We slogged through a blizzard to attend the Metro SLN Conference in Denver in early February and were impressed with the number of hearty SLPs who made it to the event. We enjoyed talking with folks who were just learning about all the speech therapy apps available for the iPad.

One of the first visitors to our booth asked about backing up her client data to iCloud. Now, we hadn’t been asked this question before. So, we checked with our Chief Software Engineer (and technology therapist) to see what back-up options therapists have in the event they ever lost their precious iPads.

Apps developed before the introduction of iCloud services are pretty likely not backed up to iCloud, unless that technology has been implemented in a version update. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean all is lost if your iPad goes permanently missing or if the dog really did eat your homework.

Some apps will save client data in a special directory that gets backed up to iTunes. So, if you lose your iPad and replace it with a new one, you can retrieve your client files from iTunes when you load your purchased apps onto your new device.

Backups for SLP Minimal Pairs are currently stored in iTunes. So, let's say that you drop your iPad into a snow bank and destroy it. You go to the Apple Store and buy a new one. You plug it into iTunes. iTunes will ask if you want to "restore from backup.” If you do this, you get SLP Minimal Pairs back during sync' along with all of your data.

NOTE WELL!! Data retrieval depends on backing up your data to another device. So, if you’re in the habit of doing regular back-ups, you’re in good shape. But if it has been a few months since your iPad and back-up device (typically your laptop) spent any quality time together, your backup client data could be “wanting.”

iCloud integration into an app eliminates the need to regularly sync your iPad with your backup device, since that is a large part of what iCloud does automatically. Most apps will eventually migrate to be sync-able through iCloud, but until they do, continue those back-ups and keep your iPad in a safe place, preferably away from the snow banks and pet toys.