Yes, of course you want to save your iPhone – as we all know, despite phone cases and Gorilla Glass and careful engineering, a disaster – in the form of cracked screens, of lost devices and three-year-olds who think it's fun to sit on your last phone — it can happen. When this happens, you want all your data backed up.
The easiest way is to back up using iCloud, which is not only easy to set up, but also allows you to set up a new phone if your old one is no longer available. (You can also back up to other services, such as Google Drive, but it's not as convenient.) Or, if you're a privacy-conscious iPhone user, you can back up your iPhone to your computer Mac or Windows and retain full control of your data backups.
Here's how to back up to iCloud or your laptop/desktop.
Backup to iCloud
- Tap "Settings"> [your name] top button> "iCloud"> "iCloud Backup".
- If "iCloud Backup" is disabled, enable it. If it's already enabled and you're preparing to erase your old iPhone, you can tap "Back Up Now" just in case.
Save to your desktop
- Connect your phone to your computer using its charging cable.
- Launch iTunes if you're using Windows or a Mac with macOS 10.14 or earlier; use the Finder on a Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina or later.
If you're using the Finder, open a Finder window (by clicking the Finder icon in your dock or selecting "File"> "New Finder Window" from the top menu bar from Finder), and find your iPhone on the left side. hand menu under "Locations".
- In iTunes, you should see a small iPhone icon in the upper left corner; select that. (If you don't see it, you may need to authorize your system. Go to the top menu of iTunes and select "Account"> "Permissions"> "Authorize this computer..." and follow the instructions.)
- After that, the process for iTunes or Finder is much the same, although the appearance of the pages and the language are slightly different.
- If this is your first time doing this, when you click on the phone icon, you may be asked if you trust the phone, first on the computer, then on the phone itself.
- Beginners may also be asked if you want to set up your phone as a new device or restore it from a previous backup. In this case, select the first one.
- Select the "General" tab at the top and find the category titled "Backups". Select "This Computer" (in iTunes) or "Back up all your iPhone data to your Mac" (in Finder).
- You are going to want to encrypt your backup for added security. Check "Encrypt iPhone Backup" (in iTunes) or "Encrypt Local Backup" (in Finder) and enter a password. Do not lose this password; otherwise, you will lose access to your data.
- Once encryption is set, the backup will likely start automatically. Otherwise, click "Back Up Now".
If you need to restore your backup, just go to the same page and click "Restore Backup..."
Note that you can either manually back up your iPhone or have it backed up automatically every time you connect it to your computer. Find "Options" just below the "Backups" section and select "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected".
Once you've set up your backup on your computer, you may want to delete any backups you've made to iCloud.
To do this on your Mac:
- Click on the Apple icon in the top corner of your system.
- Select "System Preferences"> "Internet Accounts"> "iCloud".
- Select the "Manage" button in the lower right corner of the window, then "Backups".
- Select a backup to delete, click the minus icon at the bottom left of the window and select "Delete". This will both delete all your backups from iCloud and disable all other backups.
To do it on your iPhone:
- Go to "Settings" and tap your name.
- Select "iCloud"> "Manage Storage"> "Backups".
- Press "Delete Backup".
- Tap "Disable and Remove".
And you're done!
Update September 15, 2021 10:20 am ET: This article was originally published on January 23, 2020 and has been updated to add instructions for updating with iCloud and to update other instructions.
