**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
[BUG] MCOC iOS takes up an inordinate amount of iCloud backup space
MikeBeas
Posts: 28 ★
I discovered an issue this evening with the way MCOC data is handled on iOS. I noticed that my iCloud backup had grown by at least a gigabyte this week, which is highly unusual. I dug into the backup and found that MCOC was taking up about 3 GB all by itself in the backup. The actual game data is not that large.
I had checked my iCloud backup a few times in the past few days and noticed it growing about half a gig at a time, but I didn't stop and think about the timing of it all until tonight. I've realized now that each roughly 500 MB increase in backup storage used coincided with an MCOC patch that required another 400-500 MB download.
I deleted my iCloud backup and the game from my phone, then did a clean iCloud backup without reinstalling MCOC. After taking note of the size, I installed MCOC, downloaded the latest patch from the game client, and performed another iCloud backup. This time the game only used about 500 MB of iCloud space, reducing my backup size by a little over 2 GB.
I understand that the move to in-client patching versus full game data downloads directly from the App Store was (probably, in part, at least) to help users get around Apple's dumb 150 MB limit for cellular App Store downloads by getting the client small enough to download over LTE and then allowing the larger download to take place away from the App Store. (You probably wanted more control over the patching process, too, which is fine.)
However, because files downloaded this way are saved to the game's Documents directory (or somewhere similar, as is the case for all iOS apps) rather than the application bundle itself, iOS assumes the data is something users want to hang on to (like an actual document in a photo editor, or such) and includes it in the backup. Additionally, when the game is patched, the new patched files are uploaded as part of the iCloud backup without replacing the previously backed-up files, resulting in a half-gig increase with every patch that gets downloaded.
Thus far the only way to reduce this usage is to actually delete the game and iCloud backup, then reinstall the game and re-enable backup. That will shrink the backup to 500 MB, but every patch downloaded after that point will cause it to balloon in size by another 500 MB.
Given that Apple doesn't exactly provide the most generous free iCloud storage plans, downloading just 5 patches to the game will cost a large number of users half (or more) of their iCloud space. There have been 2 such patches this week alone. That's a lot of iCloud space gone for a lot of people (20% of the free plan).
Hopefully there are changes that can be made to balance the App Store binary size with the need to reduce the number of large files being backed up to iCloud.
I had checked my iCloud backup a few times in the past few days and noticed it growing about half a gig at a time, but I didn't stop and think about the timing of it all until tonight. I've realized now that each roughly 500 MB increase in backup storage used coincided with an MCOC patch that required another 400-500 MB download.
I deleted my iCloud backup and the game from my phone, then did a clean iCloud backup without reinstalling MCOC. After taking note of the size, I installed MCOC, downloaded the latest patch from the game client, and performed another iCloud backup. This time the game only used about 500 MB of iCloud space, reducing my backup size by a little over 2 GB.
I understand that the move to in-client patching versus full game data downloads directly from the App Store was (probably, in part, at least) to help users get around Apple's dumb 150 MB limit for cellular App Store downloads by getting the client small enough to download over LTE and then allowing the larger download to take place away from the App Store. (You probably wanted more control over the patching process, too, which is fine.)
However, because files downloaded this way are saved to the game's Documents directory (or somewhere similar, as is the case for all iOS apps) rather than the application bundle itself, iOS assumes the data is something users want to hang on to (like an actual document in a photo editor, or such) and includes it in the backup. Additionally, when the game is patched, the new patched files are uploaded as part of the iCloud backup without replacing the previously backed-up files, resulting in a half-gig increase with every patch that gets downloaded.
Thus far the only way to reduce this usage is to actually delete the game and iCloud backup, then reinstall the game and re-enable backup. That will shrink the backup to 500 MB, but every patch downloaded after that point will cause it to balloon in size by another 500 MB.
Given that Apple doesn't exactly provide the most generous free iCloud storage plans, downloading just 5 patches to the game will cost a large number of users half (or more) of their iCloud space. There have been 2 such patches this week alone. That's a lot of iCloud space gone for a lot of people (20% of the free plan).
Hopefully there are changes that can be made to balance the App Store binary size with the need to reduce the number of large files being backed up to iCloud.
0
Comments