In this guide, we will show you how to backup your iPhone or iPad to iCloud, Mac or Windows PC.
Why Back Up Your iPhone or iPad
Backing up your iPhone or iPad ensures the safety of your data, settings, game progress, and more, and you have the option to restore them after you delete your data from your device or buy a new one. Having a device backup is useful in the following cases:
- When you move to a new iPhone or iPad, having a backup of your old iPhone allows you to restore it during setup. As a result, all your important data is transferred to the new device.
- The iPhone can run into problems and sometimes the only solution is to wipe the device. Once it is erased, all data will be gone. Having a backup copy allows you to restore significant data.
- If you try a beta version of iOS software and want to downgrade at some point, having an archival backup can help you get your important data back.
What’s Included in iPhone and iPad Backups
Device backups include app data, settings, home screen and app organization, messages, ringtones, visual voicemail password, and more.
Note. Backups do not include items that are already downloaded and stored in iCloud, such as iCloud Photos, music, contacts, calendar events, messages, voice memos, and more. Also, Apple Pay information and settings, Face ID, or Touch ID settings, such as face data or fingerprints, are not part of your device’s backup.
What will stay the same even if you don’t back up your iPhone?
Even if you don’t back up your iPhone but support iCloud for Photos, Drive, Passwords & Keychain, Notes, Messages, Health, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Wallet, and other apps, their data will remain safe. Whenever you sign in to a new or erased Apple device and sign in with your Apple ID, you get all of this important data.
Similarly, Apple apps like Books, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, iMovie, Compass, Find My, Maps, Shazam, Voice Memos, Shortcuts, Watch, etc. can store your projects and other important data in iCloud. They also remain safe whether you back up your iPhone or not.
Finally, just like Apple apps, third-party apps can access iCloud and store their data there. For example, WhatsApp can safely back up your chats to iCloud. So if you ever uninstall and reinstall the WhatsApp app or set up WhatsApp on another iPhone, you have the option to restore your chats and media.
Where can you backup your iPhone or iPad?
You can back up to iCloud (via Wi-Fi or cellular data) or to a Mac or Windows PC using Finder or iTunes.
Should you back up to iCloud or to a computer?
iCloud backup is undeniably easy and happens automatically in the background. Also, iCloud backups are always encrypted. However, you only get 5GB of online storage with each Apple ID, and device backups can fill that up quickly. Second, you need an internet connection to back up to iCloud.
Backup to Mac or PC has no memory limit as long as there is enough free space on your computer’s hard drive. With this, you do not need an internet connection. However, you need to manually connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with a cable, or connect them to the same Wi-Fi for wireless backup (more on that later). Finally, computer backups can be encrypted, but encryption is disabled by default (we’ll show you how to enable it below).
Back up your iPhone or iPad
In iCloud
- Open the Settings app and tap your name on the top.
- Tap iCloud.
- Select iCloud Backup.
- Turn on the switch to backup this iPhone.
- Click “Back Up Now”and the backup of your device will begin.
- Even if you don’t click Back Up Now, you can exit this screen and have your iPhone automatically back up when it connects to Wi-Fi and charges with the screen locked.
Important points:
- Do you see an error message saying you don’t have enough iCloud space to complete your backup? In this case, free up iCloud storage or upgrade to iCloud+.
- If you bought a new iPhone or iPad, Apple offers unlimited free iCloud storage for about three weeks so you can easily create a full iCloud backup of your old iPhone and restore it to your new device.
- iCloud also offers the convenience of backing up only certain apps and excluding the rest. This results in a significantly smaller backup file size, which is great if you’re on the free 5GB iCloud tier. Also, recovery is faster when setting up a new device.
- If your iCloud backup fails for reasons you don’t know, read our separate guide that addresses such issues.
- Finally, if you don’t have Wi-Fi access, you can back up using cellular data.
On Mac
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac using the appropriate USB cable.
- Open Finder and click the name of your iPhone or iPad in the left sidebar. If you can’t see it, wake up your iPhone and unlock it. If the issue persists, follow these solutions.
- Click Trust if you see it in Finder and enter your device passcode on your iPhone or iPad.
- Make sure you’re in the General section of your iPhone in Finder.
- Optional: On this screen, you can check the “Encrypt local backup”box and set a password that you must remember or write down in a safe place. You can also save it to iCloud Keychain. After that, you will need to enter your iPhone or iPad passcode on that device, after which the backup should start immediately. After you encrypt the backup, it will also include your saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings, website history, health data, activity data from your iPhone or Apple Watch, and call history. If you continue with unencrypted backups, the backup file will not contain these sensitive pieces of information.
- Finally, click “Back Up Now”.
Your Mac will take some time to back up your iPhone or iPad. You can see the status at the bottom of the screen. Once the backup is complete, you will see the date and time of this/your last backup.
Note. If your Mac is running macOS Mojave (released 2018) or earlier, you’ll need to use iTunes (see below).
Important points:
- Your Mac only keeps the latest iPhone or iPad backup. So when you make a new backup of the same device, the old one is deleted and replaced with this new one. This ensures that iOS or iPadOS backups don’t take up all of your Mac’s local space. However, if you archive a backup file, it remains separate and is not overwritten. Here’s when you should zip your backup file and how.
- iPhone backups can be huge! So, make sure you have enough free space on your Mac. Otherwise, you will see the error message “The iPhone could not be backed up because there is not enough free space on this Mac.”
- You can also back up your iPhone to an external drive.
- You can go all out and back up your iPhone to both iCloud and Mac. But of course, you will have to follow their respective steps individually.
On a Windows PC
- Download and install iTunes on your Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer. Get iTunes from Apple | Get iTunes from the Windows Store
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer with a USB cable.
- Open iTunes and trust your device if asked.
- Click the tiny icon for iPhone or iPad. You will see it in the top left corner of the iTunes screen.
- Make sure you are in the “Summary”section.
- You can encrypt the backup. Its benefits are described above.
- Finally, click “Back Up Now”and wait for it to complete.
Here’s how you can back up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud, Mac, or PC.
FAQ:
How to back up iPhone to computer wirelessly?
The first time you connect your iPhone via cable to your Mac, select the Show this iPhone when connected to a Wi-Fi network check box. After that, when your Mac and iPhone are on the same Wi-Fi network, your iPhone will show up in the left sidebar of Finder. Click on it and select “Backup Now”to back up your iPhone or iPad wirelessly on your computer.
Can you backup iPhone to iPad?
You cannot backup your iPhone to iPad. But you can sign in with the same Apple ID on both devices. After that, your contacts, reminders, photos, calendar events, etc. will appear on your iPhone as well as on your iPad.
How to stop backing up your iPhone or iPad?
If you no longer want to back up your iPhone to iCloud, go to Settings > your name > iCloud > iCloud Backup and turn off the “Back up this iPhone”toggle. After turning off iCloud backup, your latest iCloud backup file will be kept for 180 days. After that, it is removed.