Not using iCloud to back up

[reeney]

I have an iphone and an ipad, The mail is IMAP, the photos ate backed up top google photos, and the documents are in Dropbox. I occasionally back up to iTunes. A Genius at the Apple Store said that I don't even really need that because if everything is , actually saved somewhere, when I get a new device and sign it my iCloud purchases are restored, and the other things when I sign in to those Apps. He said that you can select not to back up to iCloud but still have the iOS devices sync Messages, Notes, Safari passwords.

Is anyone doing this/ Thoughts?

 

[casperes1996]

There's some truth to it, but certain app stored data may not be stored anywhere other than on-device, and thus would be lost without a backup anywhere. iCloud backup is also smart about the backup, and won't store full app binaries of anything available on the App Store, cause that data is already on Apple's servers, thus no need to store it again.

 

[reeney]

My back up of the two devices used to total no more than 3 GB. Lately with no more to back up it was taking 4.8, even with Mail and Photos not using iCloud to back up. So I needed to make a change or pay iCloud for more storage. I think that is too expensive. If they gave you 5 GB per Apple device I would have 15 GB (Also have a desktop) and I don't want to pay them for not doing that.

 

[mollyc]

I don’t backup to iCloud. I only use it to sync messages and passwords. Otherwise I back up to iTunes before I update my phone. I do use an encrypted backup so my watch data syncs.

I’m not generally a fan of the cloud except for specific uses.

 

[casperes1996]

My back up of the two devices used to total no more than 3 GB. Lately with no more to back up it was taking 4.8, even with Mail and Photos not using iCloud to back up. So I needed to make a change or pay iCloud for more storage. I think that is too expensive. If they gave you 5 GB per Apple device I would have 15 GB (Also have a desktop) and I don't want to pay them for not doing that.

I mean, I agree that 5GB is on the low end, but 5GB per device may be a bit excessive too. Without data harvesting they do need paying customers. Besides, it's really damn cheap to get the 50GB. $1 per month is like a pack of gum, for 10x the space.

 

[reeney]

Glad to hear that. I suppose if one broke the phone, you'd have a problem, but the latest iTunes back up, even if a month old would recover just about everything, I suspect.

 

[jpn]

it might be useful to state that iCloud is way to (1) sync data to devices and (2) restore data to devices
for the above 2 purposes, iCloud works really well.
heavy emphasis on syncing or restoring the last state of all data in most cases.
its not a backup in the sense that you can go back to a previous state and restore a file, photo, or message that was deleted. (there are some minor tools that apple provides in cloud.com that can restore previous data, but i have found it not very helpful)

 

[MisterSavage]

I feel you can never have too many backups. Any account on any service could get hacked or have some problems. For my photos I have a copy on my Mac, on my Time Machine backup on an external drive, in Google Photos, and another online backup via Backblaze.

 

[casperes1996]

I feel you can never have too many backups. Any account on any service could get hacked or have some problems. For my photos I have a copy on my Mac, on my Time Machine backup on an external drive, in Google Photos, and another online backup via Backblaze.

It is important to note that when uploading the photos to Google, it's written in the terms of service that they become the property of Google in a way, and Google may use the photos in any way they want really

 

[Martyimac]

I have an iphone and an ipad, The mail is IMAP, the photos ate backed up top google photos, and the documents are in Dropbox. I occasionally back up to iTunes. A Genius at the Apple Store said that I don't even really need that because if everything is , actually saved somewhere, when I get a new device and sign it my iCloud purchases are restored, and the other things when I sign in to those Apps. He said that you can select not to back up to iCloud but still have the iOS devices sync Messages, Notes, Safari passwords.

Is anyone doing this/ Thoughts?

Very similar to what I am doing. The only things I have syncing through iCloud are my calendar, contacts, notes, messages, and of course find my mac/iphone/ipad.