CWA takes over 500mb icloud backup space

[cebor]

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• Question: Since one of the last updates the CWA takes over 500mb icloud backup space, is this normal? Using latest version of CWA on iOS 15.1
  

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Internal Tracking ID: EXPOSUREAPP-9646

[Ein-Tim]

@cebor Could you let us know what data you have stored in the CWA (certificates, test results, etc.)

@thomasaugsten looking at #3626 I'm not sure why something is backed up to iCloud? Is CWA theoretically able to get the data from iCloud if restored?

[cebor]

@cebor Could you let us know what data you have stored in the CWA (certificates, test results, etc.)

@thomasaugsten looking at #3626 I'm not sure why something is backed up to iCloud? Is CWA theoretically able to get the data from iCloud if restored?

I've added only a single vaccination certificate.

[Ein-Tim]

@cebor

Okay thanks for your answer.

Here are are my numbers:

• I have 7 vaccination certificates stored in the app
• I have one check in
• I have contact journal entries for nearly all dates in the past 14 days

CWA takes up 1,33 GB of iCloud storage in the backup. iPhone XR, iOS 15.1.

Thanks for bringing this up!

@dsarkar This should be investigated ASAP, as users with only limited iCloud storage might uninstall CWA because of the high iCloud storage consumption!

@ndegendogo Could you check how many space is CWA taking up on your iCloud?

[dsarkar]

Thanks everybody: Internal Tracking ID: EXPOSUREAPP-10619

[thomasaugsten]

@cebor How much space the app is using under
Settings-> General-> Space-> Corona-Warn

[ndegendogo]

Actually, I don't use iCloud.
Settings-> General-> Space-> Corona-Warn shows 358.7 MB (App size = 41.1 MB / data size = 317.6MB).
My configuration is: iPhone 8 / iOS 14.4.1 / cwa 2.13.1
I am using the contact journal regularly. I have my two vaccination certificates. No tests, no check-ins.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim How much space the app is using under
Settings-> General-> Space-> Corona-Warn

[Ein-Tim]

@dsarkar

CWA is taking up 534,5 MB of space.
Documents & Data = 494,7 MB
App data = 39,8 MB

[cebor]

For me it's like this:

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim @cebor Thanks for the feedback, added to the internal ticket.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim How big is your error log(s)?

[Ein-Tim]

@dsarkar I don't have any error logs in the app.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim ;-) Bit surprised! Thanks for the feedback!

[tmechen]

this doesnt look like a one time off problem, same for me - cwa is the single largest contribution to my icloud backup space. how do you even aggregate 242 M(!)B of data just storing some keys?

general storage	icloud backup

[ndegendogo]

@tmechen could you please give more details on your configuration?
(iOS version / app version / device type)

[tmechen]

ah sry, ofc:
iOS 15.1 (19B74) - CWA 2.14.1 - IPhone SE Gen 2

edit
some further info:

• currently no check in
• currently no journal data
• 1 certificate

[larswmh]

Good morning @tmechen. Thank you for sharing your case with us. We will forward the information to the internal ticket.

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Corona-Warn-App Open Source Team

[moabits]

I just re-installed the app less than a week ago and the CWA already takes up a little over 150 MB (!) in the iCloud backup.
On the device, it takes up 40 MB of App Size and 63 MB of Documents & Data.

[dsarkar]

@moabits @cebor @tmechen @ndegendogo @Ein-Tim Good morning, FYI PR: #3962

[Ein-Tim]

Good morning @dsarkar!

Thanks for linking the PR! I was unsure whether it's really supposed to fix this issue, but seems like it!

Have a nice Friday!

[Ein-Tim]

CWA still takes 1,15 GB space in my iCloud backup.
When keeping in mind that no data from CWA is actually restored (see #3626) on a new device, I wonder why it's backed up in iCloud at all.

[dsarkar]

Good morning @Ein-Tim, I understand you are now on CWA 2.15.1? Thanks for the feedback.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim forwarded.

[Ein-Tim]

@dsarkar Was there an answer?

Here's the Apple Developer resource regarding iCloud Backups: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#qa/qa1719/_index.html, here's a Stackoverflow thread reg. this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18110321/turn-off-icloud-backup-for-my-application-ios-sdk

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim I will raise the topic again. Thanks.

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim iCloud backups are not disabled, since it seems that it works for some users. In general the idea is to fix the issues with the backup so that the backup works correctly.

[Ein-Tim]

@dsarkar Thanks for the feedback, this sounds great! I guess there is no fixed version where this bugfix should be released?

[dsarkar]

@Ein-Tim Indeed, no info about planned fix version,

[svengabr]

I have just checked the linked Jira issue.

Jira Ticket is flagged as:
Resolution: Wont Fix
Status: Obsolete

Developer comment:

we are aware how to do this, and as mentioned there is a story to get the iCloud backup right. EXPOSUREAPP-9646 so far we (development) did not get the time to work on this "feature". Lets hope for the transition phase.

I have replaced the internal tracking id with the new one.

The new ticket is stale in Jira since Obtober 2021. I have requested an update from the developers.

[rugk]

Okay, RKI, tell us what's up here.

[tmechen]

Okay, RKI, tell us what's up here.

Leider sieht das RKI es nicht als seine Aufgabe zu wissen oder zu kontrollieren was in den Tickets passiert, siehe vorherige Versuche zu anderen Tickets

Quelle

[ndegendogo]

@tmechen hier geht es ja nicht darum, was im Ticket steht - das ist ja oben erwähnt

so far we (development) did not get the time to work on this "feature".

sondern RKI als Auftraggeber soll ein Statement über die Priorisierung dieses Themas geben (also ob sie planen, dies zu beauftragen, oder ob sie es als nicht wichtig erachten...)

[Ein-Tim]

Already two devs talked about the "transition phase" and I'm still unsure what exactly is meant with this...

Maybe this could be clarified.

[rugk]

Oh interesting, indeed!

Indeed this could be clarified, again, RKI (and BMG).

[Ein-Tim]

Ref. to the second dev talking about this: corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android#5017 (comment)

He defined it as:

[The phase] when there is no new features coming ,but focus on bug fixing

The question is when is this phase, is there are plan for this?

If this can be clarified here on GitHub that's great, FOIs always take some time and from the past we saw that most are not successful reg. the intern communication of the CWA project.

[ndegendogo]

[The phase] when there is no new features coming ,but focus on bug fixing

Assuming we are currently in a "features complete / bugfixing only" phase, then of course it depends a lot how SAP project management communicates this topic to RKI.
If they regard it as "another feature" then the chance is high that RKI will not want it.
If they declare it as bug that should be fixed to keep cwa useful for their users, then the decision could be different.

[rugk]

This issue here cleary is a bug, come on.

[ndegendogo]

@rugk
yes, I agree, clearly a bug.

Still, a work-around is available

#3854 (comment)

although it is ugly to require the users to do this. We can expect that not all affected users know about this work-around, and they will be unhappy and stop to use cwa ....

[Ein-Tim]

@cebor, @tmechen, @rugk & @ndegendogo

Could you recheck how much space the CWA backup now takes for you? For me CWA is now only shown to be using ca. 20 MB, which is acceptable in my opinion (even though it would be better if it CWA wouldn't have a backup at all as it is of no use).

[tmechen]

still ~200mb wasted

[thomasaugsten]

Please wait for recheck for v2.26 we do a further optimization in v2.26.
Release is planned next week.

[Ein-Tim]

@tmechen

Strange that it takes so much for you and only 20 MB for me...

@thomasaugsten

Thanks, could you apply the Fix 2.26 label & remove the Fix 2.15 one from this issue?

[Ein-Tim]

@tmechen Can you recheck with version 2.26? I assume you have to carry out a new iCloud backup so that you can see whether CWA now takes less backup space.

[thomasaugsten]

I think
iOS Settings->General-> Space usage-> Corona-Warn should also give detail information about the space usage

[Ein-Tim]

@thomasaugsten Okay but this issue was explicitly about the space usage of the CWA in iCloud backups, but that should also be improved with version 2.26 right?

[thomasaugsten]

The space usage on both points should be improved. But please double check is an error reporting is running

[tmechen]

cannot confirm.
cwa updated to 2.26, started backup after. last backup was 184mb (see post above), now up to 196mb wasted.

edit error reporting is inactive, zero kb

[Ein-Tim]

@thomasaugsten Maybe you can answer the question what CWA actually stores in the iCloud backup? AFAIK backups are deactivated for CWA so why does it even show up in the list of apps which do an iCloud backup & takes space away from the users iCloud account? Or is it possible to use the backup of the CWA to restore the data of the CWA on a new device?

[thomasaugsten]

@tmechen
What is the usage of iOS Settings->General-> Space usage-> Corona-Warn

[tmechen]