Pointless iCloud Backup Confusion

[Kashchei]

If I go to the iCloud tab under system preferences on my computer, click on manage, and then backups, I see that I am backing up both my iPhone and iPad to iCloud. However, if I l click on settings, general, iTunes Wi-Fi sync on either device, it seems that both devices have two entries, one to back up apps and another to back up everything else. Moreover, each of these devices seems to back up independently of the other.
Is this the way things are supposed to work, or is there a way to fix this problem? FWIW, this problem only started after I did a clean install of ML, and the current backups are all dated from the time before this clean install.

 

[Tinmania]

That is exactly how it is supposed to work.

But it is not backing up apps. It saves application data that can be shared among all devices and/or macs.

The iOS device backups backup device settings, camera roll, etc.



Michael

 

[Kashchei]

Tinmania, thank you for your help! I'm not a newbie, but I had no idea iCloud worked this way. Is it ok that on my iPhone, it says that one of the devices is backing up both apps and podcasts, while the corresponding device on my iPad is only backing up apps?

 

[Tinmania]

Tinmania, thank you for your help! I'm not a newbie, but I had no idea iCloud worked this way. Is it ok that on my iPhone, it says that one of the devices is backing up both apps and podcasts, while the corresponding device on my iPad is only backing up apps?

I'm not sure what you are asking. Applications listed under "Backup Options" are not actually backed up: their data is. This data is restored if you do an iCloud restore (say after restoring the iPhone firmware). So it makes sense to turn off apps where uploading their data is not crucial. In my case, I really don't need podcasts backed up since I can just as easily download what I want should I need to restore from iCloud. And I likely wouldn't even need to do that since I force an iTunes download before restoring firmware.

The Documents and Data section is more like a harddrive in the cloud. It is used, and shared, dynamically by apps. So that is good for, say, keeping a game in sync between iDevices, or having Pages documents available no matter whether you are on iPhone, iPad, or mac. This section will show the apps that are saving to iCloud whether or not you actually have the apps installed.




Michael