Getting one's head around how iCloud works.

[nuyorican]

Evening all.

I'm in a right mess with my gadgets. I'm no luddite, been using tech no problems for decades. But only started using Apple gear five years ago when I was given a iPhone 5s.

So now I've used Apple phones ever since and also have a Macbook Pro. All has been good until I got back from holiday recently to wake up to my iPhone just constantly rebooting. Totally borked, no end of YouTube tutorials could get it to start / work. So I just chucked it in a draw, ordered a new iPhone online and in the interim dug out an old iPhone SE.

The problem now is missing data and trying to finally understand exactly how iCloud and backups work with Apple so I don't end up in this mess again.

When the new iPhone arrived I used the old SE to migrate to it. I obviously couldn't use my last phone because it was broken. I assumed that doing this would take care of my basic settings and it would then (when?) start pulling the rest of my stuff off the cloud. Thing is, it seems completely random. It's missing nearly a years worth of important WhatsApp messages, text message conversations seem to have big holes in them etc. But it's made sure to replace every stupid app that I've ever downloaded and no longer use...

So what's the easiest way to get your head around how it all works and make damn sure it just backs everything up? After all, I thought Apple stuff was for 'non techies' who just want it to work without having to think too hard about it. Creatives etc...

Have I done wrong by powering up the old SE? In that now that becomes the newest device. Is it going to start deleting all my newer photos and files from my Macbook Pro that I have made since?

Sorry if this post sound dumb. My head is fried thinking about it...

[ThunderSpook]

Easiest thing is not to use the SE to do the migration. Set it up as a new device and there should be multiple backups to choose from. This is assuming you used to back up to iCloud every night.

Backups for different devices should be listed separately so you can choose one from your broken phone, assuming they haven’t all been overwritten by backups from your SE.

[nuyorican]

Thank you. I wasn't aware that was an option. I'll certainly do that going forward.

The new phone is now basically all set up as I like it, but minus the missing data. I'm tempted to now just live with it and treat it like a warning rather than wipe it all again and risk there not being a newer backup available anyway.

Is there a way to check what backups are available? Obviously not from the broken phone, but say on a desktop.

Edited by nuyorican on Tuesday 12th September 20:35

[ThunderSpook]

If you go on to iCloud settings on your new phone and look at backup it should list all the devices it has backups for. I’m not sure if you can see how many backups there are for each device.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

ThunderSpook said:

Easiest thing is not to use the SE to do the migration. Set it up as a new device and there should be multiple backups to choose from. This is assuming you used to back up to iCloud every night.

Backups for different devices should be listed separately so you can choose one from your broken phone, assuming they haven’t all been overwritten by backups from your SE.

Just to ask a question here: In settings I thought you could list what you wanted synched to iCloud (contacts, emails, photos etc). I then assumed that if any of those things changed then the change would be updated to iCloud immediately (assuming you allow iCloud to use mobile data or when next on WiFi otherwise). Is there an option somewhere that you have to tell iCloud when to synch changes?

[ThunderSpook]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

Just to ask a question here: In settings I thought you could list what you wanted synched to iCloud (contacts, emails, photos etc). I then assumed that if any of those things changed then the change would be updated to iCloud immediately (assuming you allow iCloud to use mobile data or when next on WiFi otherwise). Is there an option somewhere that you have to tell iCloud when to synch changes?

Things like contacts and photos should update immediately. Things like settings will only be saved on an overnight backup.

[nuyorican]

Thanks guys. It's starting to become clear how it all works now.

One last thing: It appears I had turned off 'sync photos to icloud' on the broken phone some time before my holiday. Not understanding iCloud I think I just preferred to import photos over to my Mac occasionally. So, all holiday pics stuck on broken phone, not synced to iCloud. Yeah, typical right.

So are there any utilities for retrieving data from an iphone that won't boot up? I've done this with Windows drives in the past. But looking online just seems to be endless dodgy looking websites or infuriating YouTube vids that spend about ten minutes begging for you to like comment and subscribe, before telling you to download your photos from iCloud... .

If those photos are lost then fair enough, it's part of the learning curve but may as well exhaust all options.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

nuyorican said:

Thanks guys. It's starting to become clear how it all works now.

One last thing: It appears I had turned off 'sync photos to icloud' on the broken phone some time before my holiday. Not understanding iCloud I think I just preferred to import photos over to my Mac occasionally. So, all holiday pics stuck on broken phone, not synced to iCloud. Yeah, typical right.

So are there any utilities for retrieving data from an iphone that won't boot up? I've done this with Windows drives in the past. But looking online just seems to be endless dodgy looking websites or infuriating YouTube vids that spend about ten minutes begging for you to like comment and subscribe, before telling you to download your photos from iCloud... .

If those photos are lost then fair enough, it's part of the learning curve but may as well exhaust all options.

I dare say the likes of GCHQ could do it! But that may be a deniable service that they won't be offering you! Suggest you call an Apple shop and ask them, best to get it done properly if it is possible.