You probably aren't going to convince anybody of anything--particularly those who are old, set in their ways, don't even vaguely understand the tech, and are suspicious of everything they do not understand.

I'm about as security paranoid as they come. Just ask any of my ex-colleagues where I used to work But I use Apple's iCloud.

The advantages are numerous. Bottom line: Automatic backup of everything you want--to the point that if your phone is lost or stolen you simply acquire a new one, restore from your iCloud account. Done. And automatic sharing of data between "linked" or "associated" devices. E.g.: My Contacts, Calendar, etc. between my iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

When my wife and I got new iPhone SE's I simply did a manual last-minute backup, turned off the old, moved the SIM, turned 'em both back on, did the "automatic setup" thing, and done. In each case our new phones had everything on them the old ones did--screens set up identically and everything. Same thing with my wife's new iPad.

It's a Beautiful Thing

I also use iCloud with our Apple TV streaming boxes. It allows every ATV to stay sync'd with every other one--down to the apps that are installed, the screen layouts, everything.

As for the safety and security of Apple's iCloud: Everything that's stored in it is stored encrypted. The most sensitive stuff is end-to-end encrypted. And Apple's privacy policies, unlike those of some other companies I could name, are rock-solid. They sell or share no user information with anyone, at any time. Period.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Regarding privacy, they're Chinese. They spend a fair bit of time in Shanghai each year. They use WeChat as their primary messaging app. They have no expectation of privacy.

They're suspicious of Apple's iCloud but are using an app known to be insecure. An app I'd never allow on one of my devices for all the tea in China. That's pretty funny

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

They're suspicious of Apple's iCloud but are using an app known to be insecure. An app I'd never allow on one of my devices for all the tea in China. That's pretty funny

I don't think it's suspicion, security, or even a privacy concern. I honestly think he got burned in the past by overwriting a pre-existing data set back in the day when iCloud and iTunes were still teething, and blames iCloud. 99% sure it's user error. I remember when iTunes erased an iPod of mine--and that's when I became anti-Apple. I bet the same thing happened to him.

Responding to others: Anyway, I guess I'll leave it alone, and just deal with the inevitable lost phone (They're getting older. They lose their phone even while staying locked down in the house for COVID).

I'm not taking on the task of manual backups for them. It's a fools errand, one that I won't even do for myself. What's the point of a backup if it's not current, and people (including myself) cannot be relied on to maintain a regular backup schedule. I certainly don't have time for it--hence, why I rely on automatic backups of both my computer and mobile devices. Even my Backup is automatically backed up.

My only real consternation is that currently 90% of the photos they take are of my daughter. We moved them into our house for COVID, and they watch our daughter during the day. Most of her awake hours are spent with Grandma and Grandpa, and so they capture the most pictures. If they lose their phone, they're losing pictures of my daughter.

If I want a picture, their method of sending it to me is via WeChat. :: It's not a full resolution picture, and highly compressed. Not to mention that I'd like to get WeChat off my phone. iCloud would fix that, as they'd be able to give me access to a the original photos by using shared Albums. My wife and I currently use Google Photos, and automatic album sharing is awesome. I imagine iCloud + iPhotos works similarly.

Perhaps you can convince him to ADD it to his current backup regimen, as a fail safe, in case something goes wrong with the laptop, ie in case it dies then all that backup work is gone.

Don't try and take away the laptop, just add a second security backup feature...

I've found that a lot of older people are afraid of technology or, more specifically, afraid they don't have the ability to use it, so they talk about how it's too complex, too hard to use, too unsecure, etc.

I've done a lot of work at Area 51 and other jobs for Homeland Security all over the United States so I know and understand security and I use iCloud without hesitation.

I just back the phones up to the cloud every time I charge them, which is once a week and it takes around 2 minutes or so, nothing more.

It's worth it for peace of mind.

You're not going to convince an old Chinese man anything. Just stop wasting your time.

I want nothing to do with them gol danged newfangled airplanes, either. God meant for man to drive cars, not fly.

I had 2 iPhone X crap out on me. Thankfully i have my iPhone on auto backup. So it was a breeze to get stuff transferred.

Suggest you say -
I'm intending to start an argument but you've checked around and would like to share what you learned. The response was pretty much universal that iCloud back up is a no-brainer and one guy even said any iPhone owner would be a fool to NOT use iCloud with the auto backup every night. Now you've got additional data points so you can form your own decision.

Give it a week, they'll think it over and then take the plunge

Take the phone connect that shit to icloud and be done with it. go into email to auto delete mail that contains "icloud". if caught tell him icloud is now required because he took too many photos

Picture yourself in the ATT store 6 months from no, replacing the phone and spending 3 days entering in his favorite numbers. This is stupid

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
Take the phone connect that shit to icloud and be done with it. go into email to auto delete mail that contains "icloud". if caught tell him icloud is now required because he took too many photos

Picture yourself in the ATT store 6 months from no, replacing the phone and spending 3 days entering in his favorite numbers. This is stupid

Lol. Awesome.

iCloud is just $1 a month for 50 GB per user.

200 GB that can be shared by a family is only $3 a month.

The best thing with iCloub backup is if your phone gets lost, broken, or to be replaced, porting all the data and apps are easy peasy.

First, turn on iCloud for the free 5gb and set it to back up the contacts, reminders, messages, and notes. This will allow a replacement phone to be immediately put in service.

If they are totally cloud averse, there is another option. Get a NAS, like Synology, and have their phones update to that device. You can basically run your own cloud. Synology has iOS apps that will backup to the NAS constantly. You can also run a Plex server on it, and have access to those photos at any time, anywhere in the world. (You don’t have to use Plex, but it makes it easier).

If you want to totally geek out, you could build your own NAS using FreeNAS.

Back up phone to iPad Pro then to thumb drive then to iCloud $.99 @ month.
By the time it gets lost I won’t remember why I saved it and no one will care why I did.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
Take the phone connect that shit to icloud and be done with it. go into email to auto delete mail that contains "icloud". if caught tell him icloud is now required because he took too many photos

Picture yourself in the ATT store 6 months from no, replacing the phone and spending 3 days entering in his favorite numbers. This is stupid

Lol. Awesome.

If the Apple ID is already in the settings, turning on automatic backup is a slider.
Settings, iCloud, iCloud Backup.

All automatic, no one notices, until that one day when it is actually needed.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
Take the phone connect that shit to icloud and be done with it... This is stupid

Agreed: It is stupid, but people are gonna believe what they're gonna believe, and, oft times, the less they know, the more firmly lodged tend to be their (mistaken) beliefs.

Your solution is amusing, but impractical. With all those photos, odds are he would exceed the free iCloud storage space, and you need to give Apple a CC to which to charge for the increased space. Hell, if they don't trust iCloud, they're certainly unlikely to trust Apple with a CC.

I fear Aeteocles is stuck with an untenable situation.

You could always take it upon yourself to get ICloud set up for him and just not tell him.

Bob

I tell you. If you ever total a phone and have to get a new one. You'll be glad you did.

Somehow I ended up slamming my phone in the tailgate of a truck on a hunting trip. Phone hit the ground shaped like the letter "C". Went my shop and grabbed a new one. Fired it up on wifi and put in my ID & PW. ZAP. I had my exact old phone but on the new one. Stupid easy.

Amazon photo storage is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

You're not going to convince an old Chinese man anything. Just stop wasting your time.

Am I wrong?

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Amazon photo storage is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Can that be used for hosting pics to post here?

Did your father in law ask you for your help? If not, why do you feel the need to tell him his way is wrong? Rather than post about it, just call him stupid to his face and let us know how that goes.

My comments were tongue-in-cheek and meant to be funny. Your situation reminds me of what happened to me while subbing at my kids’ school on Tuesday.

Because of COVID, only half the school goes to chapel and the other half watches it in the classroom using YouTube live. The class I had chapel with was one that stayed in the classroom, so I needed to hook a device to an overhead projector and didn’t have an HDMI cable or the USB-C to HDMI cable to connect my tablet. I started to mention the issue to the students and immediately two students jumped up to tell me how easy it was and proceeded to show me how everything gets hooked up. I laughed to myself the whole time. They were so eager to show me how smart they were they didn’t stop to listen to what the problem actually was.

If he asks for help, help him his way. If he asks how to do something, show him how you would do it without saying why your way is better than his. Thinking you are going to tell him or convince him isn’t going to work. It’s about respect.