No slight intended to anyone, honestly. I think we're all just really tired of this stupid text glitch, weary of shouting into the ether of the forums (sometimes at each other), and each time someone new discovers the thread -- usually a soul as desperate and hopeful as we once were to find a solution -- it's like being dragged through the whole thing again, shoving a rock uphill like some kind of digital Sisyphus.
Yes, among this group of Apple loyalists, many have tried linking and unlinking the various portals to what we commonly refer to as "iCloud." (We've also tried, many, many, many other things. I think someone even tried chewing gum and rubber bands, while someone else was a proponent of taking the phone to Haiti for intervention and exorcism by a local medical professional. My guess is that many people have just gotten sick of getting emails from "Apple Support Communities," and have disconnected from the tread altogether.) I was just pointing out that even when a user exercises every slider at his/her disposal (on the phone settings or at the Apple platform) to "disconnect" from "the cloud," the phone is still or will routinely be connected to or through "the cloud" anyway.
Part of the problem is semantics: There's iCloud that is sold as a storage app. There's also backing up the phone to what is called "iCloud," which doesn't require purchased storage at all, and presumably the files don't even gather in the same place as they do for the storage app (I don't know). Then there's the way in which all mobile devices inherently triangulate (or greater) through some kind of cloud-based server simply to operate at all. Add to that all the other "cloud" stuff out there, and one's head starts to spin. Which cloud? What cloud? Is that a cloud? On my x-ray? Ooh, look, up in the sky, that cloud looks like a little bunny!
Apple users can exert direct control over the storage iCloud (but only to an extent), and over the place where mobiles are proactively backed-up (again, only to an extent), but that flow-through "cloud" is essentially inaccessible to the end user -- and whether we like it or not, there is an accumulation of data there, and that is apparently where these "backup" shortcut files lurk (probably having a kegger and laughing at us). Whether the third-party fix that has worked for others and was (at one point) described here in detail actually reaches into those particular files, I can't say, but it's worked as at least a stopgap for many. I am among the few (?) who have dug in heels for a fix from Apple. It's their problem, and they need to fix it.
Apple has now acknowledged this, and says it's up for a systemic fix. Granted, they've been sympathetic so far with each of us when we have tried to work with tech, but this is the first that I know of (after PeterOram1's experience) where tech is actually saying: Got it. We're on it. Give us time.
