Confused about transfer

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Level 1

6 points

Confused about transfer

I have an Iphone 5C - 16 gig and an Ipad 4 - 32 gig. I have 20GB of iCloud Storage and I have 17.1 available. I back up my phone and my iPad every night. What I find confusing is - 32 + 16 = 48. I only have 20 GB storage so how can I be backing everything up and still have 17.1 available?

When I look at my iPhone storage it says Used: 8.3GB. Available: 3.9 GB. (I just deleted some photos). In iCloud It says "Latest Backup - 364MB". Does the phone only back up CHANGES since the last back up? Is that why the backup is so small? A lot of my info. is synced with my iPad. I use the same login and password for both. Everything that is "syncable" is synced. Is this the explanation?

The reason I ask this is because I am planning to get a new phone in the next month or two. I have health information in an app on my phone. The app is not available for the iPad. I want to make sure all the information transfers to the new phone. If I have that particular app set to back up, will the whole app AND the information transfer over to my new phone when I set it up? It's important to me because I need the past information together with new information to record changes.

Someone at the phone store told me that I would have to go to the App Store and Purchased and then download all the apps again, using my old phone so that I could see OPEN so I knew that of all those numerous apps, the ones with OPEN were the ones I kept. The ones with the little cloud - were apps I deleted.

I have tried backing up my iPhone to my PC and the only things that backed up were: Music, Photos, Tones (and something else I can't remember). Why didn't it back up 100 percent of what is on my phone?

I am not going to buy a phone until I understand all this. If my iTunes would back everything up - then I would use that backup.

iPhone 5c, iOS 9.2.1, 16 GB

Posted on Feb 13, 2016 5:40 PM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

195,933 points

Feb 13, 2016 5:45 PM in response to Purley194

Apps and music are not backed up to iCloud at all. To do so would be redundant.

Here's some useful information about how backups work using both iCloud and iTunes.

About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2016 5:50 PM in response to Purley194

iCloud backups only back up content that is not available from other sources. Thus it does not include:

Photos, if you have iCloud Photo enabled
Contacts, if iCloud Contacts are enabled. Likewise for anything else stored in iCloud (Calendar, notes, reminders, Safari bookmarks)
Music (available in iTunes on your computer and the iTunes Store)
Apps

It DOES include app data, iOS settings, passwords, Mail settings, any of the above that are not synced to some other source, your screen layout, health data, the music catalog on your phone and the app catalog on your phone. Thus, if you restore a backup it first restores this content, then uses the music and app catalogs to download those items.

See: About backups in iCloud and iTunes - Apple Support

In addition, both iCloud and iTunes backups are incremental, only backing up what has changed since the last backup.

I note that you said you have 20 GB. Are you aware of Apple's new plan, that offers 50 GB for less than you are paying for 20 GB? The 50 GB plan is 99¢ a month. If you switch the unused portion of your 20 GB annual fee will be refunded.

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Answer 3

Purley194 Author

Level 1

6 points

Feb 14, 2016 6:23 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

TThanks for all that information. It sounds rather complicated and I would never have figured it out for myself! No, I didn't know about the 50 gb for 99centz a month. I'm I. .Canada so it's probably more. Everything is more in Canada! But it's worth the money. Do I just go to ourchase more storage and buy 50 FB and it will all work out?

when you talk about "enabled" are you talking about stuff being "on" in iCloud? If so, I have everything "on" photos, mail, contacts, calendars etc etc. Actually, I just turned Wallet off because I've never used it and I'm probably not going to. So when I get a new phone, all that stuff that is on and all my apps and the information will transfer over to my new phone?

i checked my storage. Current plan is 20 GB $10.99 a year. I can get 50 GB FOR $1.29 a month. That's $15.48'a year. I am hopeless at math and still a bit confused about iCloud storage. i am planning on buying a 64 GB iPhone 6 when I understand all this stuff. Will I need/ more storage then?

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Answer 4

Feb 14, 2016 10:11 AM in response to Purley194

YYou probably won't need more storage, but if you do you can add more at any time.

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