How to Backup iPhone Without Paying for Extra Storage

Smartphones are an integral part of our lives. They are not just for making calls and sending out messages but they are also how we get things done. So apart from keeping in touch with our family and loved ones, they capture significant moments in our lives and store memories we hold dear and wouldn’t trade for anything. Carrying such an important device in our pockets everywhere we go everyday without ensuring the content in the device is backed up or safe can put a lot at stake. We stand the chance of losing everything in the device if it gets misplaced, or even stolen.

If you want to avoid trying to recover pictures and videos from vacations with friends, you must back up your iPhone. It’s also a good idea if you intend to update to a new iPhone.

There are several ways to backup your iPhone and in this article we’ll be giving you a guide on how to back up your iPhone and ensure you have your pictures, videos and documents in your iPhone backed up.

Backing up to iCloud

The easiest way to back your iPhone, and as recommended by Apple, is to back up to iCloud.

This is how to do it.

1. Connect to Wi-Fi.
2. Go to Settings. Scroll down and type iCloud.
3. On the iCloud page, scroll down and type iCloud Backup. Ensure the switch is toggled on so you can get automatic backup every 24 hours when the iPhone is charging, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi. Then tap Backup Now to force a backup.
4. Check what you want iCloud to backup. You can uncheck other categories if you want.

Apple gives 5GB of iCloud storage for free, but that’s not always enough to cover all your data. You can always purchase more iCloud storage. This is a monthly fee, you can opt for a yearly plan or a monthly plan, but whichever one you choose, it means that at the end of every month your iPhone will be backed up automatically depending on the one you choose.

Backing Up to Your Mac

You can choose to keep a local backup of your pictures, songs, app, and even text messages on your Mac. You can easily just plug in your iPhone and click some buttons to make sure all your phone’s data is safely transferred and saved in your computer, but that depends on the operating system of mac you are using.

If you do not know the version of macOS you are using, click the little Apple icon in the top left corner of your Mac desktop and select About This Mac. Another window will pop out and show you the version of the operating system running

Backing up to Mac Catalina 10.15 or later versions

The upgrade to macOS Catalina 2019 got rid of iTunes but replaced it with three separate apps for music, podcast, and TV. The backup option is now located in Finder where you can search folders as well as other drives. The process to backup your iPhone is almost the same as with iTunes

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac with a cable.
2. Open Finder and select your iPhone under Locations in the sidebar.
3. Click on General and choose Back up all the data on iPhone to this Mac.
4. If you want to encrypt your data and put a password to protect it, select Encrypt Local Backup.
5. Click Backup Now. From here, you can also choose to manage previous backups. You can choose to sync different types of media with your Mac while you are at it.

Backing Up to MacOS Mojave 10.14 or Earlier

The service of iTunes is still available on older OS versions, it’s not dead yet. So you can as well backup everything there. This is how to do it

1. Plug your iPhone to your Mac with a cable, open iTunes and click Device at the top left of the iTunes window.
2. Click on Summary below iPhone
3. Select Backup Now under Backups. This will create a backup of everything on your iPhone, including all your app data.
4. If you would like to encrypt your backups, click on Encrypt iPhone Backup and enter a password, then click set Password

Please note, this method will allow create several backups so do not worry if you need to find some information from a few months back. Just go into iTunes Preferences, click on Devices, and click Summary from your iPhone to see a list of all the backups. So long the one you need is there, all you need to do is click on Restore Backup

Backing Up to a Windows PC

With iTunes, you can also backup your iPhone on your Windows PC

Here’s how to do it:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Windows computer with a cord.
2. Open iTunes and click the iPhone button at the top left of the iTunes window.
3. Click Summary.
4. Select Backup Now under Backups.
5. If you want to encrypt your backup,
6. Click Encrypt Local Backup.
7. Enter your password and click Set Password.

How to turn on Wi-Fi syncing

You may not want to plug your phone every time you want to backup files. Fortunately, you can turn on Wi-Fi syncing between your iPhone and your Mac.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.
2. On Mac, open Finder and select iPhone in the sidebar.
3. Click General at the top and choose Show this iPhone when on Wi-Fi.
4. On Windows, open iTunes and click the iPhone button near the top left. Then Summary and choose Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi in your options.
5. Click Apply.

Conclusion

We take a lot of pictures and capture a lot of memories with our phones and we also want to go back to those moments at a later time.  The way to do this is either backing up to iCloud or local backup using your Mac or Windows PC.