Hacker News Reader

If you back up the iPad locally, will it back up Procreate data? I would expect it to...

I don’t think we can without unlocking the iPad, and there seems to be no way of doing that with a busted screen. Kind of an oof failure mode.

If iCloud backup is on, and your friend didn't explicitly disable it for Procreate, then the data should be available for restore via iCloud:

https://doncorgi.com/blog/procreate-icloud-backup/

I think you can see the last backed-up day (but not list of apps for other devices) somewhere on iCloud.com or in settings on some other iPhone/iPad on their account. Alternatively, you could try restoring to a new/temporary old iPad.

The external monitor + keyboard suggestions in sibling comments could be combined with this advice (or other backup procedures in the article I linked), assuming backup is disabled.

I somehow experienced data loss with procreate at one point, but maybe it was some weird accident. You’re right that procreate seems to advertise iCloud sync. All I know is it didn’t work when I needed it most, so I was leery of just blindly trusting it when the data is currently sitting on my table.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com