How to back up your iPhone

It’s always a good idea to back up your iPhone. After you back up your iPhone, you have a copy of your information to use in case your device is ever replaced, lost, or damaged. Even better, there’s several ways you can do it.

The easiest way to back up your iPhone is through iCloud, but Apple’s online service does have its limits. You might see the dreaded "not enough iCloud storage" error message, which won’t allow you to back up, but don’t fret.

I’ll also walk you through backing up your iPhone to computer – both Mac and Windows, which don’t require cloud storage. And I’ll even show you how to troubleshoot and work around some of iCloud’s limits.

Back up iPhone using iCloud

iCloud backups store information and settings on your device that don’t regularly sync to iCloud. This includes things like device settings, Home Screen layout, and app organization.

You can back up your iPhone manually, or turn on iCloud Backup to automatically keep your device backed up.

Manually back up iPhone to iCloud

1. Connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi.
2. Go to Settings > [your name], and tap iCloud.
3. Tap iCloud Backup.
4. Tap Back Up Now.

Depending on how much data you have, or if this is your first time backing up to iCloud, the backup process could take a few minutes or an hour. Check below the Back Up Now button to see the exact time and date your phone was last backed up.

Automatically back up iPhone with iCloud Backup

iCloud automatically backs up your iPhone daily when iPhone is connected to power, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi.

1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and make sure that Back Up This iPhone is turned on.
2. Connect your iPhone to a power source.
3. Connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network.
4. Make sure that your iPhone’s screen is locked.

Note: On models that support 5G, your carrier may give you the option to back up iPhone using your cellular network. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup, then turn Back Up Over Cellular on.

‘This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage’

If that iCloud backup completed successfully, then great, you’re done. But I realize a lot of people won’t be able to back up to iCloud without a little work. You might see a message on your iOS device that says: "This iPhone cannot be backed up because there is not enough iCloud storage available."

Every iCloud account gets 5GB for free. But most people have more than 5GB of data on their phone — or they have more than one iOS device that needs backing up. Hence, 5GB just isn’t enough space. And maybe one day Apple will change its free tier to give us more data and make backing up easier for everyone. But until then, we need to do some calculations to optimize our iCloud accounts.

Figure out iCloud backup size

As I mentioned earlier, iCloud doesn’t back up every last thing on your phone. Instead, it takes a smart approach and won’t back up things that are synced with your internet accounts or that you’ve purchased with your iTunes Apple account. To figure out exactly how much iCloud space your backup file will take, go to Settings, tap on your name and then go to iCloud > Storage > Backups. There’s a list of devices that are backing up or trying to back up with your account.

By the way, if you see multiple backups of the same phone, take a look at how old each one is. You might have an older iPhone backup that you can delete to open up iCloud space. Once you’re done purging this list, tap on the name of the device you’re currently using.

Give your phone a few moments to load the information, then look at the top of the screen. You should see the following details: Last Backup, Backup Size and Next Backup Size. If you haven’t backed up your iPhone to iCloud before or in a long time, the Next Backup Size will be a pretty huge amount of data. Obviously, if it’s more than 5GB, you must either buy more storage or adjust what you’re backing up.

Change what gets backed up to iCloud

Lower on the screen under Next Backup Size is a list where you can Choose Data to Back Up. This list will have apps and how much data each has to back up. The list goes from what takes up the most space to the least. If you just need a slightly smaller backup file, uncheck larger data items from the list if you don’t mind whether or not they’re backed up.

If all you wanted to back up was your camera roll, the only setting you’d need to toggle would be iCloud Photos. Besides Photos, there is a list of every other iCloud-enabled app on your iPhone, starting with Apple’s own apps. Besides Photos, the two biggest data hogs using your iCloud storage tend to be Mail and Messages. If you turn off the iCloud backup settings for these two apps however, old messages won’t be restored in case you get a new phone.

See also: My iPhone Won’t Backup To iCloud! Here’s How to Fix it!

Buy more iCloud storage with iCloud Plus

This is the part no one likes to do, but Apple does offer four price tiers for storage: the free 5GB, $1-per-month 50GB, $3-per-month 200GB or $10-per-month 2TB plans. For even more space, iCloud Plus is getting two more options that gives you the option to buy 6TB or 12TB storage plans for $30 per month and $60 per month, respectively. (Note, Apple doesn’t have annual pricing.)

I realize that the idea of paying Apple more money on top of what we already spend on devices, accessories and AppleCare may not sit well. But if you lost your iPhone and were told you could download a backup of all of the data from your lost phone for just $36, you’d probably say yes. And that’s how much the 200GB extra storage plan on iCloud costs for a year. (If you need more space than that, well, it does get a bit spendier.)

Back up iPhone using your Mac

You can save a backup of your iPhone on your Mac.

1. Connect iPhone and your computer with a cable.
2. In the Finder sidebar on your Mac, select your iPhone.
   To use the Finder to back up iPhone, macOS 10.15 or later is required. With earlier versions of macOS, use iTunes to back up iPhone.
3. At the top of the Finder window, click General.
4. Select "Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac."
5. To encrypt your backup data and protect it with a password, select "Encrypt local backup."
6. Click Back Up Now.

. Depending on how much data you have, this could take a while.

Back up iPhone using your Windows device

1. Connect iPhone and your computer with a cable.
2. In the iTunes app on your PC, click the iPhone button near the top left of the iTunes window.
3. Click Summary.
4. Click Back Up Now (below Backups).
5. To encrypt your backups, select "Encrypt local backup," type a password, then click Set Password.

. After some time, your computer will have a backup file of your iPhone. To double-check the file, go to the iTunes menu, select Edits, then Preferencesand then choose the Devices tab. From there, you can see a list of any iPhone backups that you’ve made via iTunes. Encrypted backups have a lock icon in the list of backups.

Keep in mind that your backup is only as current as the last time you ran the process. Also, your backup file is only as safe as your computer is.