iPhone users warned "Don't upgrade to iOS 10.3 without backing up first"

When you update your iPhone to iOS 10.3 you risk losing the files on your phone - photos, music, documents - if you don't back up first.

Apple has warned customers to back-up to avoid the risk of potential disaster.

Theoretically we're supposed to back up before any upgrade but who really does that? 

This time, if you have any attachment to the data on your iPhone or iPad -  for example if you would be devastated to lose some or all of your photos or music - then you really need to make the effort before updating to iOS 10.3

Why could I lose files from my iPhone or iPad?

The reason for the warning is an upgrade in iOS 10.3 to a new Apple File System (APFS). The new file system will be shared across all Apple products using macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS.  

It will replace the Apple Hierarchical File System (HFS+) which has been used by Apple for almost 30 years, since the birth of the Mac in 1985.

During the iOS 10.3 update, APFS will automatically convert files on your iPhone or iPad to work with the new file system.

However, given APFS and HFS+ are incompatible, should any glitch occur during the switchover, your data could disappear into the ether never to be seen again. 

Don't know how to back up? Here's the directions: How to Back Up

Should I upgrade at all?

As consumers we won't really notice any significant differences on the surface, but benefits in the back end mean the upgrade to the new file system is a no-brainer.

The main benefits can be loosely categorised as

• enhanced security
• greater speed
• increased reliability

For the more technically-minded there's a list of benefits below - but for most of us the main reason to update is the new file system sets our devices up for future innovation.

In the 30 years since the development of HFS, we've gone from the Mac to the iPhone, Apple TV, iPad, and Apple Watch. We've seen Apple grow from a few million devices to over a billion devices. Our useage has skyrocketed from kilobytes and megabytes of data to gigabytes, terabytes, and beyond.

According to BackBlaze, a California-based company that specialises in backups, we really don't have a choice but to upgrade:

Apple’s paving the way to store lots more data with APFS. HFS+ supports 32-bit file IDs, for example, while APFS ups that to 64-bit. That means that today, your Mac can keep track of about 4 billion individual pieces of information on its hard drive. APFS ups that to 9 quintillion. That’s a nine followed by 18 zeroes (actually, much more than that, because of hexadecimal values).

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Benefits of Apple File Storage system  

As promised, for those who appreciate the detail and courtesty of PC Magazine, the key benefits of APFS are:

•  Integrated encryption: can encrypt whole disks and individual files with separate keys for the file and its metadata, giving granular control
• Instant cloning: makes possible instant cloning of folders and drives, adding speed to Sierra's built-in feature that automatically backs up to iCloud any files on your Desktop and in your Documents folder
• Nano-second time stamping: the current file system time-stamps files with one-second precision, not enough to keep track of file changes with today's hardware. APFS time-stamps files with one-nanosecond precision, and this feature making it easier to store multiple versions of a file in a minimum of space.
• Better back ups: Apple's Time Machine feature to take advantage of the new system for faster performance and more fine-grained backups
• Better space allocation: flexible space allocation, so that two APFS "disks" can borrow disk space from each other when they need it, and not be limited by the space allocated to them when they were created
• Optimised for flash storage: optimization for flash storage and a "fast directory sizing" feature that keeps track of directory sizes on the fly

 All you would ever need to know about APFS

APFS was introduced to the world at the Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Francisco in June last year. Watch this video of Eric Tamura, Apple manager, File Storage systems, describe the innovation.

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