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iCloud Backups
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I have been asking for topics that you want to know about for these membership shows and Judy had some great questions about what happens when you enable iCloud backups on your device
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I have to admit that it's a huge area of mystery to me and because with a free iCloud account you only get 5GB of storage I don't backup to iCloud.
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If your wondering, in my case I sync and backup via iTunes, either when I physically connected or over the air
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Since I backup to Time Machine, Super Duper, and Crash Plan those backups are also backed up locally and to the Cloud.
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But Judy recently disabled app backups via iCloud her device and had some questions.
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What does disabling app backups mean?
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If something happens and you have to restore your phone, does that mean that those apps that aren't being backed up won't be restored?
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Does it mean that the settings for the apps will have to be set again?
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With game apps, does the progress in those games get erased and will you be starting all over?
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What apps SHOULD be backed up (other than the Contacts, Mail, etc.)? Dropbox? Evernote?
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So we are going to hopefully address those questions and more by doing a deep dive into iCloud backups.
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iCloud Backup Overview
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iCloud Backup requires iOS 5 and iTunes 10.5 or later
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Enabled iCloud Backup on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch in Settings > iCloud > Backup & Storage
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Toggle the Backup switch to 'On'
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From here you can also see the Storage you are using and how much is available. Note that this is for ALL iCloud storage, not just your backups
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You can also manage the storage from here, which I'll get to later
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iCloud backups run on a daily basis as long as your device:
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is connected to Internet over Wi-Fi
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is connected to a power source
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has the screen locked
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There are some types of data that actually sync up immediately
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Changes to contacts, calendars, and notes are pushed immediately
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Photos in PhotoStream are pushed immediately
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Documents and data hosted by iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud. Most commonly documents from Pages, Keynote, or Numbers for iOS. Some 3rd party apps now have Documents in the Cloud support.
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You can force a manual backup to iCloud over wi-fi when you are connected to the Internet by going to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup and choosing 'Backup Up Now'
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Also, it's my understanding that once you set up iCloud backups then automatic backups when you are connected to iTunes no longer happen automatically
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This includes wired and wi-fi syncing
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You can initiate these backup manually though
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What's Backed Up?
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By default your free iCloud storage is limited to a total of 5GB of data
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That 5GB is also shared by all devices that are registered under the same iCloud account. So if you have an iPad, iPhone, and iPod take that into account.
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With iCloud backups Apple doesn't treat all data equally
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There are actually some items that get backed up that don't count against your storage limit.
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Backed up for "free"
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Purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books (iTunes in the Cloud)
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Backups of purchased movies and TV shows are U.S. only. Due to license agreement which Apple has to negotiate in each country.
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I think the UK and Canada actually recently got iTunes in the Cloud TV show downloads
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Previous purchases may not be restored if they are no longer in the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore.
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This is important to know if you have an app that you bought, but was later removed from the App Store.
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Some movies are also opted out of iTunes in the Cloud, and those aren't restored and will say "not available in iTunes in the Cloud" on their product details page in the iTunes Store
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Everything else counts against your 5GB
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Photos and videos in the Camera Roll
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Device settings (for example: Phone Favorites, Wallpaper, and Mail, Contacts,Calendar accounts)
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Home screen and app organization
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Ringtones
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Messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS)
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App data
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What's not backed up
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Music, movies and TV shows not purchased from the iTunes Store
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For music you could get iTunes Match for USD $25/yr. Then matched music and tracks ripped above 64Kbps will be uploaded to Apple's servers and can be re-downloaded, although not automatically during a restore.
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Podcasts and audio books
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Photos that were originally synced from your computer
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These need to be backup up by continuing to use iTunes syncing either directly connected or over wi-fi
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If you use wi-fi sync remember that you need to be connected to power to start a sync or initiate the sync manually
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On the device go to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync and tap 'Sync Now'
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From iTunes select the device under the Devices list and then click the 'Sync' button
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Managing iCloud Backups
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You can get an overview of how much storage you are using by going to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup on the device and looking at the bottom of the screen.
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It will show a color status bar indicating how much storage you are using up
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it also gives the total and available data in GBs
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You can select which applications back up their data and see how much storage space each application is using:
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On your Home Screen, tap Settings
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Tap iCloud
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Tap Storage & Backup
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Tap Manage Storage
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Select the device you want to manage
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Now you can see each app and how much storage each one is using.
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To see all the apps tap the Show All Apps option at the bottom
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To exclude an application you just toggle it from on to off
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If you run out of storage you have a few options"
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You can exclude apps and data that take up large amounts of storage
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On the device go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage
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Don't keep larger files stored on your device. For example large video files in the Camera Roll
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Delete existing backups.
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Again go into Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage
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Choose the device backup you want to delete
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Tap Delete Backup
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You may want to connect to iTunes first and do a backup to your Mac before deleting your iCloud backups
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Purchase more storage
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Go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Manage Storage
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Click the Buy More Storage option
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10GB for USD $20/yr. 20GB for $40/yr. and 50GB for $100/yr.
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This is on top of the free 5GB so you end up with 15, 25, and 55GB respectively
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Restoring iCloud Backups
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When you get a new device
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During the Setup Assistant process you'll choose the "Restore from iCloud" option and enter in your iCloud account username and password
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You will be given a choice of the 3 most recent backups to restore from. In most cases you'll want to choose the most recent one.
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It will restore and on restart and your settings and accounts are restored.
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Backup then starts downloading your purchased music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, Camera Roll, and other content.
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You will get prompted to enter passwords for all the accounts enabled on your device. This can be a lot, if you have multiple accounts in apps like Mail.
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Also, you'll get prompted to App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes credentials as it attempts to restore that content.
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iCloud tries to restore the version of an app that was installed when the backup was made, if that version isn't available it will restore the latest version
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For apps you will see the progress bars under the apps that are restoring and can click an app to "pause" it's restore if you need to prioritize which apps are being restored.
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To keep tabs on the full restore process you can go to: Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup and check the progress and see if the full restore is complete.
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Depending on the number of apps you have backed up and the amount of data the restore process can take a long time. Hours and hours, so be prepared to wait.
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The good news is that the restore happens in those two steps, so you have a useable device after the OS and settings restore, but you might be waiting a while for apps, their data, photos, movies, etc.
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Troubleshooting and Tips
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You need to have at least 50MB available on your device for iCloud backups to work properly. You can check the storage available on your device by going to: Settings > General > About
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For some apps it may be better to save the iCloud backup space and simply use Dropbox, SugarSync, Box.net, FTP, or WebDAV solutions to move and backup documents to a cloud based server.
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Many games support backing up of their data via iCloud, but that doesn't mean always that they sync game data.
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