Apple deletes data in the iCloud after 180 days
It’s a known problem but not many people realize: Apple doesn’t keep data in iCloud forever. After half a year it’s over.
For the art and technology expert Erin Sparling it was a bitter realization: Apple deletes data in the iCloud after 180 days of inactivity. Sparling lost and shared all drawings he’d ever made on his iPad Incident on Twitterlike first Heise reports Has.
The problem is not new, though. But Apple only points to one Support page indicates that the data will be deleted after six months if the backup has been deactivated or no longer used.
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No warning about deletion
That there isn’t even a warning before deleting is annoying. “A service that has ‘backup’ in its title implies providing a backup. As a user who pays to save the data, I expect the data to be saved, ”writes Sparling.
This is a known “feature”, btw. I am definitely not the first to come across it (see this article for example: https://t.co/VJOGBaa6fa), but I think that makes this worse, not better. The article cites reports going back at least 7 years from now!
– Erin Sparling (@everyplace) June 18, 2021
He had given his device to a family member during homeschooling and wanted to restore the data on a new iPad – but by then it was lost because more than 180 days had passed.
After this period of time, Apple will delete the iCloud backup. Any activity in the meantime, such as uploading a new document, would have prevented the loss.
This is how you prevent loss
Anyone who has not been active in the iCloud for more than six months should use a local backup play it safe.
A local backup secures the data from the iPad or iPhone twice. (Photo: Apple)
To do this, connect the iPhone or iPad to the Mac and select it from the Finder bar. Then you can select the option to create a backup on the device via the “General” tab. Checks the date of the last backup to see if everything went well.
With Windows computers and older Macs, local backup works via the iTunes app. There, too, there is the option of creating a local backup in the “General” area. In both cases you can also encrypt the backup.
