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iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
This is driving me mad. When I connect my phone to the computer it immediately backs up to the cloud. Even when I click the radio button in the Finder window to back-up to the computer it ignores me and changes the selection and backs up to the cloud. I’ve spent over 2 hours on this looking through the settings on my phone and the computer.

I found nothing on the computer apart from the Finder window above.
The following I’ve found on the phone:
Settings > iPhone Storage > iCloud Photos > Not enabled
Settings > Notes > “On My iPhone” Account > Enabled
Settings > Photos > iCloud Photos > Not enabled
Settings > Keynote > Document Storage > On My iPhone
Settings > Pages > Document Storage > On My iPhone
Settings > Numbers > Document Storage > On My iPhone

What have I missed? Is there something else on the computer

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Mick Burrell
Have you tried the settings in iTunes?

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Mick,
On the phone, Settings > iTunes & App Store doesn't have any reference to backup. Is this where I should be looking?

Music on the Mac has been superseded by Finder which is where I am trying to set Back up to the Mac

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Douglas Cheney
If you click on Apple ID, then click on iCloud, then scroll down until you come to iCloud Backup you can make adjustments there

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Douglas I took so long typing a reply, recording what I was doing, the website timed out and I lost it all so I will have to remember what I did.
On the phone I found a few apps using the cloud so I have turned them all off.
Settings>Apple ID>iCloud>iCloud Backup is shown as Off and under Manage Storage, Backups is shown as 0KB.

Unfortunately there is no change in the behaviour of the Mac. As above when I connect my phone to the computer it immediately backs up to the cloud. Even when I click the radio button in the Finder window to back-up to the computer it ignores me and changes the selection and backs up to the cloud.

I have disconnected and re-connected the phone but it is the same. My next step is to power down the Mac and phone, switch on and try again. If there is no amendment to this reply then I still have a problem.

I still have the problem after restarting both phone and computer

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Tony Still
When you connect the iPhone, the screen you see in Catalina is just like the one that used to be in iTunes. In the middle, there are two radio buttons to choose to back up either to iCloud or locally to the Mac.

I think that's what you describe and it's the only control I know of. It does work here, though the button to stop an automatically initiated back-up (when the phone is connected) does not work. If you let the backup to iCloud complete, can you change it then?

I'm reluctant to experiment here because syncing seems to scramble music tracks and I've already let Catalina muddle one device. I do wish Apple would rediscover the art of trying stuff before they ship it (we even had a word for it, we called it "testing").

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Well that's interesting. I took it off automatic backup. Disconnected the phone and re-connected and it didn't back up on reconnection.
I pressed the radio button to switch to Back-up to the Mac and synced. It backed up to the Mac and immediately afterwards switched the radio button back to Backup to iCloud.
So if I were to go back to automatically synching it starts with the radio button in the wrong place!

Perhaps it has always been this way and I decided to set it up to automatically synch. Strange though that it will not let you keep the setting.

But I have a working solution if a little inconvenient. Is Apple pushing everyone to cloud storage to make a little more money?

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Tony Still
It is interesting. I always use manual backup but my synching automatically starts...

As I write this, I realise that there's an inconsistency here somewhere. There is some kind of backup initiated as the first stage of synching but I believe my Mac-based backups are manual. Are they using the same terms for two different mechanisms? Certainly the 'manage backups' button only shows the handful of manual backups I've done and I understood them to be the ones that are complete (iff you set them to be encrypted).

We used a manual backup (of an iPad) here last week to migrate my other half's old iPad onto a new one. That all worked as I remember from iTunes though it was done on her Catalina iMac.

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Nothing happens on connection accept that the radio button is always switched to Back up to the iCloud. This means I can't let it back up automatically.

When I look at manage backups it gives no indication if the storage is on the Mac or on some server in the USA.

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Douglas Cheney
When I connect my phone the radio button is always on iCloud and I have to click on backup to the computer

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Thank you Douglas. Strange that the Mac remembers the check boxes but not the radio button selection. Like I said in my Topic Title Apple likes us to backup to the cloud.

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Mick Burrell
I don't think Apple mind where you back up but they just try to make it easy for people who want it to "just work". If you want to do it another way, that's fine, but up to you to work out how.

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Unfortunately it doesn't "just work" for anyone who wants to automatically back-up to the Mac. I don't see why the Mac cannot remember the radio button settings as set by its customers as it does for the other settings in the same window. It's either poor programming or deliberate policy.

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Mick Burrell
I think you've missed my point Rick

Re: iPhone likes to backup to the cloud

Avatar Rick Churchill
Yes
 
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