hey!
I recently brought in my MacBook Pro to replace the whole unibody : lower body and screen as it was scratched, I couldn’t back it up in time and I was wondering if anyone got a repair like this done and if they ended up losing data.
i know it was a risk but I was wondering if it’s common for it to happen.
https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/terms/repair/Retail_Repair_US_Terms_Co nditions.html - Apple Inc. Repair Terms & Conditions - "Apple understands that your data may be valuable to you. Data loss during service is always a possibility, and in some cases, data may be unrecoverable, erased, or reformatted during service. For this reason, it is your sole responsibility to back up all existing data, software, and/or programs from your product, and to decide whether to erase any such data from your product, prior to receiving service. Apple is not responsible for loss, recovery, or compromise of data, software or programs, or loss of use of your product or other equipment arising out of the services provided by Apple."
Sometimes repair may result in replacement of entire device - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8344794
I believe with iOS devices complete replacement is not uncommon for things beyond screen replacement and maybe batteries. For a computer I don't know. It sounds like you are having extensive replacement and they may decide in the interest of speed they will want to just give you a refurbished unit. You will have to ask them.
If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast. (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).
Attach your external drive and use
System preferences > Time machine ...
... to turn on Time Machine. It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected.
Time Machine may spend all afternoon making your first full backup. You can continue to do your regular work while it does this. The first Full Backup is by far the biggest backup. After that, it will work quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only save the incremental changes.
Time machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done, because it does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.
How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht201250
If you choose to connect your backup drive only from time-to-time, try to do so at least every-other day, at minimum. Otherwise, it may take several hours of computation just to decide what needs to be backed up, before any files are transferred.
Always backup your data whether going for repair or during daily use. The more important your data is to you the more likely it is that you will lose it during repair.
Data loss during repair
