Instapaper Founder Says iOS 5 Deletes App Data

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hahaha, they clear your cache to "save space" and rap3 you on your bandwidth
 

dthx

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The IOS update procedure sucks as well. All the aviation maps I had bought inside AirNavPro are ... gone! And the system does not offer me the possibility to re-download them for free. I don't understand why a wipe of the device is required to update the system (and why iTunes doesn't restore everything correctly from his backup at the end of the procedure). OTA updates in Android have always been much more convenient (when they exist for your device of course, which is unfortunately not always true).
 

eddieroolz

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On one hand I look at Apple and wonder why they keep changing things; but then on the other hand, iOS5 betas have been out for months already, with the intent of working out bugs and getting developers used to the changes.
 

mcnaugha

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What a ridiculous thing to whine about. Instapaper man must be new to writing software for a modern OS. It's a total duh! Nobody should be using tmp and cache folders for anything which isn't disposable. They need to make their minds up what's important and what's not.
 

gtvr

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@dthx - this is the first iOS update I've done that wiped apps. Not sure why they needed that to happen, hopefully it was a one time thing.
 

Vladislaus

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[citation][nom]mcnaugha[/nom]What a ridiculous thing to whine about. Instapaper man must be new to writing software for a modern OS. It's a total duh! Nobody should be using tmp and cache folders for anything which isn't disposable. They need to make their minds up what's important and what's not.[/citation]
What part didn't you understood from this sentence?

"Apple is asking app developers to store non-user generated, "re-downloadable" files in the Caches folder for iOS. However, it is this exact folder that gets cleaned out when iOS sees the device running low on space."

Stop blaming the developers when it was apple that asked developers to store data there.
 

waethorn

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Actually, I found just the opposite.

When you upgrade to iOS5, your apps are erased, but the data (which is supposed to be somewhat encapsulated within an individual apps storage bubble) is still left on the device. I knew this because at first, I didn't load my bank apps on my system - I waited about a week. After I loaded them on, my bank card numbers were already loaded into the sign-in form.

So not only is this a privacy issue, but I didn't reload all of the same apps back on my device, so there's still some unassociated data left on the device, and the only way to clean it up is to wipe the entire device completely and reload apps and data from PC. Why didn't Apple just require that users do this in the first place, since you have to reload your apps anyway? Instead, there's a couple of gigs of dataspace that's wasted on my device that I can't reclaim unless I know EXACTLY which apps I had installed prior to iOS5 (Apple doesn't keep a record of this), reload them all, then delete them one by one thus clearing up all the dataspace, and then reload the ones I really want again. Sorry, but this JUST DOES NOT WORK!

This device will be my last Apple iOS device before Windows 8 comes out on tablet devices.
 

ari

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Those developers do not understand the concepts of "temp" and "cache". Core to both concepts is that they may disappear at any time, it's just that Apple was a little late to the game in implementing a resource recovery strategy.

The only reason given was that it was "a way for developers to speed up the backup process". That in itself would indicate that the developer did not feel that the data was very important.

Sure, it's possible that this could cause difficulties for users in some situations, but the alternative is that the usability of the device is degraded because there is no more available storage.

Developers need to take responsibility for their own design decisions, and recognize that we do not live in an era of static platforms where we can count on the idiosyncrasies of a specific implementation.
 

ngoy

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HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! This is what happens when you buy into a device that HAS NO USER UPGRADABLE STORAGE.

You bought an iSomething, you deal with it. Nobody would need more storage, everyone can pay and get a newer device in two or three years. Gee, if you could put a MicroSD card in there, you wouldn't have this problem would you? If your stuff was continuously synced to a cloud that would be different, but how much would that cost you in bandwidth?

Beyond my normal anti-Apple rant though, it is really the developers fault. Who are they to decide what is important to you? If they knew it was a temp space, DON'T PUT STUFF THERE THAT THE USER MAY WANT. Duh. Even if Apple says to store stuff there if it is redownloadable, is there some warning to the consumer? The developers should have never put stuff in there, I mean duh, it is labeled tmp and Cache.

You are going to be hard pressed to find programmers in any other OS storing real data for their program in a temp or cache directory.
 

subaru41

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LOL, typical iCrap iOS of Apple Inc. You ever heard of a removable micro SD card slot.

It amazes me how Apple Inc. and Android mobile phone owners are the exact same. They both want to have full control over there devices. LOL. Anyone that owns an Apple device is a sheep and likes being told what is good for them and have no control over their own device
 

ThisIsMe

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What? You guys are all nuts. Typical iPhone crap? Really? It is a temp directory after all. How many times how you, as a computer user, cleared your caches and temp directories in the past?

Seriously, the easy solution is to give the user the option of temporarily storing the data, or for a "long plane trip" or a cruze permanently storing the downloaded data. Then maybe giving them the option to change the already downloaded data back. I assume it should be pretty simple to move data to and from this temp directory.

Seriously, that's just whiney lazy developers talking. You can hate apple all you want, but it sounds like they made it pretty clrear it's only temporary storage.
 

mavroxur

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Apple: Call it a new "feature", and increase the price accordingly. Jack up the price another $50 or so, and the Apple drones will flock to the stores to get it.


 

lathe26

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This isn't about lazy developers. The developers are just trying to provide the best solution for thier customers. It's about Apple providing storage for apps that doesn't get purged but also doesn't slow down syncing. This is Apple's oversight in not providing the the right tools for the job.

That said, as a developer, I'd consider this issue annoying to frustrating but not severe.
 

AndrewMD

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This is a non-issue.. Redesign the app to use normal storage and the end user can decided what to delete/remove and what to keep.

Apple can change the way it handles temporary files, etc because they designed the platform. This has nothing to do with Micro SD or some other issue. This is a pure developer problem.

Also, there is no guarantee right that old programs should work with new OS designs.

I for one just purchased CS5.5, Office 2010, Expression Studio to install on my new 64 Bit computer because CS3, Expression Studio 2 were having performance issues

 
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So Apple says that the temp and cache directories are ONLY for REdownloadable data... but developers treat it as protected, backed-up storage... and then cry when they find out that "temp" stands for "temporary" and that caches are for accelerated access to COPIES of the primary data source. DO I have

I suppose those same devs think that /tmp is a suitable place to keep their SVN repository.

How is developer incompetence Apple's fault?
 
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