dataset on your phone, not just camera roll, apps, and general data It should look like:

1. Contacts
2. General Settings
3. Calendar
4. Email Accounts
5. Messages
6. App 1
7. App 2

And so on.

[*]Backups occur only once a day, and only when connected to Wi-Fi when using iCloud.

Irrelevant. As I said before. It's not the act of backing up that is the issue I'm speaking of That's a OS problem.

[*]The most taxing part of iCloud is push email/contacts/calendar which initiates a sleeping connection to Apple's push servers to retrieve data when changes are detected. This too can be configured to be disabled.

Not a data issue. That's a system issue.

[*]Restoration of a backup is only ever initiated by a user, it is never automatic.

Irrelevant.

 

[Combustion]

OK fair enough, just take a minute to re-read your post.

It definitely leaves you with the vibe that you are blaming the battery life issues on the backup system. No mention of causing CPU loops or the OS being at fault, in fact it comes off more like blaming iCloud/iTunes for the battery life (which is to a point plausible if they are creating the situation in which the iPhone is getting stuck doing something).

 

[RedReplicant]

Really? I turned off time zone check, icloud, and siri - my battery life went from less than a day to about three days of normal usage.

 

[thewitt]

Totally unrelated, incoherent, disjointed arguments...

You don't like the fact you can't control what's backed up. Ok fine.

That has NOTHING to do with the very small subgroup of users who are impacted by the iOS 5 battery bug.

 

[Calidude]

Really? I turned off time zone check, icloud, and siri - my battery life went from less than a day to about three days of normal usage.

Siri is useless, iCloud is completely unnecessary, and time zone check is beyond unnecessary.

These recent problems are mostly caused by iOS 5 having a lot of unneeded crap, but the battery issues we've always had since the iPhone came out is simply due to Apple assuming every user needs to back up an image of their phone.

 

[Branskins]

Siri is useless, iCloud is completely unnecessary, and time zone check is beyond unnecessary.

Edit. I misread your post. Didn't read the quote you cited! Oops!

 

[Calidude]

Totally unrelated, incoherent, disjointed arguments...

You don't like the fact you can't control what's backed up. Ok fine.

That has NOTHING to do with the very small subgroup of users who are impacted by the iOS 5 battery bug.

I have only one argument and one solution.

The argument: Apple assumes we need a complete backup with minimal customization AFTER the fact, and that causes corruptions that result in battery issues whenever a major upgrade or phone loss occurs for a significant number of users.

The solution: Apple needs to assume we aren't complete idiots and give us a more powerful, customizable, and comprehensive solution for backups as well as .csv import/export native to the iPhone handset that allows some people to ONLY keep their contacts safe without dealing with backups at all.

 

[thewitt]

Apple assumes we need a complete backup with minimal customization AFTER the fact, and that causes corruptions that result in battery issues whenever a major upgrade or phone loss occurs for a significant number of users.

What causes you do draw this conclusion?

I have seen nothing that states corruptions caused by the backup procedure causes battery issues. How do you come up with this?

 

[Calidude]

What causes you do draw this conclusion?

I have seen nothing that states corruptions caused by the backup procedure causes battery issues. How do you come up with this?

How could you have NOT seen anything? I can just google a few keywords and find dozens of articles, like this one titled: "Top 5 Ways to Fix iPhone 4S Battery Life Problems"

Here's an excerpt.

5. Restore the iPhone 4S as a New Phone

This is the step that everyone dreads, as you will lose your settings (mail, preferences, etc.) but sometimes it's the only way to solve a difficult problem. Apple normally insists you try to restore with iTunes before they will service a problem or replace a device. Make sure to back up your iPhone first, transfer purchased content to your computer, and when restoring choose Set up as a new phone (not Restore from backup). Battery problems caused by corrupted files or other issues can often be fixed with a clean restore of the iPhone.
http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/971624

 

[marksman]

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)

Yeah actually a lot of us need that important data much more than our contact list which is actually the easiest thing to recreate.

 

[TLewis]

1. You can backup and restore icloud contacts (manually). In fact, doing manual backups (.csv files, since I'm using windows) is the only cruddy way of doing backups.
2. If you're that unhappy with the iphone, please stop using it and get an android.

 

[MythicFrost]

You can choose what iCloud backs up, but I do need and want those things backed up. I don't want to have to do it manually, I want it done for me seamlessly which is exactly what iCloud does, so kudos to Apple.

 

[Calidude]

1. You can backup and restore icloud contacts (manually). In fact, doing manual backups (.csv files, since I'm using windows) is the only cruddy way of doing backups.
2. If you're that unhappy with the iphone, please stop using it and get an android.

I'm not unhappy with it. I'm just trying to point out that the reason problems persist for other people is because Apple doesn't allow enough functionality. They assume their users are dumb, and by doing so, create more problems since we have to wait for them to fix things they broke or don't work as well as they should.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

due to Apple assuming every user needs to back up an image of their phone.

I won't go so far as to say it is causing the crappy battery life, but THIS has been an issue. Their lack of dividing out the app data so that you could restore your phone as new, but then gain back your app data has been a problem.

The palm way of an app file and a data file was wayyyy more effective in this area. I have been told to restore as new on my touch for wifi issues. I just looked at them like they were nuts. Hello people, and how might I get my aoo data back? Just recreating it all isn't my idea of fun!

Not every developer took it upon themselves to create a cloud type of storage to backup too - and they shouldn't have had to have in the first place.

That said, I need more than my contacts, and I bet other people who use their iOS device as a PDA do too.

As apps migrate to iCloud there is a solution..... But only if the user migrates there too (I'm a MobileMe user that can't migrate yet).

Better, but not perfect.

Apple.com/feedback

 

[thewitt]

How could you have NOT seen anything? I can just google a few keywords and find dozens of articles, like this one titled: "Top 5 Ways to Fix iPhone 4S Battery Life Problems"

Here's an excerpt.

There is absolutely nothing there that says Apple's backup procedures are causing corruption on your device. You are delusional.

 

[Calidude]

There is absolutely nothing there that says Apple's backup procedures are causing corruption on your device. You are delusional.

If you can't see that the documented fact that "setting up your iPhone as a new device" is a way to alleviate battery issues can be reasonably inferred to mean that Apple backup procedures are therefore causing battery issues, then you lack basic comprehension skills.

I didn't make this thread to parrot something dozens of articles say. I made this thread to say that due to the findings of those articles, Apple needs to revamp their backup system and give more control to the user.

 

[TLewis]

I'm not unhappy with it. I'm just trying to point out that the reason problems persist for other people is because Apple doesn't allow enough functionality. They assume their users are dumb, and by doing so, create more problems since we have to wait for them to fix things they broke or don't work as well as they should.

You must be new to Apple devices.

1. Apple's seemingly has always had that attitude. It's apparently been that way for years, and is nothing new.
2. If you don't like it, don't buy Apple. Seriously, whining about it doesn't change anything.

 

[Calidude]

You must be new to Apple devices.

1. Apple's seemingly has always had that attitude. It's apparently been that way for years, and is nothing new.
2. If you don't like it, don't buy Apple. Seriously, whining about it doesn't change anything.

1) Not new to Apple devices. Just trying to make it clear to people that this is the case, because many would disagree with you on Apple's attitude.
2) I love my iPhone. It works fine for me. I'm not whining. However, when people complain, things change. If everybody who owned an Apple product became aware they were being coddled, Apple would rethink its policy on end-users.