Nick Heer on locked Apple accounts:
Given this tight control, the bar for locking a user out of their Apple Account and, to some extent, out of their devices should be unbelievably high.
As an aside, I use iCloud but also (less frequently) copy my photos to Dropbox and Google Photos. Too important to only have one synced copy.
@manton I am with you. Don’t trust just one place to store such valuable treasures, like your photos and videos. I use a mac app called Parachute, which downloads my iCloud-based media onto my NAS at home and onto an external SSD at another location.
@manton After I read that guy’s story a few days ago I evaluated my entire digital life to see what depends absolutely on Apple and what, if I ever got locked out, I would be able to recover (from Backblaze and local hard drives) and use on another platform. It’s been an illuminating experience.
@manton I realize perhaps I’m in a different position than a lot of people on here because I’m not a developer. I really consider any cloud base stuff to be an added convenience, and not something I depend on. But yeah, I back up to dropbox as well.
@ayjay Yeah, these reminders are helpful. My offline backups have gotten worse over the years, so that’s an area I’d like to improve.
@dmejia I just installed Parachute earlier this morning! Hoping its first backup goes without incident, initial estimate said it’d take about 18 hours so I’ll wait to run it overnight.
@ayjay @ayjay It’s the “3-2-1” rule for backup but instead of “two different formats,” it’s now “two different services.” See also, the comment from @dmejia to @manton about Parachute backup for getting icloud photos and media into an off-site NAS/HD.
@manton my photos the only thing I really really care about losing go to iCloud, Flickr Pro and Backblaze. I use to have another local copy to a Mac mini but that machine has run out of local HD space. I wouldn’t mind reinstating that local duplication.
@manton yeah it is very tempting to trust everything to Apple. I mean, they even offer free password managing and email aliases and the likes for SSO. But no, I will stick with my Proton Pass for that. And iCloud I only use for temporary story - everything goes to my own NAS and then off-shore C2 and Glacier backup.
@dmejia Thanks, this is a tool I’ve been looking for, but didn’t know it. Just picked up both versions.
@manton Stoked to see so many backup enthusiasts in this thread! Also, remember to run data recovery drills from time to time. While thankfully rare, I’ve had a few customers and friends figuratively crying on my shoulder when they realize the backup they thought they had was missing or incomplete or corrupt. No fun!