It’s a good idea to keep regular backups of the data on your iPhone, just in case a disaster should befall your precious device. Doing so is easy, as we’ll show you with this quick guide on how to back up your iPhone. Should you wish to protect your iPad too, then you can use these steps to back that up too.
Be sure to use multiple backups
Before beginning, you should know that we always recommend creating multiple backups through various methods to ensure that your data is truly safe. If you use just one, then any problems with that file could leave you without the very things you hoped to preserve. We’ll outline a few different options below, so pick at least two to be on the safe side.
Create a backup with iCloud
The simplest route to backing up your iPhone is by using Apple’s iCloud storage service. All users get 5GB of space for free, but if you’re hoping to copy all the files on your device, and especially if you take a lot of photos or videos, then that won’t get you very far.
At the moment Apple offers larger capacities for the following prices;
- 50GB – £0.79/$0.99
- 200GB – £2.49/$2.99
- 2TB – £6.99/$9.99
Should you choose to opt for this option then you can move to the higher tier by going to Settings > [Your account name] > iCloud > Manage Storage. You’ll now be able to select either Buy More Storage or Change Storage Plan then move to the one that suits your needs.
With the capacity increased it’s now time to create an actual backup. Go to Settings and tap on your account name at the top of the screen. When you first set up your iPhone you would have also created an iCloud account, so this should be in place without your needing any additional steps.
Select iCloud > iCloud Backup then enable the iCloud Backup option. This should create a new backup.
Using iTunes on a Windows PC
Apple has discontinued iTunes on Mac with the release of macOS Catalina, but if you have a Windows 10 PC, you can create a backup with iTunes and keep it stored on the hard drive. To do this, open iTunes (or download and install it from the Apple site), then plug your iPhone into the PCs USB port.
You should see the iPhone appear in the top left-hand corner by the play controls. Click this to open the device menu, then select Summary in the column on the left. In the main pane you’ll find a box entitled Backups. Within this is the choice to either Automatically Back Up or Manually Back Up and Restore, and there are further options for either method.
Using the Automatic route will mean that each time you plug your iPhone into the PC and run iTunes, it will create a backup. You’ll want to choose the This computer option to ensure the backup is stored locally on your PC. Of course, if you want to create a one-off then click the Back Up Now button in the Manual section.
You don’t have to use Apple’s software to complete this process, as there are also third-party backup solutions available. These include DearMob iPhone Manager, among others. To see how the software works, read How to back up your iPhone on Windows 10 without iTunes.
Using Third-party software
Due to the nature of cloud services, it’s actually quite simple to have much of your data stored away from your iPhone. For notes and documents there’s Microsoft’s OneDrive or Google Drive, the first of which offers 5GB of free storage and the latter 15GB.
Google Photos also offers unlimited free storage of HD images and videos so long as they are either 16MP or 1080p formats. This is a particularly useful way to have another place where the items that usually take up the most space on your device are kept.
Again, Google comes to the rescue for Contacts, albeit with a little help from apps like Contacts Sync for Google Mail that can move all the ones currently on your iPhone and copy them to your Google account.
Remember all purchases made on Apple Music, iTunes, or the App Store can all be downloaded again without the need for backups, so there’s no need to find a method for them. For more ways to keep files safe, take a look at our Best cloud storage 2020 roundup.