Why you should backup your iPhone… to iTunes

There’s one big difference between iCloud and iTunes when it comes to device backups

Recently, I upgraded from an iPhone 4S to a new iPhone 5S. It was as easy experience as you can expect from Apple. First, my phone’s data was restored from iCloud (including contacts, wifi passwords, and app data), then all my apps were automatically re-downloaded from the App Store.

It only took me a few weeks to notice that an app I used to really enjoy was nowmissing! The app was Quaso, a fantastically clever math + logic game invented by English high school maths teacher John Enock. It’s pretty much a more mathy version of sudoku, which for me, makes for a much more engaging puzzles.

Wondering where the game went, I looked for it on the App Store, but it was missing. Googling around for it, all I could find were some articles about the game when the app first launched in 2010. One article talks about the story of how Enock invented the game, but doesn’t even describe the game’s rules. Luckily, this app review describes the game’s rules and even shows a sample puzzle, (although it’s already solved). A mere 3 years after the app was released, all that remains of it are a few short reviews of it.

I was beginning to worry that not only will I never play the game again, but the world might have lost a fantastic puzzle game. In 50 years time, will there be any record of this game? As far as I know, the game was only ever published as an iPhone app. The puzzles may never have been published in a book or magazine,to be safely archived in libraries around the world. It’s just gone.

I don’t think people realize that if a publisher of an app neglects to pay their $99 annual fee to Apple, the world can forever lose access to amazing works of human ingenuity. I assume in this case that is what happened, the app just didn’t sell enough to justify paying that annual fee.

Luckily I found a backup copy of the app on an old computer that I haven’t used in a couple years. Nervously I plugged in my phone and voila! It turns out the game still plays great even on the latest iPhone model 3 years later, joy!

Of all the potentially hundreds of apps and games on your phone right now, will any disappear from the App Store over the next 5, 10, or 20 years? Do yourself, and the world, a favour, don’t forget to make a local backup to your computer from time to time.