TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

The other nice thing about ICloud is that changing to a newer Apple platform is trivial. Buy a new IPhone, IPAd, IMac, etc, start it up and let ICloud do the rest. All your aps, photos, music, etc, will magically migrate over. It’s one of those things Apple does extremely well. If you’re using Apple, ICloud is a must.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

In fact, yesterday I walked into the store with an iPhone 8, and walked out with an iPhone 13 set up exactly the same way, except I had to teach it a few things, such as how to log into the ‘UHH’.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

I currently use two 8TB drives and one 12TB drive for local storage and Backblaze for the cloud.

dadamia Loc: Portland, OR

I have used SpiderOakONE for many years. I won't say that I've never had a problem, but I've never had a problem that resulted in loss of data. SpiderOak support is great. SpiderOakONE lets you back up and sync with as many computers as you have, even if they use different operating systems.

https://spideroak.com/

JohnBoy5562 Loc: Alabama

And they add a duplicate album where it finds all your duplicates.

https://youtu.be/DfwoqL0pMTI

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

They make it too easy. That's how they snare people into the ecosystem... Take a photo or video on your iPhone, and it appears on your Mac. Write an email or text on your Mac, and continue the conversation on your iPhone or iPad. Buy a book or a song and it's available on all your Apple devices. It goes on and on...

I have a 4TB drive I use for Apple Time Machine backups. When I connect my MacBook Air to my desktop hub, Time Machine runs in the background automatically. Weekly, I clone my User Profile to a 4TB external drive I keep in a locked metal cooler in my tool shed outbuilding. iCloud backs up my important stuff, which is also stored on other hard drives and an old iMac.

Whenever I have retired a computer, I removed and kept the drives that still function. I have a NewerTech Universal Drive Adapter that can mount bare drives for momentary access. (I'll have to make a clone of the MacBook Air before I wipe it and sell it, since the SSD is soldered to the motherboard.)

I run DiskUtility.app > First Aid periodically, and any time the computer seems flaky after a reboot. That's been once in the last year since I've had the M1 Air. I had to do it several times a year on my Intel Macs with conventional hard drives. This new system is much more stable.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

On the other hand, I have an iPhone. I made a decision that I would rather have Apple looking over my shoulder than Google or Microsoft {I have a Linux computer}.

Two days ago I turned in my iPhone 8 for an iPhone 13. The process was painless.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

When there was no cloud, the mutual fund management firm where I worked had:

* Primary
* Local
* Nearby offsite
* Remote offsite

The three backups were required by government regulators. The remote offsite was basically archival; the other two, redundant file recovery.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I’ll be buying a new iPhone soon. I’m still using a 7 Plus. It’s fine except for the battery.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

That was our very reason for ‘upgrading’ now.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yep, you’re pointing to another thing Apple does extremely well (which is why we own IPhones and IPads) - sharing data across platforms. Microsoft is trying to emulate this (sharing data between computers and phones), but they have a ways to go before it’s seamless like Apple.

bobbyjohn Loc: Dallas, TX

If that's true...that Amazon Drive will be eliminated and keep only Amazon Photo, it is likely that a check is made for .jpg .gif .bmp .tif .raw .nef, etc. before it is accepted by Amazon. Perhaps you could rename all your non-photo files (like .docx files to .docx.jpg ... and other filetypes) before uploading, then take OFF the .jpg after download.

Faststone is really good at such renaming...ie...while keeping the original filename intact.

cahale Loc: San Angelo, TX

Yes, it's called storage devices. SST, flash drive, remote hard disc. And not a one of them requires internet access.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

But any issue at home could be a problem

JohnBoy5562 Loc: Alabama

I don't think the iPhone 7 got iOS 16 but they did release a update for iOS 15 the day 16 came out.