Why can’t I backup an iOS device to a local NAS in the way I can use Time Machine, for example? (Rhetorical question; the answer is obviously that they want to sell more iCloud storage for that all-important services revenue).
When I connect my iPhone to my iMac it does to a local backup to a file, which then gets backed up via Time Machine (and SuperDuper/CarbonCopyCloner).
"How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with your Mac":
* https://support.apple.com/en-ca/108796
There's also a checkbox for 'Wifi syncing' so a cable isn't necessarily needed.
iOS natively supports SMB over any network connection including wired Ethernet, mounting encrypted APFS volumes on USB storage devices at 10 Gbps etc.
It’s Apples explicit vision that an iPad Pro can replace a Mac even for some professional users. Why don’t these deserve local backups?
Apple already provides first party software to handle iDevice backups on Windows or Mac.
Backing up an Android device to a PC using adb is significantly more difficult, especially for the less technically minded.
That’s arguably the wrong question: I bet a lot more would own one if they could easily backup their iOS devices to it.
There aren’t that many people that are willing to own a device from a company but not trusting that company with their data
Some of the power amplifiers for rarely-used bands probably qualify as well (mmWave in particular).
On the software side I’d have to dig a bit, but I bet many code paths on iOS see use of less than 1% of all users.
You can backup your iPhone using Finder.
Finder -> Locations -> Your iPhone -> Backup all the data on this iPhone to your Mac.
Once you have done this you can find the backup in "Manage Backups", right click on an entry and select "Show in Finder". From there you can copy it to your NAS.
Not as smooth as a Time Machine backup but it is possible.
I’d personally call it “absurdly clunky and intentionally impractical for a big chunk of Apple’s user base”.
> Step-by-Step Guide: How to Backup iPhone to Synology NAS
https://www.ubackup.com/phone-backup/backup-iphone-to-synolo...
There are two methods presented: one only backs up the camera roll; the other requires plugging into a computer and manually clicking around, at which point you might as well use the first party backup built into Finder (or iTunes on Windows? Is that still a thing?), no random third party application needed. I also highly doubt their “backup every single content” claim.
It’s also a sneaky marketing article for that third party application, following the common SEO practice of giving you a half-ass solution capturing a frequent search term (in this case, “backup iPhone to Synology”), then plug their own questionable thing as the better solution.
That’s a guide on how to backup an iPhone to a NAS using a computer.
Unsurprisingly, a reasonably capable general-purpose OS supports network file systems in a way transparent to applications, but that doesn’t help people using only an iOS device.