Why backup your iPhone?
Backing up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is essential to safeguard your photos, messages, and other precious data. Whether upgrading devices or recovering from unexpected data loss, regular backups ensure you're always prepared.
This guide covers four easy ways to back up your device and explains the benefits of each method.
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1. Selectively backup iPhone data to your computer
For full control over which of your iPhone data is backed up to your computer, we recommend the TouchCopy software. It offers an intuitive interface, as well as the ability to backup individual photos, contacts, messages etc.
It can even save content which is not backed up by the other methods in this guide, like music and books!
TouchCopy lets you browse your device's data on your PC or Mac and select what to copy. Whether you're transferring music, saving messages as PDFs, or printing them, TouchCopy can do it all. Here's how to get started:
- Download TouchCopy on your computer and run it.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer using a USB cable.
- Browse your iPhone data using the tabs in TouchCopy.
- Select the data you want to back up to your PC or Mac, and copy it!
For certain sections like Messages, Contacts and Call Logs, TouchCopy needs to read from a backup of your device. Unlike the other methods in this guide, TouchCopy can back up to an external drive. So, if you don't have enough space on your computer to store a full backup, you can still make a backup with TouchCopy.
Summary (TouchCopy):
- ✔ Stores files on your PC or Mac
- ✔ Can save all file types, including music and videos
- ✔ Store data up to your computer's available space
- ✔ Transfer only what you need to your computer
- ✔ Full control of what is transferred between iPhone and computer
- ✔ Ability to choose where you back up your device to
- ✔ Popular and Trusted software
2. Backup iPhone to iCloud
iCloud backups store your iPhone data in the cloud, saving computer space and enabling access from anywhere with internet access, provided you have your Apple ID. You can even set up automatic iCloud backups for whenever your iPhone is connected to power, locked and on Wi-Fi - so you don't have to worry about doing it manually.
The downsides here are that you only get 5GB of free iCloud storage space. If you need more, you'll have to pay for it. It is also worth noting that iCloud backups do not contain your music, playlists and other audio / video content, and you can't access iCloud backups to selectively copy out specific songs, messages etc.
What does an iCloud backup include?
Here's how to back up iPhone with iCloud...
- Open "Settings" from the app screen on your iPhone.
- Tap your username entry and then choose "iCloud".
- Then, tap "iCloud Backup" and turn on "Back Up This iPhone".
Summary (iCloud):
- ✔ Stores backups in iCloud
- ✔ 5GB free storage (payment needed for more)
- ✔ Encrypted backups
- ✔ Create and use backups over Wi-Fi
- ✔ Able to use backup to restore to iPhone
3. Backup iPhone using iTunes or Apple Devices
Backing up with iTunes or the Apple Devices app is similar to the iCloud backup, in that you can use the backup to restore the snapshot to your iPhone. The difference here is that the iPhone backup will be stored on your computer, rather than in the cloud- so you don't have to worry about paying for extra space, but you won't be able to access the backup over Wi-Fi on another computer.
- Launch iTunes or the Apple Devices app on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone.
- If using iTunes, click your device icon to access your device summary.
- Apple Devices will automatically take you to the device summary.
- Select "Backup all of the data on your iPhone to this computer".
- Optionally, tick "Encrypt local backup" to protect the backup with a password.
- Under "Backups" click "Back Up Now".
Backups made in iTunes or the Apple Devices app contain most of your device's content as detailed by Apple. Data that is not saved includes data synced by iTunes (like imported music, videos and books) and content synced with iCloud (like iCloud Photos). This data can be selectively saved by to your computer as described in the previous section.
Extra: Find out where iTunes stores your backups.
Summary (iTunes / Apple Devices):
- ✔ Stores backups on PC or Mac
- ✔ Optional backup encryption
- ✔ Create and use backups on your PC or Mac
- ✔ Able to use backup to restore to iPhone
4. Backup using Finder on macOS Catalina and higher
Our final method covers those of you who are using macOS Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma or Sequoia. As you may have noticed, iTunes has now been replaced with the Music app on systems running macOS Catalina and newer. As such, the steps to back up your iPhone have changed slightly.
Rather than using iTunes to back up your iPhone, you'll now need to use the Finder app. Here's how it's done:
- Launch Finder on your Mac.
- Connect your iPhone.
- Select your device from the list.
- Choose "Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac".
- Optionally, tick "Encrypt local backup" to protect the backup with a password.
- Click "Back Up Now".
Extra: Find the location of your Finder backups.
You can also choose to back up your iPhone to iCloud from here. To do this, simply choose "Back up your most important data on your iPhone to iCloud" before clicking "Back Up Now".
Note: If you wish to save Health and Activity data from your device, you'll need to encrypt your backup. To do this, click the "Encrypt device backup" checkbox. You'll be prompted to set a password to protect your encrypted backup. Make sure you keep your password safe, as you'll need this to access or recover your encrypted backup.
Summary (Finder):
- ✔ Stores backups on Mac
- ✔ Optional backup encryption
- ✔ Create and use backups on your PC or Mac
- ✔ Able to use backup to restore to iPhone
Extra: How do I restore my new iPhone from backup?
If you are getting a new iPhone and you want to transfer your data from your old one, you can do so with a backup of your old device.
Setting up your new iPhone with your backup means that your new iPhone will have all your music, photos, messages and other app data right from the off!
To do this, back up your old iPhone to iCloud, Apple Devices, iTunes or Finder using the methods above. Then, when setting up your new iPhone, on the "Apps & Data" screen, choose to Restore from your iCloud or iTunes backup.
For more information, see Apple's guide on how to set up your new iPhone from a backup.
Takeaways
As you can see, it's super important to regularly back up your iPhone - but it's easy to do, right?
You now have a choice of easy backup methods under your belt.
To sum up:
- use TouchCopy if you want complete control over what is backed up, as well as total access to the files you back up on your computer.
- use iCloud for easy, regular backups which are stored in iCloud. You can restore from these backups.
- use Apple Devices, iTunes or Finder on your computer to create local backups which you can restore from.
Publisher:Wide Angle Software
