For a long while I’ve harbored the feeling, left unspoken lest I lose my Apple Fanboi Status, that Apple simple sucks at the internet. They make terrific computers (usually), great gadgets (iphone, ipad, ipod, Apple TV), and generally great software. OS X and iOS are fantastic in most respects.
But what Apple really, really, really does poorly…is the internet. And specifically the cloud. They’re so far behind others (e.g., Google) in this respect it’s dumbfounding. And I’ve believed in Apple’s online efforts….ever since my eWorld days. Yes, I had an eWorld account. I’ve had a .Mac, .MobileMe, and now an iCloud account. In fact, I have several. For myself, family, and employees. And yes, I even PAY for extra storage space on some of the accounts.
I have Macs of all genre, iPads, iPhones, iPods, and Apple TVs. So I figured, iCloud, with its promise that “this time” Apple finally “got” the cloud was a worth while investment. And I’ll admit, I was seduced by the promise of iCloud’s remote backup. After all, too many times I’ve had to deal with a damaged, dead, or lost computer or device that “hadn’t been connected recently” so it had not backed up to the local machine. So when iOS 5 rolled out and iCloud promised remote, automatic backup. I was hooked. It was the answer I was looking for… since after all, the other dark spot in Apple’s ecosystem, the closed world, prevents any other iphone or ipad remote backups (without jailbreaking).
I was a fool. Apple still doesn’t get the cloud.
Well it happened. And as it does, it usually happens to my wife. Now admittedly, this incident is somewhat my fault. She thought she’d lost her iPhone 4. I tried FindMyPhone. I tried remotely locating. We searched for it. Called it. But it was no where to be found. So….and here’s where I take partial responsibility….I over reacted and remote wiped it. I figured if it was lost….we didn’t want anything she had stored on it to be found (and used). And I figured…. now here’s where my Apple faith burned me… if we found it… I could simply restore it from iCloud. After all, it backs up remotely every night.
iCloud Restore failed. Bad data. Please try again.
That cursed error message. It will forever haunt me. Well at least until my wife recovers (or more appropriately rebuilds) everything on her phone. I tried unsuccessfully for hours; actually almost two days. I tried all three backup sessions (yeah, it only stores the last three back ups – even though we PAY $100/year for extra space!). I researched online. Tried “all” the tricks. I sat tapping the screen like an idiot to keep it from going to sleep while it tried to restore. But it just kept failing with 5 minutes to go….3 minutes to go… or even with the tantalizingly close 1 minute to go. So I booked an Apple Genius appointment.
Apple Genius… not so much
I’ve come to realize… while earnest and well intended, Apple Geniuses are seldom helpful. Well, that is if you have a serious problem. For simple stuff, they’re great. But when my wife’s MacBook Air’s hard drive died. The summary of their answer was sorry, can’t help. And again, when Apple’s OWN iCloud back up solution failed to restore, while the Apple Genius was very nice, in the end, the answer was basically, sorry, can’t help. Yes, they told me to call iCloud support or to try 1.800.AppleCare. But the iPhone 4 isn’t “covered” by support anymore. So what’s the purpose of the having Apple Stores staffed by Apple Geniuses? If after an hour plus at the store the only advice they can offer is try contacting iCloud support.
Yes, maybe I should have called. But my wife wanted her phone back. She likes to have it in case something happens with our young daughter. So she can call for help. Or she can call me. Or if something cute is happening, she can take photos or videos. And so she can blog… yeah my daughter has a blog. At least one post every day so far.
Apple gets a minor save – Photostream mostly worked
Her biggest fear was that all her photos were lost. 1000s of images and videos of our daughter, stored on her phone – that she “thought” were safeguarded by iCloud back up. Well, the iCloud back up failed. But fortunately, and kudos to Apple on this, Photostream saved her images to the cloud… most of them. All but the few she’d taken that morning.
So after about two and half days of trying unsuccessfully to restore the phone. After our Genius Bar excursion. And after making sure her photos were safe. We made the decision to simply rebuild the phone. Some “data’ was retrieved from iCloud on the rebuild. But some very glaring things are missing…or not “syncing”. Bookmarks in Safari aren’t. Installed Apps and her App data isn’t either. Which she constantly reminds me of each time she finds another app that needs to be reinstalled.
Which makes me wish… It’d be nice if there was some way to “track” what apps are installed on what devices. And it’d be nice of course if all the app data was “stored” too. Gamecenter saved game data. Other “cloud-based” apps saved their respective data. But any apps that store their data locally have to be used as “new” and any data re-entered. Which makes me think, all apps should “back up” their own data to the cloud. But I suppose that’s the purpose of Apple’s iCloud Back Up.
But if your iCloud Back Up Fails…
A back up is only as good as its ability to restore. It doesn’t matter if it’s backing up your data if you can’t retrieve it. It’s a mantra I repeat at my office. It’s why we utilize multiple back up solutions. But you only have two choices with your Apple “i” devices. Remember to hook it up to a computer regularly and back it up locally…. or put your faith in iCloud’s back up. Well, as I discovered. Apple iCloud Back Up stinks. I’d switch to another back up solution… but you can’t. Not that I’ve found in a quick search. Unless you jailbreak your device – there doesn’t seem to be any “unApple” way to back up your device completely. It’s Apple’s way or the highway.
And that makes me mad… because Apple’s iCloud Back Up simply doesn’t work – well at least not for us… and so I’ll never trust it again. And I’ll admit… because of this. Because my iPhone and other devices have become SO critical to my daily life (and my wife’s)… for the first time… and I can’t believe I’m thinking this… I’m wondering if Android would be a better choice. I guess I’ll have to investigate what back up solutions exist for Android.
Am I over reacting again? Perhaps… but if I can’t trust my data is safely back up… I have to find another solution.
