There is a saying that Linux power users don’t need (or do not have the time for) games because they have their operating system! That’s exactly why I do not have Linux on my smart phone. I have enough systems to administrate and do not want to have another added. Especially when I use less than 10% of its functionality. It’s a phone. I call peiple with it. And I have a hand-full of apps that I must use. That’s it. So, I do not want to care about it that much, but it should be solid and secure. These are the only criteria why I use iPhones. They simply work, receive long support by Apple, the hardware is good, and they are very closed with respect to security.

So, all well, right? Not exactly and here is another curious journey when it comes to the long-term details.

No space left

Recently my iPHone complained there was not much space left on the device. I was puzzled. I have - compared to my friends and my family - almost nothing installed. I do not make pictures that often and I mostly stream music instead of making it available offline. So, there should be abundant space, dozens of gigabytes. But nay, all gone. Almost 30 gigabytes occupied by system/other data.

I had no clue, what that is. And only wanted to clean it up. As it turns out, that is not possible. I searched for something like a cleanup option. Some sources on the web said it could help to simply reboot. Others claimed cleaning the browser history would help. For me, it did not.

The last option I found in multiple sources was to create a backup and restore it. I do not know why Apple does not give users the option to clear stystem/othere data areas, but OK. I wen for it and created a backup. Then, I wanted to restore it but the system told me: Not enough space left. …

OK, then how about a reset? After all, I had a backup now! I tried the reset option and got: Not enough space … GRRRRRR

There I was. I had a backup but could not restore it. Even a factory reset di not work. So I started deleting apps until I had about 4 GB free space. I tried again and got the same answer. But a reset did work now. And after a reset I could also apply my backup. Finally!

And then I had back 35 GB of space!

Black hole

Now you could say: be happy, don’t worry! But I did worry when I checked through my apps. At first glance, all was well. But then I noticed that my banking apps had to be activated anew. Even worse, all my two-factor entries in Google’s authenticator app were gone. And some other apps missed their data, too.

I don’t know if this is something to blame on Apple or the apps authors. But what do I have a backup for if it does not restore my phone to the point where I created the backup? For the banking apps I could find arguments (when installing on a new device), that they create new ID’s and Sessions. But I restored the backup on the same device i created it from. And yes, I even gave the backup a password so sensitive data would be included in the backup.

Final words

Whenever you do a backup, also backup your very mission critical and top secret or above data separately!