How To Fully Backup Your iPhone On The Apple Cloud

Today’s iPhones have absolutely massive amounts of storage compared to the simple first and second-gerneation iPhones. The most common storage sizes are 128 Gigabytes and 256 Gigabytes, which is more storage than some computers! Needless to say, you can easily lose track of all of this information, especially if you have lots of pictures and videos stored on your device.

The best way to prevent yourself from losing track of your data or from losing everything if your iPhone or lost or stolen is to frequently backup your iPhone on Apple’s iCloud. The iCloud is a network of Apple servers that allow you to backup and store all of the information, app data, pictures, videos, etc. that’s stored on your phone or your other Apple devices.

If you’ve never backed up your iPhone before, then we’re about to give you an easy, step-by-step guide on how to fully backup your iPhone! Usually, we’d give you another VPN review or internet security-related topic, but several of our readers have been asking for an iPhone backup guide, so we decided that it was time to give it to you guys. Take a look!

How Often Should I Backup My iPhone?

Generally speaking, we recommend backing up your iPhone on a daily basis. After your initial full backup, your daily backups will be a lot quicker. The longer you wait between backups, the longer the backup will take, which can limit your phone usage. Also, the more time that passes between backups, the higher the risk of losing your unbacked up data.

What Information Gets Backed Up?

By default, your iPhone’s iCloud backup feature stores the following information:

Media (images, vidoes, downloads, etc.).
SMS messages.
App data.
Apple Watch settings and backup.
Purchase history on the App Store.
Ringtones.
Your home screen’s organizational layout.
Stored music on your iPhone.

As you can see, the iCloud automatically backs up pretty much every important piece of data on your iPhone that you could ever wish for.

Is It Safe To Store My Information In The Apple Cloud?

Yes! Apple’s iCloud is hands-down the safest place to backup your iPhone data. While you’re backing up your data, everything will be encrypted. Then, once the data is stored on an iCloud server, it will be protected with encryption to prevent any unauthorized access.

If you want to add an additional layer of protection, you can connect your iPhone to an iOS-compatible VPN service like IPVanish or NordVPN. This will add an extra layer of military-grade encryption to any files being transferred to your iCloud backup.

Can A VPN Interfere With My iPhone Backups?

For the most part, your VPN should not interfere with your iPhone/iCloud backups. Occasionally, however, VPNs can result in some connectivity problems or may not allow certain files to be backed up. This is more common if you’re connected to VPN servers that are located in foreign countries or the VPN connection itself is unreliable or experiencing issues.

If you are experiencing backup issues while using a VPN, then we suggest connecting to a VPN server that’s located in your country of residence. If it’s still not working, then you may want to temporarily disconnect your VPN or allow your iCloud app to bypass the VPN.

How To Fully Backup Your iPhone: Step-by-Step

So, now that you’re ready to backupy our iPhone, here’s how to go about the process. Luckily, it’s super-simple for iPhone users, as Apple is committed to making their devices some of the simplest, most seamless devices in the world.

1. Make Sure Your iPhone Is Connected To Your Apple ID: If you have a brand-new iPhone, then you’ll need to start by connecting iPhone to your Apple ID. This is usually done during the setup process, but may be delayed depending on your setup choices. Your Apple ID will handle the authentication process, allowing you to connect to your iCloud account.

2. Access Your Apple ID Settings: Now, click the ‘Settings’ icon from your home screen. Towards the top of the list, you’ll see your Apple ID. Click on this to open your settings list for your Apple ID.

3. Click The ‘iCloud’ Tab In The Menu: Now, click the menu item that says ‘iCloud’ to open up your iCloud backup options.

4. Turn On iCloud Backup: The first item on the ensuing menu will give you an option to turn iCloud backup on or off. When it’s turned on, your iPhone will automatically backup data to the iCloud every day, during the times you’re using your phone the least (usually late at night or early in the morning when you’re sleeping).

When iCloud backup is turned off, your iPhone will not automatically backup your phone and all iCloud backups will have to be handled manually.

5. Press ‘Backup Now’ and Stay Connected To Your Wi-Fi: To manually backup your iPhone to your iCloud server, simple press ‘Backup Now.’ As long as you’re connected to a working wi-fi network, your iPhone will begin performing a full backup of all of your data and media on the device.

If you aren’t connected to wi-fi or if your wi-fi isn’t working properly, then you be prompted to connect to a wi-fi network. iCloud won’t allow you to back up your iPhone over your cell phone data network as it’s not as fast, reliable, or secure.

Backing Up Your iPad

If you have an iPad as well, you can follow the same exact steps listed above to perform an iCloud backup of your iPad. For the most part, iPads feature the same user interface that iPhones do, so all of the settings and menu options should be in the same location.

Conclusion

As you can see, backing up your iPhone is fairly easy and straightforward! For security and easy of use, we generally recommend that users backup their iPhones automatically on a daily basis. This will ensure that even if the worst does happen (phone loss or theft), you won’t have to worry about losing valuable or sensitive data and media for good.