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iOS 9.3beta RUINED MY LIFE
- Thread starter HIKH
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Please ignore all these posts chastising you for using a beta and saying it ruined your life. When my daughter's backup failed, she lost everything she'd worked on for years. And we had backed up religiously every week, so we thought we were fine. We even backed up simultaneously to her computer before iOS 8.4 blocked that*. The issue we had sounds similar to yours, even though we were not running a beta. Same exact error - could not validate.
We spent 3 weeks on the phone with top level Apple tech support. To Apple's credit, they didn't give up until they fixed the problem, including creating a simulation with 5 different devices running the backup on their servers. Ultimately, it turned out to have NOTHING to do with the iPhone state at all - it was a transient glitch on their servers that associated the account with the wrong userID (in our case, a non existent one). However, the error than propagated to all the backups and devices that used it.
In the end, it was all magic on their side. They worked long hours and finally got the backup to be associated with the correct ID. Then, after about a dozen reinstalls on our devices, we got our backup back. They might be able to do this for you, too - I don't know how much the fact that you had a beta effects the situation. You should ask and make sure before giving up.
- Jeff
* This is orthogonal to the validation error, but I feel I need to bring this up for all the people who use iPads in place of computers. About 1/3rd or our Apps (including some from Apple), do NOT BACK UP THEIR APP DATA (because they don't store it in the correct directories). I feel this is an unambiguous violation of Apple policies, which state that all app data will be backed up. Yet Apple has not once rejected an App for not backing up data, and the only way to tell is when it's too late. I think we should create a website that lists all the Apps known to not back up their data, so people at least know that when they do something as simple as get a new device or even update their OS on occasion, that data is gone. Up until iOS 8.4, 3rd party apps could truly backup the entire device, but Apple has now enforced that only they can do back ups, so IMO, they now have a true responsibility to enforce this statute.
We spent 3 weeks on the phone with top level Apple tech support. To Apple's credit, they didn't give up until they fixed the problem, including creating a simulation with 5 different devices running the backup on their servers. Ultimately, it turned out to have NOTHING to do with the iPhone state at all - it was a transient glitch on their servers that associated the account with the wrong userID (in our case, a non existent one). However, the error than propagated to all the backups and devices that used it.
In the end, it was all magic on their side. They worked long hours and finally got the backup to be associated with the correct ID. Then, after about a dozen reinstalls on our devices, we got our backup back. They might be able to do this for you, too - I don't know how much the fact that you had a beta effects the situation. You should ask and make sure before giving up.
- Jeff
* This is orthogonal to the validation error, but I feel I need to bring this up for all the people who use iPads in place of computers. About 1/3rd or our Apps (including some from Apple), do NOT BACK UP THEIR APP DATA (because they don't store it in the correct directories). I feel this is an unambiguous violation of Apple policies, which state that all app data will be backed up. Yet Apple has not once rejected an App for not backing up data, and the only way to tell is when it's too late. I think we should create a website that lists all the Apps known to not back up their data, so people at least know that when they do something as simple as get a new device or even update their OS on occasion, that data is gone. Up until iOS 8.4, 3rd party apps could truly backup the entire device, but Apple has now enforced that only they can do back ups, so IMO, they now have a true responsibility to enforce this statute.
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It could be related to your password. About 2 months ago I was at an apple store in Berlin buying a new iPhone 6s and at the midst of transferring the backup of the old phone from my macbook air the system did not accept my appleID. It turned out that the system expected to have a password with a capital letter and 6 and 8 places rater than the 7 that I had before.
This is interesting. I had my 6s plus (public beta 3) replaced under warranty on Saturday and had made a cloud backup that morning on the apple store wifi. I ran into the same validation issue and ended up dfu'ing into a fresh install of 9.2.1 on my mac and then reloading the public beta profile and 9.3.b3 again. Then I could backup to my latest itunes backup, which fortunately enough, was just as of 2/6 so I only lost about 2 weeks of text messages and all the layout I had changed recently. It was enough of a headache though that I don't think I'd risk doing what you just listed.
I had the same problem. Apparently 9.3 beta 3 had this bug. Restoring from backup caused this issue. I fixed it by downgrading to 9.2.1 with recovery mode, fresh installed 9.3 beta 3 and just set up as new phone and waited until 9.3 beta 4 came out which by then I was just too lazy to get back my stuff as most of my important data were already on icloud anyway. I just lost some game data because they didn't use icloud sync. I ended up quitting them so it was all fine.
The main reason people are criticizing you is for your use of words on the thread title - this doesn't "ruin" lives for almost anyone. You really should have backups if you're running beta anyway. Don't rely on iCloud alone, and backup on iTunes on your computer for official release data before going into beta for precisely these kinds of reasons!
The main reason people are criticizing you is for your use of words on the thread title - this doesn't "ruin" lives for almost anyone. You really should have backups if you're running beta anyway. Don't rely on iCloud alone, and backup on iTunes on your computer for official release data before going into beta for precisely these kinds of reasons!
And to restate the obvious, issues like this could be a valid reason to NOT run beta releases on your "daily driver".
I've just installed the 9.3 PB4 on my iPad mini and Real Racing won't launch! I'm half way through a 7 day event!!!
MY LIFE IS RUINED
MY LIFE IS RUINED
Yeah, man. We get it. We bloody get it.
Instead of everyone "stating the obvious," maybe our community members can be more helpful in situations like this. Sure, the original poster's thread title is silly, but I did not appreciate being berated by several members when I was merely reporting a bug I encountered, seeing if any other users had the same bug, and reporting the fix that solved my issue.
I've been on Macrumors for a long time and the community of recent users really need to stop attacking each other and instead focus on helping. I used to think of this forum as a helpful environment.
Apparently some do not.
The fix is simple, albeit possibly painful.
Sorry that we are failing to measure up. Actions taken in ignorance often lead to pain. Is that not a worthwhile lesson to be learned?
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Not particularly. It's how some use the forums... post emotionally charged rants and then just lay low... on some boards, they are properly labeled for what they are.
Ya but Spencers wasn't the one saying it ruined his life and he's being attacked for it.
If you had something important and you were using a beta, well ... the one to blame is you.
Yeah I really don't understand that mentality. Don't play with betas if you can't afford to screw something up on your phone.
I keep hearing about people with separate iCloud and AppStore accounts... Its 2016 now, and you can join those two in Family Sharing to use all of your old purchases on the new iCloud account.
There are lots of people in this position, since MobileMe cost money and most people just got Gmail back then and added it to an AppleID for App Store use, then everyone swept out and got iCloud when it became free. Thank God they added Family Sharing to at least associate the two accounts for purchase reasons.
Family sharing is not really a great solution. There are many apps that don't allow it. Hence the reason I still have to log in with 2 accounts.