Purpose of backing up an iPad through iTunes?

[stanw]

since my contacts, calendar and mail are in the cloud, and all of my music and videos are on my Mac and can easily be transferred back to an iPad if necessary, what is the point of backing it up? Just so I don’t have to re download apps and set them up on the right screens?

Thanks.

 

[sracer]

since my contacts, calendar and mail are in the cloud, and all of my music and videos are on my Mac and can easily be transferred back to an iPad if necessary, what is the point of backing it up? Just so I don’t have to re download apps and set them up on the right screens?

Thanks.

Specific iOS settings that you changed from the default would be backed up and restored via iTunes. (though you could probably set the iPad to backup to iCloud) Also, if you have an app that no longer appears in the App store, there is no guarantee that you will be able re-download the app. Any app removed from the App store for violating Apples app store rules will not be available to re-download once it has been removed. If this last issue doesn't apply to you, then no need to worry. I have iMAME (full-on arcade emulator) on my 32-bit iPads. It is no longer in the app store and cannot be re-downloaded.

 

[dk001]

Older or no longer available apps, certain settings, and I seem to have occasional issues with the iCloud backup.
Then recently, when I had an issue with my IPP, Apple had me do the iTunes reset/restore.

Don't use iTunes much, but there have been times it was needed.

 

[stanw]

Does iCloud backup the iOS custom settings, account info, mail settings?

Thanks

 

[pika2000]

Faster restore. iCloud backup is fine, but it will take a while restoring from it. Having a local iTunes backup as a second backup won’t hurt.

 

[mofunk]

Does iCloud backup the iOS custom settings, account info, mail settings?

Thanks

Yeah they've even gone further with using the settings from other iOS devices. If you have an iPhone, you can use that to set up another iOS device, provided that they are using the iOS version.

Like everyone said, its good to have a backup to your computer. In the event that the iCloud backup gets lost or unavailable you can still use the backup on your computer. I had a case where I needed to restore my iPhone. Instead of using the last update on iCloud I used the backup that was dated 6months prior to my problem.

 

[stanw]

Thanks for the replies. I have 16gb of iOS backups on my Mac for iPhone and iPads. It just seemed excessive for backups, I’m guessing there are settings to control what gets saved to the backup.

 

[MBAir2010]

Question

Would an iPad back up through iToons save everything from the iPad, even drawings made in an app?

 

[mikzn]

Like everyone said, its good to have a backup to your computer. In the event that the iCloud backup gets lost or unavailable you can still use the backup on your computer. I had a case where I needed to restore my iPhone. Instead of using the last update on iCloud I used the backup that was dated 6months prior to my problem.

if you want to save the passwords and other settings locally in itunes - you need to set the back up to "encrypt iphone backup" in the itunes summary page for the iOS device - don't forget that password or you will not have access to the back up when you need it later.

Also you can archive the back ups in itunes preferences - keeping different versions of the back ups - like mentioned above by mofunk.

 

[Shirasaki]

Thanks for the replies. I have 16gb of iOS backups on my Mac for iPhone and iPads. It just seemed excessive for backups, I’m guessing there are settings to control what gets saved to the backup.

I have my iPhone backup as much as 35GB in size, yet I still manage to back my phone up once in a while, in case of anything that is potentially going wrong.
Having local backup means you are less reliant on the Internet when you do the backup, not to mention iCloud backup can be glitchy and unstable when your network connection is not "super clean 1Gb fibre". Sounds exaggerating right? I had a very hard time trying to restore from an icloud backup with an 8Mbps ADSL because the speed was too low, and the network was not clean enough. Took me literally one whole day to wait and recover.

Question

Would an iPad back up through iToons save everything from the iPad, even drawings made in an app?

The short answer is no. It highly depends on how developer stores their app data. Also, if your iTunes backup is not encrypted, some sensitive info like login password will not be saved.

 

[MBAir2010]

The short answer is no. It highly depends on how developer stores their app data. Also, if your iTunes backup is not encrypted, some sensitive info like login password will not be saved.

Thanks, I can’t even export the file name i titled the drawing, in that app, just “drawing”

 

[ericwn]

Thanks, I can’t even export the file name i titled the drawing, in that app, just “drawing”

I depends on the app in question. App data is usually preserved in backups. I recommend you check out Apple’s support site, they have an article somewhere explaining iCloud vs iTunes backups and what is or isn’t preserved.