Apple iCloud

❤ Comment: Why hasn’t Apple released a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain?

Galaxy Expert April 20, 2020 Apple, Apple iCloud, Culture, Featured, iCloud, Lifestyle, News, Top Stories, World Apple, apple icloud, Apple iCloud Keychain, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, iCloud, iCloud Keychain

Some been a customer of 1Password for as long as they can remember. They love being able to have a dedicated application/service for password management, rotating one-time passwords, storing secure information like social security numbers. They know they have a dedicated place to manage all my data in a place they know is safe and easy to access. On the other hand, iCloud Keychain works well and is built-in on all of the devices. Is it time for Apple to release a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain, so it’s easier to manage and interact with that data?

iCloud Keychain remembers things, so that you don’t have to. It auto-fills your information—like your Safari usernames and passwords, credit cards, Wi-Fi passwords, and social log-ins—on any device that you approve. You can also use iCloud Keychain to see your saved passwords.

We’re all struggling with password management. The FIDO Alliance was created to help rethink how passwords should look going forward, and Apple is one of the newest members of the alliance. It joins other major technology companies like Microsoft and Google. It’s in the best interest of all vendors to make it easier to create and manage passwords.

The problem with managing passwords on iOS and macOS at the moment is the functions are scattered around. Some of the syncing happens on in the backend with no way to quickly see (especially on iOS). A prime example of this is the syncing of Wi-Fi passwords. It’s easy to remove old networks on the Mac, but on iOS, it’s all happened without being able to remove anything.

Apple should release a dedicated app for iCloud Keychain

As our devices continue to store ever more personal information, Apple should release a dedicated app to view, add, change, or delete anything being stored in iCloud Keychain. We’ve already seen rumors of iOS 14 bringing new features to iCloud Keychain, so this would be a natural next step. This app would help promote the security of iOS (it would be behind a second round of Face ID scanning) as a place where you can store your most personal data like social security numbers, PIN codes, etc. It would also allow you to view, update, or delete anything password related for website logins.

Right now, website passwords are stored inside of the Safari settings on macOS and inside of the Settings app on iOS. A dedicated app would put this front and center.

On top of a dedicated app for managing personal information, I’d like to see Apple help promote two-factor authentication. Right now, Apple has its own flavor of how it uses two-factor authentication to set up a new device or log in to iCloud.com on the web, but most websites use another format.

Security on the internet has become more important with each passing year. It seems like every other month there is a major data breach from major retailers or online properties. One of the key things that you can do to minimize the effect these breaches will have on you is to set up and use two-factor (or multi-factor) authentication. Two-factor authentication can be explained as something you know (your password) and something you have (a smartphone or another authorized device). With most implementations, you will log in to a website using your normal login, and you will then prompted to input a secondary code. The secondary code can be generated in multiple ways (more on that later) and changes every thirty seconds. By enabling two-factor authentication on websites that support it, a hacker wouldn’t be able to log in just using your username and password. They’d need access to your two-factor authentication database in order to access the current code.

Apple has two-factor authentication built right into iOS and macOS, but they implement it in a slightly different way. Instead of using a third-party solution to generate a code, you’ll receive an alert on another one of your registered devices. Once you approve the login, a six-digit code will pop up, and you’ll input that on the new device.

When saving a password to iCloud Keychain, a dedicated app could help facilitate the set up of a one time password for individual websites. Apple could even create an API that works with Sign in with Apple or just general website logins.

Wrap-up

What do you think? Should Apple release a dedicated keychain application to bring the security of iCloud to the front and center? I think removing it from the Settings application would make it easier for people to look up their passwords if logging into a public computer, manually add new information in a secure way, and just generally have a better understanding of where all of the information lives.

❤ How to Recover Lost or Deleted iCloud Drive Files or Documents

Galaxy Expert February 27, 2020 Apple, Apple iCloud, Apple iPad, Apple iPhone, Featured, iPad User Guide, iPhone User Guide, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World apple icloud, Deleted iCloud Drive Documents, Deleted iCloud Drive Files, iCloud, iCloud Drive, iCloud Drive Documents, iCloud Drive Files, iCloud Files, Recover Lost iCloud Drive Documents, Recover Lost iCloud Drive Files

Worried you might have lost iCloud Drive documents or files? Or perhaps you’re wondering if you can recover a deleted file or document from iCloud Drive? Don’t panic, you can probably restore and recover those files from iCloud Drive using the procedure we’ll discuss here.

Files, documents and other data that we constantly use for school, college, and work purposes are always extremely valuable. Some of you may have your important data, files, work presentations saved on your iPhones and iPads to quickly access them when you’re on the move. Apple’s iCloud Drive service has made it easier to back up all these files and securely store them on the cloud, which you immediately could access it from all your Mac and iOS devices. That being said, it’s not too hard to accidentally lose your files, documents and other data, because sometimes all it takes is a mistaken deletion, or a failed or interrupted upload, or even a botched software update.

If you’re one of those iPhone or iPad users who lost your data because of a corrupted iOS update or you just accidentally deleted a couple of files, don’t fret. You’ve come to the right place, and you very well could recover and restore those lost iCloud Drive files.

In this article, we’ll be discussing how you could recover all your lost documents & files from iCloud.

How to Restore Lost or Deleted iCloud Drive Documents & Files

This procedure will aim to help you recover your data from iCloud Drive, whether that data has been lost, deleted, or removed. Follow the step-by-step instructions to use the restore process with iCloud:

Open any web browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. from your PC, Mac or iPad and head over to iCloud.com. Sign in to iCloud by clicking on the “arrow icon” once you’ve typed in your Apple ID and password.

Once you’re in the iCloud homepage, click on “Account Settings”.

Now, simply click on “Restore Files” under the Advanced section located at the bottom of the page, as shown in the screenshot below.

You’ll get a new pop-up window where iCloud will start searching for the files stored on the cloud. Give it a few seconds. Once it’s done searching, you’ll get a list of all the recoverable files that can be selected as per your preference. Simply choose the files you want to recover by checking the boxes and click on “Restore”.

iCloud will now begin the restoration process. If you have plenty of files to recover, you’ll need to wait a couple of minutes. Once it’s complete, just click on “Done” to exit out of the window to and end the procedure.

That’s pretty much all there is to it.

The restored documents and files will immediately be available across all your devices as long as they are logged into the same Apple account and Apple ID with iCloud enabled.

It’s worth noting here that you can’t complete this procedure from a mobile browser, unless you request the desktop site for iCloud.com first.

Additionally, if you manually turned off iCloud on your device beforehand, you will be unable to recover your files as they weren’t backed up to the cloud.

By default, iCloud backup is enabled on your device, and everyone should keep that feature on for myriad reasons including potential data recovery, easy device transitioning, amongst other reasons.

Every Apple ID is provided with 5 GB of free iCloud storage when they sign up for an Apple account. That might not seem like much, but it’s actually adequate to store most simple documents and files unless you’re a power user, or you plan on storing a lot of photos or other stuff in iCloud. If you are a heavy iCloud user, or have a few devices that you want to backup to iCloud, then iCloud plans range in cost from $0.99, $2.99 and $9.99 per month for 50 GB, 200 GB and 2 TB storage space respectively. For the most part, there’s really no reason to have iCloud disabled unless you have serious privacy concerns or have no use for the cloud features it offers.

Apple’s cloud storage platform brings a lot of convenience to the end-user and works seamlessly across Mac and iOS devices. If you have all of the iCloud features turned on, then all your data gets synced and backed up, including contacts, photos, files, etc. are automatically backed up to the cloud when your device is turned on and connected to power.

❤ How to Check Progress of iCloud Restore on iPhone or iPad

Galaxy Expert June 29, 2019 Apple, Apple iCloud, Apple iPad, Apple iPad Air, Apple iPad Mini, Apple iPad Pro, Apple iPhone, Featured, iOS, iPad Pro, iPhone User Guide, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World iCloud, iCloud Restore, iCloud Restore on iPad, iCloud Restore on iPhone, iPad, iPad Repair Costs, iPad Screen Replacement Costs, iPad Sydney CBD Repairs, iPhone, iPhone Repair Costs, iPhone Screen Replacement Costs, iPhone Sydney CBD Repairs

Wondering how long an iCloud backup restore to an iPhone or iPad will take to complete? Restoring an iPhone or iPad from an iCloud Backup can take a while, depending on the size of the iCloud backup, and the speed of the internet connection the iOS device is connected to.

If you want to check on the progress of an active iCloud Restore, you can do so in modern versions of iOS.

How to Check Progress of iCloud Restore from Backup on iPhone or iPad

Open the “Settings” app in iOS
Tap on “Your Name” at the top of the Settings
Tap on “iCloud”
Tap on “iCloud Backup”
Locate the data remaining information on the iCloud backup restore process under the ‘Stop’ button to get a rough idea of how much longer the restore will take

The data remaining information will be shown in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB).

It’s best to let the iCloud Restore process complete, however long it may take. Failure to let the iCloud restore from backup process complete can lead to permanent data loss.

Optionally, but not recommended, you can stop an iCloud Restore from backup to an iOS device. Stopping an iCloud Restore can result in data loss and is therefore not recommended unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

While the iCloud Restore process is ongoing, you may notice notably poor battery life on the iPad or iPhone as the devices “Ongoing Restore” background activity and downloading of data uses more energy than usual. Letting the iCloud Restore process complete will return the device to normal expected battery performance.

Note that much earlier versions of iOS do not support this feature.

By comparison, checking the restore progress of an iTunes backup restore is much more obvious because the iTunes window has a progress indicator showing the current progress and how long it will take to complete.

❤ Warning: Full iCloud Account Rejects Emails Sent to @iCloud.com Addresses

Galaxy Expert September 7, 2018 Apple, Apple iCloud, Apple iPad, Apple iPhone, News, Repair Service, Review apple icloud, Apple iCloud Account, Full iCloud, Full iCloud Account, Full iCloud Account Rejects Emails, iCloud, iCloud Account

Do you have a full iCloud account with no storage available? And do you have an @icloud.com email address that you use with that account? If so, you will no longer receive emails at your @icloud.com email address for as long as your iCloud storage is full.

Additionally, you won’t get any notice or alert about any missing emails to your @icloud address.

Instead, the person trying to send an email to your @icloud address will get an ‘over quota’ bounce-back message that reads like it’s from 1996 stating “User over quota : cannot receive new mail”… (really, when was the last time you saw an email quota error?!? Maybe you were listening to Nirvana on CD while paying by the hour to connect to your dial-up ISP, perhaps AOL, Compuserve, or Prodigy? Time to dust off your 14.4 modem and run Windows 95 again for the full experience!). Here’s an example of what a bounced emails looks like, sent from a Gmail account to a full @iCloud.com email address:

Again, the person with the full iCloud storage will not get any specific email warning, they’ll just get the regular generic ‘iCloud storage full’ message that is a common sight for iOS device owners.

This article is mostly serving as a PSA and general warning, given that most people don’t want to miss incoming emails, but also given how common it is for a users iCloud storage to be perpetually full.

Thus, if you want to get emails at your @icloud.com email address, then be sure you have sufficient iCloud storage space available on your associated iCloud account. A failure to do so may mean you are losing out on emails sent to that @icloud.com address.

Freeing up storage in iCloud is challenging at the 5 GB free tier, so you’ll almost certainly have to delete iCloud backups to accomplish that, and then you’ll almost certainly fill it up again immediately by trying to backup any device, but at least until it’s full again you’ll receive emails sent to the @iCloud.com email address.

The next option to relieve the storage conundrum, and what’s most realistic if you actually want to use iCloud for nearly anything let alone backing up any device, is to ~~contribute to Apple Services revenue growth~~ pay for an upgraded iCloud storage plan, which start at about $12/year.

Upgrading your iCloud storage plan is fairly simple and can be done through the the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, and you will be charged per month depending on the storage plan you choose.

Currently, the available iCloud storage plans are:

5 GB – free, but impractical if you want to use iCloud
50 GB – $0.99 per month
200 GB – $2.99 per month
2 TB – $9.99 per month

If you have a larger capacity iPhone, or multiple Apple devices using the same Apple ID, getting the larger iCloud storage plans tend to make the most sense.

If you’re opposed to the idea of paying for additional iCloud storage, then deleting all iCloud backups and deleting other iCloud data may get you to a point where the 5 GB free plan can be tolerated, though you’ll likely not get much use out of iCloud if you can’t squeeze storage out of the free tier.

Interestingly, the 5 GB free storage tier that is offered today in 2018 is the same free storage size as was offered in 2011, so while device storage capacity and requirements of iOS devices and Macs has ballooned, iCloud free storage has remained the same. It’s challenging to find a positive opinion of the free iCloud 5 GB storage plan, DaringFireball says it ‘seems ridiculous’ and “untenable”, while Wall Street Journal called it a ‘ransom’. Google openly parodied the annoying ‘storage full’ messages in a funny commercial for their own Google Photos cloud service. It’s probably long past time for the free 5 GB plan to be multiplied by 10 or more, or matched to the size of the devices sold by Apple, but… here we are.