Q: Transfer issues

Thank you for telling me what backups are for.

I was more writing out of frustration rather than expecting a smart alec reply.

I am currently in a hideous loop of 'suck and see' methodology with little or no useful guidance.

There is clearly a lot that can be improved with iTunes and support software in general.

I am certainly not alone in finding iTunes to be long overdue a re-write.

I wonder if all the persistent issues, that are easily identified as recurring problems on all the Apple related sites are ever considered as faults rather than the general Apple assumption that it is always a user issue.

I do hope that Apple pay some attention to improving the user transfer experience before the next incarnation of the iPhone.

I know that you are highly unlikely to admit there is an issue and believe that the many complaints are from users that do not properly use the perfect software provided by Apple.

One major frustration is that it does not say devices are 'corrupt or incompatible' until after possibly several hours...surely it could be known at the start?

It would also be helpful to not save corrupt files!

It is actually possible to write software that will verify file integrity and prompt at the time of uploading if there is a problem,

It does not fill me with confidence that it only reports a 'possibly' corrupt file when I try to use it!.

Also it would be helpful if the error message gave more precise information.

Saying that the device 'may' be incompatible OR the file corrupt is very sloppy.

It should be able to check compatibility at the start and as I say above why store corrupt files as backups?

In the vain hope that my rant may give useful feedback and who knows may even help others I will go over what has transpired to this point...

I have a fast PC and a fast broadband connection on full levels....

I have an iPhone 5 64gb ...first I tried backing up to iCloud..not enough space, so I bought more space...tried again and 25 hrs later it said it could not back up!

I removed/coppied all my photos separately and tried again... after only 12 hours it said it was backed up.

I then got my new iPhone 6 128gb and tried to restore from iCloud. It appeared to be doing something for many hours and then said that the backup was corrupt or the phone was not compatible.

I checked both iOS were the same and decided to try iTunes.

I backed up the 5 to the latest iTunes and all seemed fine after an hour or two of waiting.

I swapped out the SIM and then went through the set up...territory...wifi etc.

Selected restore from iTunes...after watching the bar for a long while it finally came up with the message: backup corrupt or phone not compatible.

I went on line and found MANY others had same issue. Some sites want to sell me new software that works where Apple's does not but I do not want to risk non Apple software solutions. (Suggestion to Apple management...buy up one of the companies that have written better iTunes type software and re-badge it.)

Several sites advised me to delete the file from iTunes and start again...I did... with same result ( a day had now passed.)

Other sites advised me to switch off the error reporting which apparently causes issues.

I could not find how to do that since it seems I only get the option when first starting up.

I then deleted a load of stuff from the iPhone 5 and backed up to iCloud again.

It said that I had to switch off 'find my phone'...so I did.

I tried again and it told me to switch on 'find my phone' so I did...

I then reset the iPhone 6 and went through all the set up again and attempted to restore.

The message saying corrupt or incompatible blah blah....came up after the long bar time. (2 days of frustrating wasted time had now passed)

I repeated the above for a few more times hoping the the Apple gods would smile upon me....but after many hours the same results were obtained.

Day 3

In the long tradition of 'clear-it-all-out-and-start-again-from-scratch', I did another backup to iCloud from the 5 and have once again re-set the 6 to a new set up.

As I started to write this, it was again attempting to restore from iCloud.

After over 2 hours...It has done better than ever before but has failed to restore my apps.

This is of course very annoying since they are not just raw apps but have associated data that I cannot get from anywhere else!

Yes...I DID specifically choose to back them up and sync when prompted.

It says I may be able to restore from iTunes but since it always reports that file to be corrupt I am not confident.

Again I put in a plea to have verification of local backups, just as many other systems do.

I shall end my diatribe now, knowing that I am shouting into the wind.

Thanks for reading this far.

No need to reply or ask me to re-boot and try again....please just mention to the powers that be..that there is HUGE room for improvement in the iPhone support software, and the transfer process needs a good looking at.

JG.

(I imagine that if your leader announced a new, modern, feature filled, working, bugless,version of iTunes at the next Apple press launch he would get the biggest cheer EVER!)...and thanks from millions of users.