Honestly just confused with iCloud

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Honestly just confused with iCloud

I know this is confusing, trying my best to explain.

Long story: My late boyfriend passed away unexpectedly 1.5 years ago. My text thread spanning 5 years with him accidentally got deleted before he passed. I actually had a old backup that contained the texts but I did not know that when a new backup is created, the old one is deleted 🙃 So, it got overwritten... I didn’t know you can only have 1 backup saved at a time. I’ve been told that they can’t be recovered and I’ve begrudgingly accepted that BUT what I am wanting to find out is how to prevent this from happening again.

I have no idea about any of this iCloud stuff. The only reason why I started backing up with iCloud is I was told it would be easier since it backs up automatically and keeps it up to date versus me having to remember to plug my phone into my computer for iTunes whenever. It said I needed more storage in order to backup so I thought that if I got more storage, then texts and pictures would be saved when it backs up. Anything deleted after would be saved in the backup but just gone from your phone only & you could get them back if needed.

Which brings me to the confusing icloud messages turned on, turned off thing. It says if it is turned on, when you delete from a phone, it deletes from iCloud as well. But I *don’t* want that, I want the old ones to still be available. So, if it’s turned off do the texts still get backed up to iCloud? It seems kind of counter intuitive if it’s set to “off” Is there a way to do this on iCloud? Or do I just need to go back to using itunes?

iPhone 11, iOS 14

Posted on Nov 11, 2021 8:25 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

muguy

Level 9

76,693 points

Nov 11, 2021 8:33 AM in response to Loveyouforeverx

iCloud is primarily a synchronization service. So, it keeps your photos, messages, files, data, in sync between all of your devices. If enabled, and you delete a picture on your device, it deletes from iCloud and any connected devices as well. Messages in iCloud also just sync devices so that the messages on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone remain in sync.

iCloud backups contain items on your phone that are not already using iCloud (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428). So, if you turn on iCloud photos, or messages in iCloud, neither is part of your device backup as they are already in the cloud. More information about the different methods is at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977.

If you had been backing up to your computer, your older backups may still be around if you used Time Machine to regularly backup a Mac, or other backup system on a PC. Although, after the length of time, those may no longer exist.

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2021 8:34 AM in response to Loveyouforeverx

Here’s Apple’s explanation→What's the difference between device storage and iCloud storage? - Apple Support, which may not help much.

There are 2 things you can do with iCloud, sync to iCloud, and back up to iCloud. While they both have “iCloud” in their name they are completely separate processes that do not overlap.

To sync to iCloud go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud and turn on switches for anything you want to sync. This will “mirror” those items to iCloud. But note that if you delete something from the phone the item will also be deleted from iCloud (and any other devices that are logged in to the same iCloud account).

To back up to iCloud go to Settings/[your name]/iCloud and tap on Backup. This will let you back up manually, and if you leave it on it will start backing up automatically every night if you leave the phone plugged in overnight. iCloud backup keeps only the 2 most recent backups, however.

Here’s the slightly tricky part: iCloud sync and iCloud backup are separate, as I said. That means that anything you sync will not be backed up, because that would be redundant.

This means that for texts, if you set sync to “off” then the texts will be included in an iCloud (or computer) backup.

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Answer 3

Nov 13, 2021 4:40 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

So I’m wanting to turn off the “mirroring” If I delete a text from my phone, I want it to still be on iCloud. To do this, I would need to switch off the button for texts, correct? If I do this, text messages will be included in my iCloud backup still, but just stop the mirroring?

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Honestly just confused with iCloud

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