Apple has added a new feature to iCloud. If you log into your iCloud account on the web, and click Settings, you see all the devices you own that are linked to your iCloud account. At the bottom, there are some link that allow you to:
- Restore Files
- Restore Contacts
- Restore Calendars and Reminders
Click one of these links, and a window lets you choose what to restore, showing you dates available:
This isn’t related to iCloud backups. I don’t back up any of my iOS devices to iCloud, yet I see a number of available backups to restore. for example, for my calendars and reminders, I see this:
I’m not sure what triggers a backup on iCloud, but there are clearly gaps there. However, this is better than nothing.
In a way, this is a sort of Time Machine for iCloud, though it currently only lets you restore data saved with iCloud’s native features, rather than that stored by third-party apps. However, if other apps store files in your iCloud Drive, then you can recover these. If they store settings in a different way on iCloud, then you can’t.