No Backup, Why App Developers Should Boycott the iPhone
I WAS WRONG. Mostly. 
Apple's iPhone backup DOES backup and restore third party data.
The content of this piece is misleading, and as Sammich suggests, FUD.
My apologies to Apple and to any developers or users I might have freaked out!! 
In my haste and anger about what happened to me, which you can still read about below, I came to a wrong conclusion. Further testing, has proved that the iPhone does backp and restore third party data.
Yes, I did indeed lose all my third party data. But it probably got wiped by what ever wiped my apps, and then when I connected and iTunes backed it up, there was nothing to backup. And it was from that dodgy (unknow to me) backup that I restored. Not sure why it was only third party data that was affected. One for Apple to look into.
So here's the original piece, with all my embarrasing wrong conclusions intact.
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It's bad enough that Apple's approval process for new apps is flawed, but that the iPhone only backs up Apple's own app data and not third party app data is atrocious. And that in itself is reason enough for developers to boycott the iPhone, and certainly for users to not buy apps where data backup is critical. For example to do apps or games where you like to keep your high score.
If I was an app developer I'd be saying screw you Apple until you fix the backup of the iPhone. All developers should boycott the iPhone until then.
Whoopity do if Trism has sold $250,000 worth. What good is it if it can't protect its high scores? Why would I spend money on any game if I know that my high scores could get wiped and then not be retrievable?
So what lead me to this point? The image accompanying this article gives a clue. The forlorn sight of an iPhone with all its apps gone.
Saturday my iPhone froze up on a web page. At the same time it was installing an app in the background. I tried all buttons and reset sequences but nothing worked. Eventually though it unfroze, but every app was gone, including the Apple ones. All that remained were 4 web page links.
Consequently I had to restore the iPhone. This process was easy and went without a hitch. After that it asked if I wanted to restore from backup. Again no problems with the process. Then I had to reinstall all my apps, about 90 or so of them. Again no problems with the process.
All my Apple application data was perfectly restored.
But then, of course, what I already knew anyway - but hoped against hope wasn't true - happened. Backup only backs up Apple apps data, not third party.
So get this - there's a button in iTunes for your iPhone that says "Restore". If you click it, you can kiss all your third party data on your iPhone goodbye. Here's the message you get if you click on it:
As you see, no mention at all of your third party data being restored.
(Although I later discovered, much to my relief, one exception: Aurora Feint. I suspect its secret is it somehow saves its data into an Apple protected area. It's probably naughty, but has been effective as its data, scores and progress was fully restored.)
So, other than it, I lost all my to dos (which included details have all my assignments for school), all my game progress and scores (freak, I've got to start Spore again!), all my login setups, files I'd upload with Air Sharing, Photo Radar data, AccuFuel records, everything.
Now I know that some Mac zealots would like to defend this as a rare problem, but that's not the point of course. It doesn't matter how you lose your data, it should be backed up by the iPhone's backup process. There's no excuse. I can fully understand Apple not prioritizing copy & paste, but full backup is uber-critical.
Maybe I should list the 90 applications I lost data from. Maybe those who would still blindly defend Apple would see something they've got and reconsider.
Here's a few to think about that you'll lose your data from: EccoNote; If Found; WhatTasks; To Do; DoboTodos; YouNote; iProcrastinate; TextGuru; Photo Radar; AccuFuel; Shazam.
And here's a few games you'll lose you progress and high scores from: Billy Fronteir; Tap Tap; Spore; Super Monkey Ball; Cro-Mag; Crash Kart; Dactyl; Enigmo; SuperBall;Trism; TanZen; Tetravex; Frotz.
See any on those lists that makes you nervous?
Just think for a moment how you'd feel if you lost everything on your iPhone that wasn't from an Apple app. Even though the risk of total loss of third party app data is low, it is very real. But it shouldn't be.
I haven't bothered restarted most apps, Spore, Trism, AccuFuel, WhatTasks, iProcrastinate to name a few, yet. Instead of to do apps, I'm keeping my lists in Notes (won't Apple love that).
Hey, developers, how do you feel about that? How do you feel knowing I don't want to use your apps because I don't want to risk losing my data? I'm sorry, I know it's not nice but I lost too much information I'd spent a lot of time keying in, not to mention time on games boosting my high scores.
I love my iPhone but certainly won't be buying any data dependent apps until this is fixed.
And don't think losing app data is a rare problem. Well, sure having to reinstall all your apps is quite rare, but many apps lose their data when you install updates, as noted on OmniFocus' page and others.
Add to that Apple's more than suspect approval process for apps and you start to see that the iPhone is not such a nice place for developers to be at the moment.
The only thing Apple listens to is cash registers.
So iPhone owners and developers, boycott the App Store until Apple includes third party data backup in the iPhone's backup.
I appreciate that you don't it's hard to appreciate how bad it is until you lose data for many apps at once, so if you're not convinced how serious this shortcoming is, I might suggest a couple of analogies. Imagine if time machine only backed up Apple application data? Imagine if seat belts and airbags only worked in accidents with cars of the same maker?
This one of the worst shortcomings I've encountered in a product. There is no way the iPhone should have come this far without full backup. It's as bad as any security threat.
Apple, fix it and fast, or you'll be coughing up the dust of developers rushing off to the Android, closely followed by customers.
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So there it is. Yep, I was wrong. Thanks, Sammich.
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Comments
I agree to a point. I don’t like losing high scores either but I am not going to cry about it. Any game that is worth getting a high score on is going to be played regardless. I don’t need the game to tell me my high scores, if I am into it then I will remember. It’s a freakin game for Pete’s sake.
As far as app data goes, there does need to be a way to back that stuff up and preferably a way to back it up manually as well. (don’t hold your breath, I know) That is exactly why I treat most of the apps as a novelty. My work is on my laptop and my desktop, both of which are backed up on 2 different drives. My iphone is an extension, not the other way around and I keep nothing on my phone that I don’t have backed up in some way. Mostly adjustments to my calender and writing notes and emailing them to myself. I make phone calls, DUH and I listen to audio books. Glamorous, no but it gets the job done and that’s what I want. Most of the apps you listed are neat, there are a lot of cool apps but mostly unnecessary. iCal can take care of most of it and while not as cool, sufficient. Users…..
To be fair, there isn’t a technical reason that 3rd-party app data isn’t backed up. The 3rd-party developers can always put a backup system in place, since the iPhone is designed to be an “always connected” device.
Could Apple get into hot water by offering full backup and then a backup not being restored properly, due to some 3rd-party developer error?
What if the source of the problem that caused the crash or required the restore was corrupt data? Would you want that corruption backed up and restored back to the phone, only to cause the problem again?
Lots of questions to ask and to get answers to before drawing black and white solutions.
I agree, Apple needs to work on this, but I don’t think it’s grounds for boycotting.
... edit for above… black and white “conclusions”
coolfactor, you could ask those same questions of Time Machine. Yet we’re all happy to trade those risks for comfort of a full backup.
I would be really interested to hear a developer’s perspective - particularly Aurora Feint’s developer who has found some way to piggy back on the Apple backup.
It’d be interesting to hear too if developers had just assumed Apple’s backup system would backup their data too, and that’s why they haven’t built their own backup systems. Though I am surprised a developer as big as The Omni Group would make that oversight.
WOW, how many people did you verify this claim with? Did you try to simulate this problem again? Did you check with Apple?
Please stop creating FUD just because you had a single bad experience. Coolfactors post sums up my thoughts exactly. Calm down and stop being so naive.
This is actually the first time i’ve heard about this problem being so serious and widespread. I restored my old 8gig 3G to my new 16gig and EVERYTHING was how I left it on the old phone, right down to in-progress games like Galcon.
Btw: Aurora Feint is a MMOnline game.
Thanks, Sammich, I have made appropriate changes to the article.
I registered with AppleMatters just to log in and tell you that with your post you had successfully effected my deleting the bookmark for your site for goood. No expletives, no whining, my dear.
cheers!