How to backup an iPhone: back up iPhone contacts, photos and more

Make sure that all your precious photos, videos, and documents don’t get lost by following these simple steps to backing them up. We’ll show you how iCloud or iTunes could give you real peace of mind.

Our iPhones are probably one of the most important possessions we have. Putting aside the financial worth of each device, these little slabs of silicon and glass have become the central repositories for our memories, be they photographs of once-in-a-lifetime events or important documents. Making sure that all of this precious data is backed up somewhere is a crucial safeguard against theft, damage, or leaving our worlds behind on the backseat of a taxi. Then of course there’s the more joyous occasions of upgrading to a newer model and being able to transfer all of your data quickly and simply by using a backup.
Thankfully there are many ways to store your information on the web or your personal computer, all of which are free and easy to use. Apple’s iCloud service means your iPhone can constantly sync important data with web-based servers, and iTunes also offers a simple one-click backup facility. There are also several third-party services that offer a variety of options these days. As a safety precaution we recommend using at least two of available solutions, because if the worst happens and your backup is somehow corrupted, you’ll have another version available elsewhere.

How to backup an iPhone: Using iCloud

One of the simplest ways to backup the data on your iPhone is to use Apple’s own iCloud service. Each Apple ID has 5GB of storage available, in which you can store bookmarks, contacts, calendars, iCloud documents, mail message, notes, and your iCloud photo library. If you take lots of pictures and videos then you may need to upgrade the storage capacity, as it will fill up pretty quickly. At the moment Apple offers 20GB for £0.79 p/m, up to 1TB for £14.99 p/m. While iCloud backups are very handy, they’re best used in conjunction with iTunes, to cover all bases. iCloud backups are very easy to set up and once done they will automatically run in the background each time your device is plugged in and on a Wi-Fi connection.
To use iCloud backups you’ll need an iCloud account, which are usually created when you first setup your device. Read: How to get an Apple ID

On your iPhone go to Settings > iCloud > Backup and you’ll see the option to toggle on iCloud Backup. That’s it, you’re good to go. Now your phone will automatically look after your data without any need for you to get involved.

How to backup an iPhone: Using your PC and iTunes

Having a local backup is always a good idea, as it means you at least know that you have a copy that you control, rather than trusting to the all powerful cloud. Making a local backup is very easy thanks to that old favourite iTunes. Years ago you would have regularly plugged your iPhone into your PC to sync music, but with the advent of iTunes Match it’s maybe fallen a little out of favour. iTunes still remains a very useful piece of software though, and will give you a complete backup in a matter of minutes. Read our Guide to using iTunes Match.
First off, plug a connector cable into your Mac or PC and then your iPhone. In the top left hand corner, under the play controls, you’ll see a little icon of a phone appear, click this and you’ll be taken to the menu for your device. Ensuring that Summary is selected in the left hand column, you’ll now have three boxes in the main pane, the middle of which is entitled Backups.
There are two main sections - automatic and manual - and usually the iPhone is set to automatically backup to iCloud. If you prefer that each time you connect your phone to the PC it would immediately create a new, locally stored, backup, then click the ‘This computer’ option below. Moving over to the right hand side of the box there is the option to create a backup manually. Clicking the ‘Back Up Now’ button will do exactly that, with the length of time it takes dependant on how full your phone’s storage is at that moment. Next to this is the Restore from Backup option, which is where you would head if you wanted to reinstall everything after replacing your iPhone.
You may be asking yourself exactly what is included in the backup? Any photos currently on the device will be stored, as will contacts, calendar accounts, Safari bookmarks, notes, call history, profiles, and several other types of data. Apple has an extensive list of all the things contained in a backup, which you can read here.
The iTunes backup doesn’t make extra copies of any media files though, so films, music, and apps bought from iTunes will need to be downloaded again from the site or your PC.

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