Understand How iCloud Backup Works

Backups are as important on an iOS device as on your computer—after all, your iOS device stores lots of crucial personal data, not to mention photos and videos that may be irreplaceable. If it ever dies or needs replacing, backups can also save you time and aggravation.

But backing up an iOS device is a different sort of process from backing up a Mac or PC. Because iOS devices have no browsable file system (the Files app notwithstanding) and each app is sandboxed—prevented from interacting with other apps’ data—conventional backup methods are out. One way to back up your iOS device is to connect it to your Mac or PC via Wi-Fi or with a USB cable, select the device in iTunes, and click Back Up Now.

But with iCloud, you can back up over Wi-Fi directly to Apple’s servers. This means:

• You can back up your data while traveling or otherwise away from your computer—or even if you have no Mac or PC at all.

• You can restore an iOS device—for example, one whose data was corrupted, or that had its data wiped as part of a repair—or set up a new device to use your existing data without a computer.

• As with iTunes backups, when you back up via iCloud, only the first backup copies all your personal data. Subsequent backups upload only information that’s new or different since last time, making iCloud backups faster on subsequent backup runs (if not quite as fast as iTunes backups).

For all these reasons, I generally recommend using iCloud Backup. But, as I said in About iCloud Storage, backups can consume lots of space. To solve this problem, you can buy more storage, limit which types of data are backed up (as I describe ahead), or delete old backups. But if you’re short on space and unwilling to buy more, you might stick with iTunes-based backups.

What does iCloud Backup back up, anyway? It covers the following:

• The photos and videos you’ve taken on your iOS device—located in Camera Roll unless you’ve enabled iCloud Photo Library, in which case they’re in All Photos

• Photo albums you’ve created on the iOS device (but not those synced from your computer, because they’re already “backed up” on that computer)

• Documents and settings for all your apps, including Health (on an iPhone)

• All account data and iOS settings (including those configured in the Settings app, HomeKit configuration, and your Home screen and folder organization)

• Conversations in the Messages app (iMessage, SMS, and MMS)—but only if you have not turned on Messages in the Cloud

• Your call history

• Ringtones

• Apple Watch backups

• Your purchase history from Apple

• Your Visual Voicemail password

This list doesn’t include anything that’s already stored in the cloud thanks to some other aspect of iCloud—purchased music, TV shows, movies, apps, and books; plus your contacts, calendars, reminders, email, notes, bookmarks, and any documents handled by iCloud Drive.

Activate and Configure iCloud Backup

To set up iCloud Backup for your iOS device, follow these steps:

1. Turn on iCloud Backup in either of the following ways:

   • In iTunes, select your iOS device. Click Summary, and then, in the Backups section, select iCloud and click Apply. (You can do this if the device is connected via USB or if you’ve enabled Wi-Fi Sync and the device is on the same network as your computer.)

   • On your iOS device, tap Settings > Your Name > iCloud > iCloud Backup, and turn on iCloud Backup. Tap OK to confirm.

2. Optional but recommended: To immediately initiate your first backup manually, go to the Backup screen on your iOS device (as above) and tap Back Up Now.

Your initial backup may take several hours or more, but subsequent backups should be speedy. Backups occur automatically, once per day, when your iOS device is connected to power (whether an AC or DC adapter, a USB cable attached to a computer, or an external battery pack), has an active Wi-Fi connection, and is locked. In other words, other than backups you initiate by tapping Back Up Now, you’ll never see a backup in progress. You can see when your last backup occurred at the bottom of the Settings > Your Name > iCloud > iCloud Backup screen.

After your initial backup is complete, you can see how much space various types of data occupy, and you can selectively delete backups of individual data types:

1. Tap Settings > Your Name > iCloud. The screen (Figure 29, left) displays overall statistics for your iCloud account at the top.

   

2. Tap Manage Storage, and you’ll see something like the screen at the right in Figure 29, above. The Backup category indicates the total size of backups for all your iOS devices. Tap Backup to see how this breaks down by device. Tap the name of the device you’re holding to delete its entire backup or enable or disable backups of particular data types. To turn off future backups of a data type and delete existing backups of that data, turn the appropriate switch off and tap Delete to confirm.

Restore an iOS Device from a Backup

Let’s say you’ve backed up your iOS device to iCloud. Now, you want to restore that backup to a new device—or your device is missing crucial data and you want to restore that data from a backup. What do you do?

If you need to restore your data to a new iOS device, you’ll get a chance to select it while you set up the device. But restoring data to an existing device is not so obvious. Curiously, there’s no Restore button anywhere in the Settings app, and no obvious way to get your data back! Furthermore, restoring is an all-or-nothing affair: you must restore all your data from a backup—you can’t restore just your photos, or just data from a particular app.

To get your iOS device to a state where you can restore a backup, first, if possible, verify that you have a backup that you want to restore from, as described earlier in this chapter. The Summary pane in iTunes lists your latest backups to both iCloud and “this computer” in the Backups section, and you can check on iCloud backups on the device by tapping Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backup.

Now that you’ve confirmed that you have a backup to restore from, tap Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings, enter your passcode if prompted, and then tap Erase Device (twice) to confirm. (If Find My Device was active, you may also be prompted for your iCloud password.)

This resets your iOS device to “factory fresh” status. When you next turn it on—or if you’re setting up a new device—you’ll go through these steps:

1. Follow the prompts to answer a few questions, such as your default language, country, and Wi-Fi network (entering its password, if necessary), and Location Services preference.

2. Tap Restore from iCloud Backup.

3. Enter your Apple ID and password.

4. Tap the backup you want to restore (likely your most recent one), and tap Restore.

iCloud backups tend to be quite slow to restore (typically, much slower than restoring iTunes backups), so be prepared for a bit of a wait. After the backup has been downloaded, your device restarts and applies the backup. You’ll be able to use the device at this point, but re-downloading all your other data, such as apps, music, and photos, may take much longer.