Other Still syncing or updating via Mac/PC?

[CyberDavis]

For quite a while I have only been using iCloud or WiFi to synch and update my iPhone and iPad.
The last reason I had to physically connect was transferring movies and TV programmes, but as my WiFi and broadband improved I changed to wireless connectivity.
But reading threads on these forums it seems quite a number of people still use a physical connection.

I’m intrigued to see what the split is between physical and wireless connectivity.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm mainly iCloud. Been that way since late 2012. It's hard to do it any other way when your brand new iPhone 5 (in 2012) won't sync with your 2003 PowerBook G4 running Leopard.

That forced me to not put everything into one basket. While I do use iCloud to backup, my mail is IMAP, my contacts/calendars/notes are Google, photos/videos are Dropbox/Google Photos/iCloud and my text messages don't matter because anything of importance is not done via text/iMessage. Music is either streamed or sitting on my NAS.

I could lose everything today and in a couple of hours have it all thrown back on my phone (sans Messages) from the various sources I use. So backing up is done rarely and usually only if I am going to be wiping the device.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I've used both but I prefer to use use iTunes to update my devices.. I might add, I've only had an issue once using OTA update so my reason for not using it most of the time doesn't have anything to do with reliability or quality of the process..

 

[Shirasaki]

I maintain my own music library and doesn’t trust online Storage provider to be honest. With that being said, Apple has made iCloud backup good enough to surpass local backup, plus iCloud photo Optimised storage. So I still transfer data through wire (I just have no faith on stable wireless connection of today’s technology) but do wireless transfer if time is not a major factor Or convenience heavily outweighs reliability.

 

[1rottenapple]

I sync my calendars and what not non iCloud but songs… that’s what my mac is for.

 

[CyberDavis]

Interesting, slightly surprised with the percentage still syncing via Mac/PC.
I get why though, thanks for the responses.
😀👍

 

[Lekro]

Everything iCloud. I could have my device wiped without me doing anything and I would still not lose any data.

 

[1rottenapple]

Everything iCloud. I could have my device wiped without me doing anything and I would still not lose any data.

Interesting, slightly surprised with the percentage still syncing via Mac/PC.
I get why though, thanks for the responses.
😀👍

We are kinda the hardcore group posting on macrumors. But aside from me, everyone in my personal life uses iCloud and don’t sync at all using their Mac.

 

[sracer]

I sync all of my iOS and iPadOS devices using a cable and my iMac.

 

[Slix]

I can't vote since I usually sync my iPhone wirelessly though iTunes, but plug it in for dumping photos into Photos on my Mac, and I back up to iCloud and update iOS over wifi as well. I do both of the poll options.

 

[now i see it]

The main problem with iCloud backups is that they are not encrypted. While all of us here are law abiding citizens and have nothing to hide, Apple gets -thousands- of ‘demands’ from law enforcement every year requiring them to hand over all iCloud data for the person under investigation. And they do.

Once they’ve got access to an iCloud backup and log in credentials, its a simple matter of installing the backup on a test phone- and voila! They’ve got your phone with everything on it - in their hands.
 has a webpage detailing how many requests they hand over each year and the number is jaw dropping.

Backing up to iCloud is exactly the same as backing up to the FBI servers - because they have access to any and all iCloud accounts.
While like I said, none of us here have anything to hide - but still the very concept of what’s actually going on is kind of hard to swallow.

 

[1rottenapple]

The main problem with iCloud backups is that they are not encrypted. While all of us here are law abiding citizens and have nothing to hide, Apple gets -thousands- of ‘demands’ from law enforcement every year requiring them to hand over all iCloud data for the person under investigation. And they do.

Once they’ve got access to an iCloud backup and log in credentials, its a simple matter of installing the backup on a test phone- and voila! They’ve got your phone with everything on it - in their hands.
 has a webpage detailing how many requests they hand over each year and the number is jaw dropping.

Backing up to iCloud is exactly the same as backing up to the FBI servers - because they have access to any and all iCloud accounts.
While like I said, none of us here have anything to hide - but still the very concept of what’s actually going on is kind of hard to swallow.

Good point I didn’t know that. If you delete your backup how long does Apple even retain it?

 

[now i see it]

We’ll never know the real answer to that question.