We highly recommend doing a iTunes or iCloud backup of your iPhone before Apple’s latest iOS update later this month.
If you have any data (and who doesn’t!) on your iPhone such as photos, sms and contacts, you will want to definitely want to perform a backup before upgrading to Apple’s latest iOS 10.3.
While iOS 10.3 is aimed to deliver a host of new updates, one main feature in iOS 10.3 could absolutely devastate users who do not back up data and files to iTunes or Apple’s cloud before installing the new operating system.
It has to do with Apple introducing a new file system to replace the aging 29 year old file system known as HFS+.
The iOS update will automatically convert to the new Apple File System (APFS), BUT if something goes wrong during this process, your old photos, sms’s and contacts etc could be completely wiped out for good because the two file systems are not compatible.
While you may will be able to go back to the old version of iOS, this will require a complete factory reset of your iPhone etc, resulting in deleting all of your files on the device. Hence the need for the backup!
Kinda scary, but Apple File System promises to be a massive improvement on the predecessor which Apple has been using since the start, way back in 1998.
The update will be better suited to modern computing demands, allowing for stronger security, more accurate time stamps and optimisation.
APFS is also scheduled to be rolled out across its computers, smart watches and Apple TVs. So before your Apple device is updated, remember to backup 1st!
