Backing up ipad2 to iCloud

[yyzjules]

Hi there,

First i should confess that I am new here and have read the newbie tips but please feel to correct any etiquette mis-steps that I might make as I feel my way thru here.

My questions are these:

I am backing up my 32GB IPad2 to iCloud for the first time. I have extra storage there so that is no concern. I have not updated the iOS yet.

1. It is saying the back-up will be done in 18 hours. Does that seem right? There is approximately 25 GB to back-up.

2. Will it take that long every time? Or is it just because it is the first back-up?

3. Can I use the device while it is backing up?

4. And finally, will it back-up photos that have been imported from a camera via the camera kit? I know it will back up the camera roll but I have thousands of "imported" photos that have not been synced on a computer. They only reside on the iPad as imported events.

Thank you so much for any wisdom you are willing to share. I really appreciate it.
~ Jules

 

[twerppoet]

This may answer some of your questions.

iCloud: Backup and restore overview

Pay attention to the part where it says you can select which apps' data gets backed up. You can greatly reduce the amount of time your iCloud back up takes by being more selective.

 

[yyzjules]

@twerppoet Thank you for your reply Mr. Poet.

I had already consulted the Apple support and had turned off a bunch of items from the back-up. The good news (I guess) is that I am now down to the 15 hours to completion mark. It's slow but at least it seems to be progressing.

Do you happen to know whether the imported pics will be backed up automagically? Or does it only pull in the camera roll. This is pretty key for me as I have a lot of pics that have not been synced anywhere else. Don't want to upgrade to iOS 6 until I'm sure my last 12 months of photos are save. ( a bit of a nail biter )

Thanks again for your help. ~ j.

 

[twerppoet]

@twerppoet Thank you for your reply Mr. Poet.

I had already consulted the Apple support and had turned off a bunch of items from the back-up. The good news (I guess) is that I am now down to the 15 hours to completion mark. It's slow but at least it seems to be progressing.

Do you happen to know whether the imported pics will be backed up automagically? Or does it only pull in the camera roll. This is pretty key for me as I have a lot of pics that have not been synced anywhere else. Don't want to upgrade to iOS 6 until I'm sure my last 12 months of photos are save. ( a bit of a nail biter )

Thanks again for your help. ~ j.

15 hours, ouch! It certainly sounds like all your photos are being backed up, unless there's some other app with of lots and lots of data. But, I don't actually know.

At any rate, I would never trust my important photos just the iPad and iCloud. iCloud is an all nothing restore, which makes it kind of drastic if all you need is to get a few pictures back. You should also be backing up those photos to a computer, or another cloud service.

On Windows the iPad mounts as a USB drive. You can find your camera roll photos under the DCIM folder and your imported files in some subfolders.

On a Mac you can use the included image capture application; Or if you have iPhoto or Aperture you can import the photos into them.