Why no backup apps?

Question

Level 1

16 points

Why no backup apps?

There are virtually no backup/restore apps for the iPhone.

The iTunes app backs up only with the the last successful sync. And, if your device crashes while syncing, then even the last available backup set gets corrupted.You cannot do a point-in-time restore or selective restore of files. You cannot restore data backed up to the "cloud" if the device crashes while you are away from home ....

Anyone have any solutions to all these shortcomings with the official way of backing up and restoring iPhones?

Thanks.
Aloke

PC, Windows XP Pro, iPhone 3GS

Posted on Jun 18, 2010 5:50 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Daiya

Level 4

1,666 points

Jun 18, 2010 9:35 AM in response to Aloke

You can send feedback to Apple at:
http://apple.com/feedback
Sounds like what you want is Time Machine for the iPhone. I don't think Apple would allow anyone else to make that.

I manually move my backup file immediately after it's made (stored in user/library/application support/mobilesync). That way the next backup file doesn't overwrite it.

I also have PhoneView, which archives the things that don't sync to iTunes. I don't know what its restore-to-phone functions are, because I don't care and I'd rather archive content on my desktop anyhow, but check it out.
http://ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/
(or TouchCopy if on Windows)

You cannot restore data backed up to the "cloud" if the device crashes while you are away from home ....

Doesn't make sense to me? The point of the cloud is constant sync--if you wrote something to the cloud, then the device crashes, the cloud should write it back to the phone on next launch.

If your phone is crashing so much, you might want to have it checked out--try to attack the cause of the problem rather than band-aid the symptoms.

Reply

Answer 2

Aloke Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 18, 2010 10:02 AM in response to Daiya

"Sounds like what you want is Time Machine for the iPhone. I don't think Apple would allow anyone else to make that."

Why not? At least they should implement it themselves. All they have to do is keep mutiple instances of iTunes backup and then let the user pick which one to restore. Easy enough. Many users copy these backup sets manually as a workaround. Very kludgy and un-Apple-like.

Not everything needs to be synced to the cloud (although that would be nice). The user can be given a choice of what he wants to be able to get to when away from iTunes on his PC.

It is not that my iPhone crashes a lot. But all it takes is one hard crash (especially away from home) and a failed iTunes restore to spoil one's day/week.

I'll submit my idea to Apple at your link.

Thanks.

Reply