Brian Schreiber wrote:
Having read the detailed responses above I will answer my previous questions below to benefit those who later read and are trying to make sense of things:
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1) The dialog box offered by Apple is obviously confusing; the authors figure people are clear on the meaning of their word, when many, who use the synching process seldom and do not understand that the ONLY library and master source lies on the computer(Mac). All subordinate devices(iPads, iPhones, watches) rely on the library for partial(usually) copies of that huge database. Alternately, one an use iCloud instead of the Mac.
Send your dialog box feedback to Apple: Product Feedback - Apple
As for the “fun” that is terminology and text, one of the replies to this was referencing iCloud, and not the Mac cable sync path that was intended here.
2) I once used iCloud and stopped. I did not like the idea my data was held remote, that it took a fair amount of time to "work" with it to "synch" files and the whole process was a bit ambiguous. Simple hard drives of HUGE capacity are small and can be connected to your Mac directly and physically stored in little space and cost less than $100. I like life to be simple; that IS the basic philosophy that Steve Jobs originally had and complications like iCloud are move away from that.
The world that Mr Jobs operated in is gone.
And as for your local-storage and local-hardware preferences, enough still want that, and that’s why that configuration remains available.
But there are many others that do not want the complexity and local hardware involved, and those preferences for various and good reasons. For those so interested, iCloud services can be entirely appropriate.
And blending those two, I picked macOS because it was less overhead to manage as compared with its then competitors. Not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t want to add that focus and that overhead.
And iCloud sync is based on the volume of data and the speed of the link, same as the cable sync runs faster with faster connections. Lightning being (commonly) USB 2.0 is pretty slow, for instance.
3) I now understand that the main reality here is that the data on my phone is to considered temporary and easily changeable, flexible. I can easily wipe it clean and re-load it using the synch process at will. Anything deleted is easily reversed as long as your (Mac) library is up to date.
Yep.
And about the only way to mark data as being valuable is with backups.
4) I can only be hopeful that some software writer will consider with more gravity exactly which words are most helpful for the audience who only use such processes occasionally cannot be expected to understand what is in HIS mind. Occasionally used processes require a better help facility readily accessed, more popups, scroll down heirarchial structure, etec.
Log some feedback. Link to this thread included, maybe.
And as somebody that's written books, manuals, and a whole lot of software including UIs, and for an international audience, it isn’t easy, and the audience is widely varied, and shifting. And the language changes, too.
Again, send your feedback here to Apple.
