It‘s ridiculous that I can only backup my (iOS) device to either a computer via USB (what is this, 2005?) or to the cloud.
Just let me use my local Time Machine backup server!
Sadly, I am convinced I'll never see that feature – it would basically remove the need for any iCloud subscription for me and thereby undermine Apple's "service" efforts too much.
Yes, to its local storage only, which makes it completely useless to me. (I have more data on my phone than on my computer, and I can't be the only one.)
> TM doesn’t make much sense without the Finder’s interface.
Why? I can even already connect to the same SMB mount that holds my Mac's backup via my iPhone's "Files" app. Just let me backup to that!
Yes, but I don't want that data on my Mac in the first place. It takes up almost all disk space there, completely needlessly.
(Actually it doesn't – I symlinked the backup directory to an external drive, and fortunately ~iTunes~ Finder follows that. But this is something completely unrealistic to ask of an average user, in my opinion.)
True. My situation is probably different: I've got a fairly large disk (1TB), and a tiny phone (16GB). I guess they prefer to sell iCloud subscriptions.
I think other commenters are missing your point: an iPhone should be able to back up to a "server" the same way a macbook does. I have a 24 TB NAS with Time Machine on it so the phone should be able to backup to it (over wifi, usb, whatever) the same way it does to a Mac. And this should be possible out of the box by-design (not by using Linux based tools to backup the iPhone in ways Macs do not let you do).
They do. Parent just wants to back up directly to a Time Machine backup, rather than backing up to computer, then backing that up to TM.
A reasonable desire, but clearly niche enough that it's unlikely to come to pass. (Particularly since, given what little I've seen of how Time Machine works, it would likely require some quite significant dev work on Apple's end to enable.)
Just let me use my local Time Machine backup server!
Sadly, I am convinced I'll never see that feature – it would basically remove the need for any iCloud subscription for me and thereby undermine Apple's "service" efforts too much.