> and relies on having a computer plugged into power at the same time as your iPhone, with enough free space.
I mean... yes? How else would they do it? Data transfer is power-intensive, and encryption is also power-intensive. Imagine having only 10% battery on your laptop while you're working at a coffee shop or something and suddenly it drops to 5% because it's started a backup.
Sure, the majority of the time it'd probably work out fine, but Apple's UX philosophy is to simply remove undesirable states from the equation by sufficiently limiting users' options. This is exactly the kind of behavior I would expect from this feature.
It was the primary reason I gave up trying to make it work for my family - none of them regularly leave their laptop plugged in overnight, so there was rarely a time when both laptop and phone were charging at the same time.
I mean... yes? How else would they do it? Data transfer is power-intensive, and encryption is also power-intensive. Imagine having only 10% battery on your laptop while you're working at a coffee shop or something and suddenly it drops to 5% because it's started a backup.
Sure, the majority of the time it'd probably work out fine, but Apple's UX philosophy is to simply remove undesirable states from the equation by sufficiently limiting users' options. This is exactly the kind of behavior I would expect from this feature.