Tip: You can make local Wi-Fi backups to NAS with iMazing as an iCloud alternative
Decided to share this after all the hype regarding iCloud backup encryption yesterday.
While encrypted backups with iTunes are end-to-end encrypted and should be the most secured way to store backup data at the moment, there are major troubles with low SSD space and iTunes backup option over Wi-Fi that works when it wants to.
This is where iMazing can help. The Wi-Fi connection works quite good (at least definitely better than in iTunes), and it allows changing backup location to an external drive or NAS. Backups are the same as with iTunes (not sure if there's even any way to make backups not through Apple's API), so fully encrypted and can be used with iTunes later if needed. Also, backups are incremental and not overwritten, so you can have multiple backups without using much space.
And, the most important part, it has an option for automatic scheduled backups
I use this app for a long time (paid version) and haven't noticed any sketchy behavior. Also, devs seem to be from Switzerland, so they are covered by GDPR and EU privacy laws.
For backup/restore you need just the free version. Note that if you need to restore some backup, you need to do it through iMazing Mini (companion app, installs along with the main one).
Pros:
- Safe to use;
- Works in free version;
- Same encrypted iTunes backups;
- You can set automatic scheduled backups;
- Backups are incremental;
- You can back up to NAS;
- Backups can be done through Wi-Fi.
Cons:
- First backup to NAS may be really long as it makes a full backup, but next backups will be faster;
- You still need a computer with iMazing running;
- Device and computer must be on the same Wi-Fi network;
- No way to back up to any cloud drive directly.
Guides you may need:
Tip: Make sure to check archiving options and change them if needed. By default, iMazing will store your backups for the last month and clean older ones if they start taking too much space.
Hope this helps someone.
Posted Jan 22, 2020, 11:36 PM UTC
I have never seen someone promote one single program as much as you have in your comment history.
They should start paying me for this :D But honestly I just love this app. It made my transfer from Nexus more smooth (couldn't get used to a fact that you need to sync stuff and not just drag&drop of whatever you want) and saved me from data loss several times (was a winner that decided to reinstall iOS with "No service" bug on iPhone 7 while having a corrupted backup). And it's a real lifesaver if you don't want to use cloud based solutions for data transfer.
There are definitely other similar apps that may be as good as this one. I just use it for a long time, know all pros and cons, so mentioning it when I know it can bring some value.