So my recently divorced friend has entered “advanced dating” territory, in which one sends photographs of oneself to others.
Note that I am not engaged in these hijinks. I am merely reporting from the sidelines.
My friend was using her cell phone to snap pix of various parts of her anatomy and really not getting the right angle. I think it was the tattoo on her tush that proved elusive.
So she grabbed her first-grade son’s iWhatever (iPhone, iPad, what are those things?) – the one her ex-husband sent the boy for Christmas – so that she could use its camera instead of hers. Apparently she could angle his device and view the pictures as they were being snapped. So she got the photos she wanted.
And then of course she very carefully DELETED the files. Carefully and deliberately switched them to her computer and GOT RID OF THEM from his device.
Sent the photos off, set up whatever tryst she was angling for, done and done.
Until a week later, when Grandma reported that she’d found “inappropriate photographs” on the small boy’s device.
Which, of course, he denied taking.
My friend had a great explanation, had to do with her tattoo fading and wanting to document her muscle tone for her new workout regiment and whatnot — she’s pretty quick.
What she hadn’t known was that the photographs she’d taken (and deleted) were automatically stored on the iCloud. For 30 days. No matter what.
I’d be pissed, too, since she didn’t actually solve the problem (the pics are still out there on the web), and caused more damage in the attempt.
Actual solution: Log into his iCloud account on the web, and tell it to delete the photo stream. Then delete the pictures from any computers or iOS devices he’s set up with iCloud.
That (photo stream auto-distributing the last 1000 pictures) is a feature, by the way, and it’s off by default. You can turn it on and off in the iCloud settings on the phone (it’s called “Photo Stream.”) It’s basically a way of automating the download of pictures onto your computer or web site without having to actually sync the phone.
He can probably restore the phone by doing a “restore from backup” from the last time he synced. This doesn’t restore everything (the camera roll on the phone, for example, is deleted…until iCloud puts it back later in the day.)
Quite awkward! I’m glad she came up with a good explanation. Is grandma her mother or her ex’s?
But regarding the iCloud, I’m a dummy who can’t quite figure it out. Mine doesn’t seem to do automatic backups despite the fact that it’s supposed to whenever it’s docked and connected to wifi, which I would assume just means plugged into my computer while the wifi is enabled, right? But I get a message every two weeks that says my phone hasn’t been backed up to iCloud, so I do it manually. I also have no idea how to view pictures on iCloud, all I have when I log in is my address book and certain emails.
That said, I haven’t made much of an effort to look up how to do all this stuff. I normally upload photos to Facebook or email them to myself immediately so it’s not an issue.
