Medical ID on iPhone… WTH Apple?

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I’ve waited until I calmed down…

So, I had a funny turn a fortnight ago and ended up being ‘blues and twos’ into hospital. (A UK term for 999 paramedic attendance and subsequent emergency ambulance… hence the ‘blue’ [strobe lights] and ‘two’ [-tone horns and sirens]) Whatever…

I was a bit out of it at the time and when it came to listing my medication and allergies I turned to the built-in Health app on my trusty iPhone where I had all the relevant medication and allergy information recorded… as you do.

NADA… Just a message to set the app up.

I tried and failed to recover the list of my medication (with dosages) and details of my very severe (party trick – ‘gimme a prawn, watch me collapse) shellfish allergy. Nope… all gone!

What.The.Heck, Apple! This is potentially life-saving information that you just zapped and re-initialised to null, I assume during the latest update to iOS 14.4.

So… before you have the same fun and games that I experienced… please double-check that the Health app on your iPhone has not zapped your own life-saving information due to an update!

(Oh, and another thing… when you save a screenshot and forward it via email and it’s labelled as a .PNG file? It’s not. You need to change the file extension to .JPG.)

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It goes without saying that you need to fill out the Health app’s Medical ID with as much information as possible.

However, do NOT assume that a first responder (or any other  emergency worker) knows how to use iOS to pull up your Medical ID.

Practice until it’s second nature to unlock your device’s Home screen, press on the Emergency link (bottom left a) then, when the numeric keypad appears, press on the * Medical ID link (bottom left b).

Hope this helps… but you never actually need it.

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[Alex5723]

If you have local encrypted backup or iCloud backup you can restore your health data

Screenshots are saved/forwarded in .png format.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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You still use iTunes? I don’t even have it installed.

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Yes, I do for local backups, video/audio copy to iPhone, world radio stations…

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Alex5723 wrote:

Screenshots are saved/forwarded in .png format.

Sorry but that’s not my experience. I took a screenshot and emailed it to myself. My Windows PC couldn’t open it. (Admittedly PaintShop Pro 7 is now very old… but it does what I want.)

So I opened the .PNG file in Notepad++… and the header seems to indicate that it’s a JPEG file in JFIF format, not PNG.

This bears out what I posted earlier that I just need to rename the forwarded images as JPG.

Hope this helps…

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Rick Corbett wrote:

So… before you have the same fun and games that I experienced… please double-check that the Health app on your iPhone has not zapped your own life-saving information due to an update!

That is awful! I immediately checked my iPhone 10XR version 14.4. It’s all there …thank goodness! Thank you for making me aware that I need to check this every iOS update.

If you figure out what caused this, please post it.

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Mele20 wrote:

If you figure out what caused this, please post it.

@alex5723 nailed this one. Health data is *only* backed up/restored by iTunes if the Encrypt local backup checkbox is ticked.

So, now I know, I *have* to enable encryption, despite being the sole user of my PC… unless I want to re-enter my health details after every update. In my opinion this is a very stupid requirement. My medication is not a state secret.

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despite being the sole user of my PC…

Nothing to do with sole user and everything to do with privacy and keeping health data according to law.

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checked on my NHS app logins and all data is still there. Ipad is on 14.4

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Rick Corbett wrote:

@alex5723 nailed this one. Health data is *only* backed/up restored by iTunes if the Encrypt local backup checkbox is ticked.

Ahh…another reason to not use iTunes IMO…

I use iCloud but have had problems with it recently. Plus, icloud.com will not load in Basilisk which is kept fully up to date security wise. I liked Safari for Windows when Apple supported it. (I use Fx60.9 ESR or Brave to reach iCloud.com).

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I always think of iTunes for Windows as Apple’s ongoing punishment for users not buying a Mac*something. iTunes has always worked well and as expected on my MacBook. 🙂

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

Alex5723, Mele20

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Rick Corbett wrote:

iTunes has always worked well and as expected on my MacBook.

iTunes has always worked well as expected on my Windows PCs.

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Rick Corbett wrote:

Sorry but that’s not my experience.

The attached WatchOS update .png screenshot has been mailed from the iPhone using Gmail
and posted here unaltered.
I don’t know which mail service you use that “cripple” iPhone screenshots .png file type.

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[Alex5723]

ps. I use Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap > double tap to take screenshots.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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Alex5723 wrote:

The attached WatchOS update .png screenshot has been mailed

What screenshot? I don’t see any.

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Thanks, Rick, your posting this here encouraged me to include my aspirin allergy on Apple Health.

Glad to hear you are OK, keep well.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

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[Alex5723]

Mele20 wrote:

Alex5723 wrote:

The attached WatchOS update .png screenshot has been mailed

What screenshot? I don’t see any.

#post-2346249

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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