iCloud’s Storage Limits ⇥ shawnblanc.net

Nik Fletcher:

Much as Apple is offering free versions of iWork with a new iOS device, it’s time to stop tying backups to a storage quota and simply say: “We’ve got this. Your iOS device – no matter how much you’ve got on it – will be backed up”.

I absolutely agree. Shawn Blanc adds:

Apple sells 64GB iPhones and 128GB iPads. If you own one or both of these, and fill them up with photos and documents, you literally cannot buy enough storage to back up even one of them in full — iCloud’s largest tier of storage maxes out at 50GB.

I have a 64 GB iPhone. As of right now, 57.2 GB of that space has been used, meaning that even if I trusted iCloud to retain recent backups of my photos, messages, and anything else I have stored on my iPhone — and I’m not certain I do trust iCloud that much — I wouldn’t be able to use that feature.

I currently back up both my iPhone and iPad through iTunes to my computer. It feels somewhat antiquated, but it works pretty damn well, and it hasn’t failed me yet. Of course, if I felt really strongly about the value of my iPhone’s contents, I’d ensure I have a great backup solution for those backups.