A Quick Guide to iCloud and iTunes Backups for Your iPhone and iPad

Apple recently released the newest edition of their iPhone, boasting a new storage capacity option of 1TB. That’s a big upgrade for anyone looking to get the latest version, and all that extra space is sure to be filled up quickly with app data, photos, videos, and more. You wouldn’t want to accidentally lose any of that important data, so it’s important to make sure you treat backups for your phone with as much consideration as you do for your computer. Not only that, but software upgrades can also have the potential to wreak data havoc, so keeping consistent data backups ensures all your iPhone data stays safe and secure in the cloud.

If you’re using iCloud Backup or iTunes to back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, read this post to understand how those backups work, and learn what else you can do to protect your data.

How to Back Up Your iPhone to iCloud

Apple has tried to make backing up less of a chore with iCloud Backup. This iOS feature lets your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch back up its contents to the cloud. If you’re looking for the most frictionless way to back up your devices, this is it. The nice thing about iCloud Backup is that you set it and forget it.

iCloud Backup happens automatically when your device is charging, locked, and is connected to Wi-Fi. Once you’ve configured your device for iCloud Backup, you should just be able to rely on the backups to happen periodically when you’re charging.

How to Use iCloud Backup on Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top, then choose iCloud.
3. Tap iCloud Backup.
4. Tap Back Up Now. Stay connected to Wi-Fi until the process ends.

How to Check Your iCloud Backup

Make sure to stay connected to your Wi-Fi network until the backup is done. Here’s how to check your backup’s progress:

Using iOS 11 or later and iPadOS:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top, then choose iCloud.
3. Tap Manage Storage.
4. Tap Backups.

Using iOS 10.3:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top, then choose iCloud.
3. Tap the graph that shows your iCloud usage, then tap Manage Storage.
4. Select your device. iOS will show you details about when it was last backed up, and the backup file size.

How Does iCloud Backup Work?

iCloud Backup lets you restore your device from almost anywhere. It also makes upgrading a breeze. When you set up a new iOS device, for example, the system will ask you if you want to restore from an iCloud backup.

There is a downside to iCloud Backup that you need to be aware of. It’s very dependent on a specific set of actions to work:

1. Your device needs to be connected to a power supply.
2. Your device needs a Wi-Fi connection (and needs to be connected to the internet).
3. Your device needs to be locked.
4. You need to have enough space in iCloud to store the backup.

This last item is the killer. Apple only gives you 5GB of free space with the basic iCloud account. If you have a lot of stuff on your iOS device or in the cloud, it’s trivially easy to exceed your free 5GB iCloud allowance, which means your backups won’t happen unless you pay Apple for additional iCloud space.

If you have both an iPhone and an iPad? Forget about it. You have to pay Apple or you won’t have enough space to back up both. iCloud storage ranges from 99 cents per month for 50GB to $9.99 a month for 2TB.

There’s another caveat, too. iCloud Backup doesn’t back up everything on your phone. Things that aren’t backed up include:

• Data that’s already in iCloud: Contacts, calendar appointments, notes, and photos, for example.
• Data stored on other cloud services. For example, Gmail, or Microsoft Exchange mail.
• Your Apple Pay info, and your Touch ID info (if your device is so equipped).
• Imported media files, like e-books, music, and videos you’ve acquired from services besides Apple Music, like Amazon or any content downloaded to your phone from your browser or an app.
• Any App Store content (that stuff is still available for re-download, it’s just an inconvenience to reload).

Most of this makes a lot of sense. Since data is already synced in iCloud and other cloud services, there’s no need to duplicate it in the backup. And as a matter of security, Apple Pay and Touch ID info shouldn’t be kept in a backup either—that info remains the sole domain of specialized hardware on compatible iOS devices called Secure Enclave.

As long as you understand the limits of iCloud Backup, it’s an enormously helpful tool that makes backup, recovery, and upgrading a lot easier.

There’s an alternative that doesn’t require you to buy any more space in iCloud and isn’t dependent on a network connection, either: backing up locally. To do that, you can use iTunes or Finder.

How to Back Up Your iPhone to a Computer

In 2019, Apple discontinued iTunes in its products, so it can no longer be used as a way to back up your phone on a Mac unless you’re running macOS Mojave or earlier. However, iTunes is still available for Windows PCs. The good news for Windows PC users is that you don’t need an internet connection, don’t have to pay for iCloud space, or any other shenanigans. All you’ll need is enough hard drive space to accommodate the backup.

To do this, you’ll have to physically connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC using its USB sync cable. You can also configure iTunes to allow backups over Wi-Fi.

How to Back Up an iPhone to iTunes

Using a Windows PC:

1. Connect your iOS device to the PC you normally sync with, and connect using a USB or USB-C cable or a Wi-Fi connection. You can learn how to turn on Wi-Fi syncing here.
2. Double-click iTunes.
3. You should see an icon for your device appear in the menu bar on the upper left side of the iTunes window. Click on it.
4. Click Back Up Now to begin backing up your iOS device to your computer. If you want to include account passwords, Health and HomeKit data, you’ll need to make sure the checkbox entitled Encrypt iPhone backup is also checked.
5. To see the backups stored on your computer, choose Edit, then Preferences, then click Devices. You will see encrypted backups shown with a lock icon in the list of backups.

Using MacOS Mojave or earlier:

1. Open iTunes and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
2. If you are asked for your device passcode or to Trust This Computer, follow the onscreen steps.
3. Select your device on your computer.
4. Click Back Up Now.
5. When the process ends, you’ll see that the backup finished successfully because you’ll be shown the date and time of your last backup.

As with iCloud backup, there are a few limitations you should be aware of with iTunes backup. Some information isn’t backed up, by design:

• Content from iTunes and App Stores, or PDF files downloaded to iBooks.
• Imported music synced from iTunes on the computer, videos, books, and photos.
• Photos already stored in the cloud via iCloud Photo Library and My Photo Stream.
• Touch ID and Apple Pay settings.
• Activity, Health, and Keychain data (passwords), unless you select “Encrypt iPhone backup.”

Again, most of these limitations make sense—you can re-sync the content you need and some stuff needs to be excluded as a matter of security.

Once you’re done, iTunes maintains a copy of that backup, which you can restore if you ever need to. You can read about how to restore from a backup in the section below.

The added benefit from connecting your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC using iTunes is that when you back up that Mac or PC, you will also back up the contents from your iPhone or iPad.

How to Back Up an iPhone to a Mac

1. Using macOS Catalina or later, open a Finder window and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
2. If you’re asked for your device passcode or to Trust This Computer, follow the onscreen steps.
3. Select your device on your computer.
4. If you’d like to back up the Health and Activity data from your device or Apple Watch, you need to encrypt your backup by selecting the “Encrypt local backup” checkbox, which will require you to create a password.
5. Select Back Up Now.
6. When the process ends, you’ll see that the backup finished successfully because you’ll be shown the date and time of your last backup.

How to Back Up iPhone Contacts

To create a backup of your iPhone Contacts, your device needs to be connected to Wi-Fi.

1. First, go to Settings.
2. Tap your name at the top, then tap iCloud.
3. Tap the slider for Contacts to switch it on.
4. If prompted, merge your contacts with iCloud.
5. Tap the iCloud Backup app at the bottom of the list and switch it on.
6. Tap Back Up Now.

What About iOS Backup Apps?

Instead of using iCloud or iTunes, you can use backup apps to back up the data on your iOS device. These types of apps can be helpful, but are usually limited to backing up your photos and your contact list. Other information, such as application data, game data, texts, voicemails, etc., is not typically backed up by these apps. The most comprehensive way to back up and restore the data on your iPhone is to use either iCloud or iTunes, or both.

The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Ideally, you should use both iCloud backups and periodic computer backups to make sure you have at least two ways to restore your iPhone or your iPad if you need to. And if you’re a Backblaze Computer Backup user, all the better. Backblaze backs up the contents of the system directory where your backups are kept, so if you’re using iTunes or Finder and Backblaze, you can be sure your iPhone data is safe.

Here’s the bottom line when it comes to your mobile device’s data: You don’t want to take any chances. Make sure to have at least two backups: One local, through iTunes or Finder, and one in the cloud—either with iCloud Backup or using Backblaze.

The combination of iCloud backups, iTunes or Finder backups, and Backblaze provides you with a foolproof way to keep your mobile data safe and sound. For more on how to keep your data safe, read about the 3-2-1 backup strategy, which we think is the best way to make sure your data is safe.

How to Restore Your iPhone From a Backup

In case of data loss, or if you’d like to have the data you backed up from an old iPhone on a new one, you can restore your data backup to your device. Depending on the method you used to back up your device data, there are a few different options for restoring from a PC or Mac running macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, a backup from a Mac running macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, or an iCloud backup.

How to Restore Data From a PC or Mac With macOS Mojave 10.14 or Earlier

1. Open iTunes and connect your device to your computer with a USB cable.
2. If you’re asked for your device passcode or to Trust This Computer, follow the onscreen steps.
3. You should see an icon for your device appear in the menu bar on the upper left side of the iTunes window. Click on it.
4. Click on Summary, then click on Restore Backup.
5. Look at the date of each backup and pick the one you want to restore from.
6. Select Restore and wait for the restore time to finish. If prompted, enter the password for your encrypted backup.
7. Keep your device connected until after it restarts and syncs with your computer. Once the sync is done, you can disconnect your device.

To restore data from a Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or later, follow the same steps above in Finder.

How to Restore Data From an iCloud Backup

To restore from an iCloud backup, you need to erase all of its content if you have already set up the device, or start from a new device before you can use these steps.

1. First, switch on your device.
2. Follow the setup steps until you get to the Apps & Data screen, then choose Restore from iCloud Backup.
3. Sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID.
4. Select a backup. Once you choose a backup, the data transfer starts.
5. Once prompted, sign in with your Apple ID to restore your apps and purchases. You won’t be able to use your apps until you sign in.
6. Keep your device connected to your Wi-Fi network and wait for a progress bar to appear and complete the data transfer. Depending on how much data you have to back up as well as your network speed, it might take a few minutes to an hour to complete. If you disconnect from your Wi-Fi network before it finishes, the data transfer will pause until you reconnect.

Keep Your iPhone Data Safe in the Cloud

Hopefully this has helped demystify what iCloud Backup and iTunes are doing to keep your mobile data safe, and what else you can do to make sure you’re protected. Still confused? Have a question? Or, do you use a different strategy that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.