Apple’s operating principle of ‘it just works’ makes a lot of sense when bringing complex technologies to its huge customer base. The principle faces challenges in three areas.Â
One, Apple is not always public on the details of how it just works.
Two, as Apple adds more features customers can’t always be shielded the from the complexity.Â
Three, if you want to adjust the way it just works outside the Apple norm, it’s not always possible.Â
However, the Microsoft / Android route of giving more options often results in products that are perceived as complex.
Here’s an attempt to pin down where Apple keeps your data, focusing on backup and retention.
iPhone Backups
There are two ways to backup your iPhone, using a computer-free iCloud account or using a computer and iTunes software. You can not backup to both but you can change which one you are using at any time.
iCloud (recommended) is Apple’s free account that gives you 5G of backup space, an @icloud.com email address with Contacts Calendar and Notes storage, Photo Stream, and Find my iPhone services.
We recommend turning on all these services with the exception of Mail, Contacts, Calendars (unless @icloud is your primary account for Mail services).
The ICloud backup happens once a day as long as the device is plugged in and on a wifi connection (there is a backup now button too).
iTunes is the traditional computer-based method which will backup your iPhone when it is connected by USB cable.
Accounts (Mail / Contacts / Calendar)
Mail accounts like iCloud, Gmail, Exchange, etc are inherently cloud-based, therefore you can comfortably add and remove your accounts without expecting to lose any data (Mail, Contacts, Cals will just RE-download from the cloud).
Backups do not include the mailbox data, however backups do include the account settings required to re-sync your mailboxes to the cloud (expect to re-enter the passwords).
However, even if you never set up an account, iPhone will still store contacts, they will just be local only. This is a bad situation. These contacts will be backed up but they live only on your phone and don’t sync anywhere. You should transfer them to your primary cloud provider.
You can easily re-sync cloud-based Contacts etc just by going into the Account settings, and turning Contacts OFF (deleting the cached copy on your iPhone) and then turning it back ON. You could also just delete the whole account and re-add it.
Retention: There are two settings for mail retention. The general setting under Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar to Show 50 Recent Messages applies to all accounts (except Exchange). Some account types (like Exchange) have a per-account setting called Mail Days to Sync (default is 3 days)
Multiple Accounts: If you have more than one account, you have to tell iPhone which one gets priority. Use Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar and set the Default Account properly.
Music and Apps
Your Apple ID listed under Settings > iTunes & App Stores governs your purchases and what Music and Apps can be synced.
Note that Apple never re-charges for the same item twice if you use the same Apple ID.
Also, you don’t need to use the same Apple ID for iTunes & App Stores purchases as the one you used for iCloud mail and backups
In this way, a family can share purchases through a single iTunes & App Store Apple ID and still keep separate backups, photo streams etc. (see Apple’s licensing terms to make sure you comply).
A common problem, on the other hand, is for a person with two devices to use two different ID’s to make purchases (Apple will not merge purchases from two accounts so you will likely have to re-purchase in order to close one account).
Retention: music and apps are retained forever on your phone until you delete it or lose your phone.
Backups: All purchased music and apps can be re-dowloaded using the same Apple ID. Non-purchased music (synced by iTunes on a PC) is not backed up by iCloud, the only way to re-sync this non-purchased music is using a computer and iTunes software.
For full info, please check Apple’s Website [1]
Photos
The standard Photos app, shows you the three basic photo areas: Albums, the Camera Roll (a special album), and Photo Streams (Cloud stored photos)
Albums (1)
Albums are the original Apple method of storing pictures on your iPhone. Since there is no way to sync or share albums, Apple later invented Photo Streams (see below).
If you create Albums these photos are just ‘links’ back to the Camera Roll photos, so deleting an album doesn’t actually delete the photos. That’s why other albums aren’t backed up.
Camera Roll (2)
Every picture you take goes in the special album called Camera Roll. Camera Roll is not (by default) shared or synced. However, if you turn on My Photo Stream every picture you take is additionally copied to iCloud (see below).
Backup: The Camera Roll Album is the only photo area backed up by iTunes and iCloud. Videos are included in the backup.
Photo Streams (3)
Photo Streams are a way to sync and share your photos using iCloud (requires an iCloud account). Photo Streams do not include videos.
Photo Steams do not count against your iCloud storage. They sync to iCloud for 30 days to give all your devices enough time to download.
Go to Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream (or Settings > Photos & Camera) and turn on My Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams.
My Photo Stream
This is the stream that gets synced on all your devices.
Retention: Your iOS devices keep a rolling collection of your last 1000 photos in the My Photo Stream album.
Photo Streams are not viewable directly on iCloud web site (unless it’s a Shared Photo Stream with Public Website set On)
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Shared Photo Streams
Retention: iCloud keeps Shared Photo Streams shared by you (and the photos in it) forever until you delete it.
Backups: Streams are not included in backups (only the Camera Roll is backed up).  However, your My Photo Stream will re-download from iCloud and you can re-subscribe to Shared Photo Streams all subject to whatever iCloud has retained.
You can create a named photo stream and invite people to subscribe to it (kind of like Instagram).
If you set Public Website to ON then anyone (even non-subscribers) with the link can see the stream. This is the only way to see iPhone photos on a web page.
This is from the Rethinkit Tech Tips Blog
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