My Brain, Apple, and the Transfer of Fragility
Two weeks ago I opened up my Notes.app just like every morning. The list of folders and notes in them greeted me as usual. But when I clicked on any note, its contents were empty. They had titles on the list, they had correct metadata (last modified date, etc.). But there was no content.
I panicked, clicked through a bunch of notes, maybe ten or so. All empty. I froze, took my phone and checked if the notes are there. All were… except for the ones I clicked on in the OS X app. Those were wiped clean. iCloud synchronization “just worked” for once. Dammit, the information on those notes lost!
[…]
What if my Apple ID gets hacked one day and somebody wipes all the notes and that gets synchronized to all devices I use? Time Capsule is useless if I can’t easily restore my notes from it. What if iCloud silently “forgets a note” or two in time? How long until I noticed?
Notes are not one of the data types you can restore via icloud.com.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
This is so odd. Sync has long been a core competency of Cupertino. I'm confused how this could slip through the cracks.
(Let me know when y'all get tired of this joke. I never get tired of it.)
I happily imported much of my new Evernote documents and lists into Notes.app, and now am appalled that there are no Services attached to Notes, nor any Automator actions or anything. The only way I've found that I can interact with my Notes is using the mouse and keyboard. Very frustrating.
I sincerely hope WWDC bring per app backups and restores for both Mac and iOS via either iCloud or Time Machine. (Preferably easily with both)