How to Back Up Your iPhone to iCloud, MacOS, or Windows (2026)

Courtesy of Apple

You can also manage previous backups from here and choose to sync different types of media to your computer while you’re at it.

iTunes is not dead yet. The service is still available on older OS versions, so you can still back up everything there. Here’s how:

1. Once you connect your phone to your Mac, open iTunes and click device The button at the top left of the iTunes window.
2. Click summary At the bottom of your iPhone.
3. He chooses Backup now Within backups. This creates a backup of everything on your iPhone, including all your app data, so you don’t have to sign in to all your accounts again. It also saves the order of your home screen, so you don’t have to drag a bunch of icons around.
4. If you want to encrypt your backups, click Encrypt your iPhone backup Type the password, then click Set password.

Pro Tip: New backups now replace old ones, but if you click… Manage backupsright-click on a backup, and then select archives-You can save multiple backups over time. Just dive into iTunes PreferencesClick on DevicesAnd click summary for your iPhone to see a list of every backup. As long as the person you need is there, you can hit him Restore the backup.

Backup to a Windows computer

You can also back up your iPhone to your Windows PC using iTunes. Here’s how:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Windows computer.
2. Open iTunes and click iPhone The button at the top left of the iTunes window.
3. Click summary.
4. He chooses Backup now Within backups.
5. If you want to encrypt your backups, click Encrypt your local backup Type the password, then click Set password.

How to turn on Wi-Fi sync

Maybe you don’t want to plug it in every time you back up files. Fortunately, you can turn on Wi-Fi syncing between your iPhone and computer with these steps:

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
2. On a Mac, open discoverer And select your iPhone in the sidebar. Click general at the top, then choose Show This iPhone when connected to a Wi-Fi network. On a Windows computer, open itunesClick iPhone button near the top left, then summaryAnd choose Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi in Options.
3. Click He advances.

Backup to other cloud services

We all take a bunch of photos with our phones, and we want to be able to look back at those moments later. Backing up to iCloud or your computer will get the job done, but it doesn’t hurt to save all your family and vacation photos in a second place.

Google Photos is a great way to make sure your photos stay safe, as you get 15GB of storage for free. As a bonus, the app lets you clear your iPhone’s camera roll once you’ve backed up all your photos, which is good if your phone is low on storage. If you’d rather avoid Google, we’ve rounded up several alternatives here, and there are many other cloud storage services to choose from.

Backup locally

Maybe you prefer not to use the cloud or Apple services for backup. You can always use the above methods for Mac or Windows to download files and then manually transfer them to a portable hard drive or USB flash drive, although that can be a bit annoying.

If you have a network attached storage (NAS), there’s probably an app that can automatically back up some of your files when you’re connected to your home Wi-Fi network. Synology, Asustor, and most other NAS makers have apps for backing up photos, video, and general files. You could also consider something like iMazing or PhotoSync, though you may need to pay to access all the features.

In-app backup

Some apps, mostly messaging apps, have their own built-in backup systems. Here are some examples, but check out your favorites.

WhatsApp via Simon Hill