iCloud causing data clearing problems for iOS 5 apps

By Andrew Wray
last updated

Marco Arment, creator of the popular Instapaper app for the iPhone and iPad, noticed an problem related to changes made in iOS 5 tied to iCloud backups.

A common scenario: an Instapaper customer is stocking up an iPad for a long flight. She syncs a bunch of movies and podcasts, downloads some magazines, and buys a few new games, leaving very little free space. Right before boarding, she remembers to download the newest issue of The Economist. (I think highly of my customers.) This causes free space to fall below the threshold that triggers the cleaner, which — in the background, unbeknownst to her — deletes everything that was saved in Instapaper. Later in the flight, with no internet connectivity, she goes to launch Instapaper and finds it completely empty.(Last week, almost this exact scenario happened to one of my customers.)

Apps like eBook readers, podcast clients, offline mapping programs and even Apple's own iBooks app (as long as Apple is following its own rules) would have its cached data wiped clean if ever the device runs low on space.

Hit the link below for Arment's detailed explanation of the problem.

Source: Marco Arment

Andrew Wray

Andrew Wray is a Salt Lake City, Utah based writer who focuses on news, how-tos, and jailbreak. Andrew also enjoys running, spending time with his daughter, and jamming out on his guitar. He works in a management position for Unisys Technical Services, a subsidiary of Unisys Corporation.

9 Comments
  • Apple response: buy a 64gb iPad.
  • So... 5.0.1 update allows you set certain apps to be excluded from the garbage cleaner???
  • I've found another issue ICloud is causing, reinstalling deleted apps and flinging other apps out of their folders for no apparent reason. And what's with that weird auto-correct glitch for iCloud in the first sentence?
  • I am switching from webOS so forgive a newbie question. Would turning off iCloud sync remove the problem?
  • i lost all my calendar after udating and dont know how to get it back
  • This is a bad change, and somehow I doubt iBooks has to follow that rule...
  • Instapaper needs to stop focusing on the problem and start focusing on the solution.
    -Keep a list of the URL of all saved web articles and have a "redownload" action
    -Explain his case directly to Apple and ask them to suggest a solution
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