What would you do if you lost your iPhone tomorrow? If someone stole your iPhone or it was destroyed, you would have two options: restore from a backup you made or start over from scratch.
Nobody thinks they'll lose important data, but it can happen to anyone. The more often you back up your important files, the less you'll lose if the worst happens. Thankfully, it's easy to protect your photos, settings, and more by creating regular iPhone backups. Here's how.
Why Back Up Your iPhone?
Does the thought of losing your iPhone make you feel sick? The cost of a new device is a tough pill to swallow, but you can replace hardware. The irreplaceable data that lives on your smartphone is much more valuable.
Without a backup, you might lose all your treasured pictures and videos, unsynced notes, and other data your apps use. If you create documents on the go that aren't stored in iCloud, they'll be lost too.
Fortunately, many services include cloud backup, including productivity tools like Evernote and messengers like WhatsApp. Despite this, setting up your device all over again and downloading each app manually is a chore. Trying to remember exactly how you had your device laid out, and which way you like your settings, is near-impossible.
You can avoid much of this hassle by making sure you have an up-to-date backup of your iPhone. In the event of hardware loss or failure, you can simply restore from a backup when you get your new device. Depending on the circumstance, you might have to enter iPhone recovery mode and restore your device using the backup you created.
Once restored, your iPhone will look and behave exactly like the one you replaced. It's even possible to save your Wi-Fi passwords, browsing history, and personal preferences like your Today screen and Control Center layout. Backing up will also save you if you encounter iPhone update problems.
Should You Back Up to Your Computer or iCloud?
As an iPhone owner, you have two options for backing up: local backups made using a computer, and online backups via iCloud. Both options have their own merits.
iCloud is a set-and-forget solution, offering peace of mind, but you'll probably need to purchase more iCloud storage space to make the most of it. Using your computer requires more thought and manual action, but it's a more efficient backup to have in your possession. Restoring a computer backup is much quicker than restoring via iCloud.
Backing Up Your iPhone to iCloud
Once enabled, iCloud backups take place automatically when your phone is connected to power, online via Wi-Fi (or cellular data if you choose), and not currently in use. For most people, this means backups take place overnight while your device charges.
Your initial iCloud backup will take a while since your iPhone has to upload everything to the server. It's not unusual for this process to take several days, depending on your connection speed and amount of data. Future backups only transfer new or modified data, so they take relatively little time.
iCloud backups cover the following:
- App data
- Apple Watch backups
- iOS settings
- Your Home screen and app layout
- Messages content (including both iMessage and SMS texts)
- Photos and videos
- Your purchase history from all Apple services
- Ringtones
- Visual voicemail password
Backing up your iPhone to iCloud doesn't back up your contacts, calendars, bookmarks, Notes, Reminders, Voice Memos, shared photos, and iCloud Photo Library. These are already stored in iCloud, so there's no need to back them up. You can also choose to store data from Mail, Health, iCloud Drive, and your call history in iCloud, so this information isn't backed up either.
Keep in mind that while backups include your purchase history for media like music, movies, and books, they don't back up the actual content. When you restore a backup, your phone will redownload the apps you had on your old device from the App Store. But if an app is no longer available, you can't reinstall it.
If you ever stop using iCloud backup, your final backup is stored for 180 days before it's deleted.
Backing Up to iTunes or Finder
You make computer backups of your iPhone using the iTunes app on Windows or Finder on a Mac. Although you can back up wirelessly provided both the computer and iPhone are on the same network, it's faster and more reliable to use a Lightning cable instead.
Starting with macOS Catalina, iTunes is no longer available on Mac. After connecting your iPhone via a USB cable, you'll find the familiar iPhone management panel in Finder's left sidebar under Locations. From there, you can back up following the instructions below.
On Windows, or a Mac running macOS Mojave or earlier, you'll back up using iTunes instead.
These backups work in much the same way as iCloud: the initial backup is huge and takes a while, but future backups won't take as long to complete. The biggest problems with relying on iTunes/Finder backups are remembering to initiate the backup, and having enough storage on your computer to accommodate everything on your iPhone.
If you rarely connect your iPhone to your computer, you'll need to get into the habit of doing so for this backup type. Otherwise, if something happens, your latest backup could be weeks or months old.
Backing up to a computer includes "almost all of your device's data and settings," according to Apple. Here's what it does not include:
- Content from the App Store and iTunes Store, along with any PDFs you downloaded into Apple Books
- Anything you synced from Finder/iTunes, like imported MP3s or videos
- Data already stored in iCloud, like iCloud Photos and iMessage texts
- Face ID/Touch ID options
- Apple Pay data
- Mail files
If you want to back up your info from Activity, Health, and Keychain, you'll need to make an encrypted backup. We'll see how to do this below.
Note that backing up your iPhone to iTunes or Finder is not the same as syncing it to iTunes. Backing up makes a copy of your files for safekeeping. Syncing makes sure that the music, shows, photos, and other media you have stored in iTunes is the same as what's on your iPhone.
How to Back Up Your iPhone With iCloud
There's a good chance you already have iCloud backup enabled on your device, but it's easy to check. Here's how:
- Unlock your iPhone and open Settings.
- Tap your name at the top of the screen, followed by iCloud.
- In the list of apps using iCloud, you can see what's already storing its data in the cloud. Tap the iCloud Backup option once you've reviewed these.
- Make sure the iCloud Backup slider is On. Take note of any warnings about iCloud storage space and when your last backup happened. Depending on your carrier and device, you may also have the option to Back Up Over Cellular here.
- Tap Back Up Now to force your iPhone to initiate a backup. If you'd rather, you can wait until later when your phone is online, charging, and locked.
If you see a message that says your iPhone cannot be backed up because there you don't have enough iCloud storage available, you'll need to upgrade your plan. Apple only provides 5GB for free, which doesn't go very far.
Head back to the iCloud menu and at the top, you'll broadly see what's taking up space. Choose Manage Storage to get a more detailed overview of how much iCloud storage your apps are using; select one to manage and delete its data. Chances are that you'll need to hit Change Storage Plan to purchase more, though.
If you don't keep a lot of photos, videos, or games, then the 50GB plan for $1/month will probably suffice. If you want to back up more than one device or have a ton of data, the 200GB plan for $3/month will probably work better for you. Thanks to iCloud+, you can share storage with Apple Family Sharing, ensuring that the extra space won't go to waste.
To customize what your device backs up to iCloud, go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups. Tap a device and you'll see all the items it's backing up to iCloud. Toggle an app's slider Off to exclude it and save some space.
How to Back Up Your iPhone to iTunes or Finder
If you're upgrading your iPhone to a new model and don't want to wait for a full iCloud backup, backing up to your PC is the quickest way to get up and running.
To make a backup in iTunes or Finder:
- Download and open iTunes for Windows or open it on your Mac. If you're on macOS Catalina or newer, open Finder instead.
- Plug in your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
- In iTunes, click on the device icon in the top-left corner of the window when it appears (see below), then select your device from the list if needed. In Finder, select your phone under Locations on the left sidebar.
- On the Summary tab, click Back Up Now and wait for the process to complete.
If you enable the Encrypt iPhone backup option, you will have to provide a password to encrypt this sensitive information. Encrypting your backup means you retain all your saved passwords, data in Health, website and call history, and Wi-Fi network information. If you don't encrypt the backup, this information is not included.
Keep in mind that if you lose this encryption password, you cannot restore your backup. Be sure to keep it somewhere safe, like in a password manager, so you don't lose access to your backup.
If you use a laptop or other computer with limited storage space, it might not be possible to make a local backup. In this case, consider purchasing an external storage drive to gain more space.
What's the Best Backup Solution for iPhone?
Any backup is better than no backup. We think iCloud is superior because it backs up without you having to think about it. A few dollars per month is a small price to protect irreplaceable photos and preferences that could take hours to restore.
If you can't pay for iCloud storage, then make sure to create regular iTunes/Finder backups instead. For ultimate peace of mind, you should back up to iCloud regularly as well as make periodic computer backups in case of emergency.
In addition, there are many other iPhone apps that let you protect your photos in the cloud.