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Level 1

24 points

FURIOUS!! - Automatic iPad Sync Deleted All Apps Without Warning

My iPad, 3rd Generation (6.0), is set to wirelessly sync with iTunes (10.7) in Mountain Lion (10.8.2). Today I opened iTunes and was greeted with the a message advising me that the iPad had new apps that were not yet synced back to iTunes. I was in a rush so I declined to sync the new apps. But as soon as I pressed the button, iTunes proceeded to delete all of my apps from the iPad, including all the data associated with those apps (including PDF files with annotations). I attempted to restore from an iTunes backup, but I got nothing back.

My objections:

(1) This is seriously unpredictable and harmful behavior in iTunes.

(2) My iTunes backup utterly failed or was overwritten after I declined to transfer the apps

(3) This is not a new problem: See http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=889859

My feelings:

Now I have to spend hours recreating what I had on the iPad. I'm a patient man, and very computer savvy. But this has me wanting to throw my iPad through the window.

Posted on Dec 2, 2012 9:52 AM

Best reply

JimHdk

Level 7

28,874 points

Posted on Dec 2, 2012 10:20 AM

This is a user-to-user forum. If you want your complaint to get to Apple send it to them at:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

View in context

37 replies

Dec 4, 2012 5:45 AM in response to Len Flier

Len Flier wrote:

What do you think?

That you have beat this dead horse long enough.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Len Flier Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 4, 2012 8:25 AM in response to Kilgore-Trout

James makes two points, which I would like to respond to:

James' first point is that I was warned by the existing dialog box, but I was in a hurry and pushed the wrong button. Who is to blame but me?

Obviously, I bear responsibility for my bad choices. But I'm a human being and I know that I'm prone to making bad choices when I'm in a hurry. That's why my car beeps when I leave the lights on and why the airplanes I fly around in have automatic systems that help the pilots fly them safely. If my software can be reengineered so that it keeps me out of trouble when I'm in a hurry, that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned. Life doesn't have to be a Darwinian natural-selection system all the time.

The second point is this discussion is pointless.

As E27 suggests, Apple is likely to listen to thoughtful suggestions. With the helpful comments posted by other readers above, I think we've made a lot of progress in understanding the problem. It seems likely that further progress is possible. When it does appear that we've reached a conclusion, then we can forward the result of the discussion to Apple, as you have suggested. My belief is that the result of our serious discussion will be a lot more helpful to Apple than an uninformed complaint, which is all I would have been capable of making at the beginning.

But, James, if this discussion has reached an endpoint for you -- and it sounds as though it has -- you can stop visiting and we won't trouble you any longer.

Dec 4, 2012 8:47 AM in response to Len Flier

Len Flier wrote:

James makes two points, which I would like to respond to:

James' first point is that I was warned by the existing dialog box, but I was in a hurry and pushed the wrong button. Who is to blame but me?

Obviously, I bear responsibility for my bad choices. But I'm a human being and I know that I'm prone to making bad choices when I'm in a hurry. That's why my car beeps when I leave the lights on and why the airplanes I fly around in have automatic systems that help the pilots fly them safely. If my software can be reengineered so that it keeps me out of trouble when I'm in a hurry, that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned. Life doesn't have to be a Darwinian natural-selection system all the time.

<snip>

Your car beeping at you serves as a warning, somewhat similar to the warning presented to you by your software. If you choose to ignore the warning, your car's battery will run low, or in this case you will delete your data.

There is not much more that can be done to save you, in the case of your car, or your software. Maybe a warning is not sufficient for you but I think for most users the warning is enough. Would you prefer that the software read your mind before implementing the action you selected, even after the warming?

Dec 5, 2012 12:07 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

IF (and I don't that this is necessarily the case) the syncing will delete both the apps AND the corresponding data, then this could possibly be made clearer in the original window that popped up.

If, for example, someone has first transferred a PDF to the iOS device, then downloaded some software to annotate said PDF, then allows iTunes to delete this app, should the edited document also be deleted? That is an important question, to which I don't have the answer, but which maybe should be made clearer...

Dec 5, 2012 6:59 AM in response to flibbertygibbet

I guess a user should be familiar with the capabilities and limitations of any tool they are using. The iOS paridigm is to "attach" data to an application rather than to a file system. This is a strength, not a weakness of iOS. If this paradigm does not meet a user's needs, then perhaps iOS is not the appropriate tool.

I think this paradigm is initially troublesome for Windows users who have recently transitioned to iOS.

Dec 6, 2012 12:15 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

You may have a point, but it still needs to be obvious what is happening, or what will happen.

A hypothetical example: say someone installs two PDF reading apps, and then deletes one of them. Do the PDFs present in the device also get deleted? After all, some or all of them may "belong" to the app being deleted... but how can you tell?

Len Flier Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 6, 2012 4:18 AM in response to flibbertygibbet

Good thought. One way to tell is by testing it.

I have Adobe Reader and PDF Expert (nice app!) installed on my iPad. Working from iTunes, I can upload a document to Adobe Reader and it does not appear in PDF Expert, and vise versa. Further, If I delete PDF Expert, the documents in Adobe Reader remain untouched (as expected), but when I restore PDF Expert, all of its documents are gone.

Before deleting PDF Expert, the following warning is given:

Deleting "PDF Expert" will also delete all of its data. (Delete) (Cancel)

This seems to confirm what Phil and Bob are saying about sandboxing of apps and data, and it's consistent with my experience of data loss described at the beginning of the thread.

In Android, as Phil also observed, things are different. Any PDF that is uploaded to the device is available to any PDF-reading application. Clicking on the document brings up a menu of applications that you may choose to open it up in. Deleting the application does not necessarily affect the data. In iOS, a particular document appears to be tied to the application you uploaded it to. And this is also consistent with what Phil said about sandboxing in iOS.

There are strengths and weaknesses to both approaches. The iOS approach, for example, is more resistant to viruses by design. But, as Bob observes, the iOS approach is different from the approach taken in both Windows and OSX, where apps and data are not sandboxed together, and it takes some getting used to, as I can attest.

FURIOUS!! - Automatic iPad Sync Deleted All Apps Without Warning