iOS 5 feature: over the air (OTA) automatic daily backups

By Allyson Kazmucha
last updated

If you're tired of consistently having to sync your device to iTunes in order to back it up (I know I am), get ready for a big change. iOS 5 is bringing automatic OTA backups! The backups will be available over Wifi and will back up each day.

Backups will include -

  • Your purchased music (what about stuff in our iTunes that isn't iTunes purchased?)
  • Media (books, photos, videos)
  • Device settings and app data.

What does this mean for end users? It means gone are the days of having to worry about losing your data if your device gets stolen or damaged.

Get a new one, sign in with your Apple ID and there's all your data. Just the way you left it.

Excited yet?

[Image via Engadget]

Allyson Kazmucha
Allyson Kazmucha

iMore senior editor from 2011 to 2015.

16 Comments
  • You bring up a valid point regarding non-iTunes purchased media.
  • What about contacts and calendar info?
  • Hmmm icloud eh??...sounds just like the Blackberry protect service for Blackberry devices.
    Finding all these new features interesting but also a bit funny as its apple playing catchup with the other mobile phone OS's out there.
  • Does app data mean back up of game saves over the air...?? Will we finally be able to delete and reinstall an app and continue from where we left before deleting?
  • This is the big question... save game files from games (just as any app-specific files) will be backed up, no doubt, but will they be deleted when we delete the app in question?
    That was one of the most peculiar ideas Apple ever had. Let's hope they've finally understood the idiocy of it.
  • so no widgets or siri :( , seems like a catchup iteration as opposed to anything I can get excited about.
  • This is very nice, maybe widgets will come with the next iPhone 5 announcement? An exclusive feature because of the A5 chip and added memory.
  • Ya, I was excited about this... 2 years ago when I got my palm pre and has this feature built in, it works great, I've factory reset my pre, then re-synced my phone and all my settings and apps were right there where I left off, it's great. Once again, apple imitates and people drool over them. This should have been something that Apple did a long time ago, syncing to itunes is the biggest problem with apple products today imo, I hate having to hook my ipad to my pc to sync/backup/update etc. Watch, next they will copy webos notifications and people will think it's the best ever! Granted, it's palm/HP's fault for letting people catch up when they had a 2yr lead on the competition.
  • Aren't they all playing catchup with each other when it comes to mobile OS's?
  • What does this mean for my data plan?
  • What does that mean for everyone on ATT who have bandwidth allocations if there are now daily back-ups that could be any range of size?
  • Done over WiFi only. If I were to bet, you can turn it off, too.
  • "what about stuff in our iTunes that isn’t iTunes purchased?"
    If you didn't buy it on you phone, why would you need to back it up from there?
  • Music match service. It's $25/yr, though.
  • I see 'text & sms messages' in that screenshot!! I sure hope we can backup them up and do a restore as new now and get to keep our texts!!!!
  • So we get all our bought iTunes music from the past