How to Back Up iPhone: iCloud, Mac, PC, or External Drive

Quick answer: to back up an iPhone, open Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud > iCloud Backup, turn on Back Up This iPhone, and tap Back Up Now. To back up without iCloud, connect the iPhone to a Mac (Finder) or a Windows PC (Apple Devices app) and click Back Up Now. Turn on encryption for computer backups so passwords and Health data are saved too.

The rest of this guide covers what each backup includes, how to get a copy onto an external drive, how to back up photos on their own, and how to confirm the last backup actually finished.

iCloud or computer: which iPhone backup should you use?

Apple offers two full-device backups, and you can use both. Apple’s comparison of backup methods sums up the difference:

• iCloud Backup runs on its own over Wi-Fi, is always encrypted, and uses your iCloud storage.
• A computer backup lives on your Mac or PC, uses its free space, and is only encrypted if you turn that on.

If you have an iCloud plan with room to spare, iCloud is the one you’ll never forget to run. If iCloud is full or you’d rather not pay for more, a computer backup costs nothing but disk space.

How to back up iPhone to iCloud

1. Open Settings, tap your name, then tap iCloud.
2. Tap iCloud Backup and turn on Back Up This iPhone.
3. Tap Back Up Now to make the first backup, and stay on Wi-Fi until it finishes.

From then on, iCloud backs up the iPhone once a day while it’s connected to power, locked, and on Wi-Fi. On 5G models, some carriers also let you turn on Back Up Over Cellular. Apple’s iCloud Backup steps show the same path. If you get a message that there isn’t enough iCloud storage, the backup won’t complete until you free space or upgrade; our guide to iCloud storage plans covers both.

What iCloud Backup includes, and what it skips

iCloud Backup stores what isn’t already syncing to iCloud: device settings, Home Screen layout, app data, your Apple Watch backup, and your messages and photos if you don’t sync those to iCloud already.

It skips:

• Photos and videos, if iCloud Photos is on
• Messages, if Messages in iCloud is on
• Notes and other data that already sync to iCloud
• Mail data, including Apple Mail and accounts like Gmail and Exchange
• Apple Pay information, and Face ID or Touch ID settings
• Music and apps you can download again, and offline maps

That’s why an iCloud backup often looks smaller than you’d expect. Your photos aren’t missing; they’re in iCloud Photos, not in the backup. To shrink a large backup, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup, tap This iPhone, and turn off apps you don’t need backed up. That deletes their backup data from iCloud.

How to back up iPhone to a Mac

On macOS Catalina or later, Finder handles iPhone backups. Older versions of macOS use iTunes.

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac with a cable. Click Allow if the Mac asks.
2. Open Finder and select your iPhone in the sidebar. On the iPhone, tap Trust and enter your passcode if asked.
3. Click General, then select Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac.
4. Select Encrypt local backup and create a password.
5. Click Back Up Now. When it finishes, the date and time of the last backup appear.

Encryption is worth the extra step. Computer backups are unencrypted by default, and saved passwords, Health, and Activity data are only included in an encrypted backup. Store the password somewhere safe: without it, the encrypted backup can’t be used.

The backup takes up space on the Mac itself, in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/. On a Mac with a small internal drive, that adds up fast. If the Mac itself isn’t backed up yet, our simple Mac backup strategy covers that side.

How to back up iPhone to a Windows PC

On Windows, the Apple Devices app does the job iTunes used to. Apple’s Windows backup steps say to use iTunes only if your PC doesn’t have the Apple Devices app.

1. Install Apple Devices from the Microsoft Store, then connect the iPhone with a USB cable.
2. Unlock the iPhone and tap Trust if asked.
3. In Apple Devices, select the iPhone in the sidebar, then click General.
4. Choose Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this computer.
5. Tick Encrypt local backup and set a password.
6. Click Back Up Now. Manage Backups lists the finished backup.

In iTunes, the steps are the same idea: click the iPhone button, click Summary, then click Back Up Now.

How to back up iPhone to an external hard drive

There’s no option to pick an external drive as the backup destination. Finder, Apple Devices, and iTunes always save backups to a fixed folder on the computer. The workaround takes three steps:

1. Back up the iPhone to your Mac or PC as described above.
2. In Finder or Apple Devices, click Manage Backups, right-click the backup, and choose Show in Finder or Show in Explorer. Apple’s guide to locating and managing backups shows this and the folder paths.
3. Copy the entire Backup folder to the external drive.

Copy it; don’t move it. Apple’s earlier version of that guide said you can copy the whole Backup folder to an external or network drive, but should never move it there, or rename or edit the files inside. To restore from that copy, put the folder back where it came from so Finder or Apple Devices can see it.

You’ll find guides that move the folder and leave a symbolic link behind so backups write straight to the drive. Apple doesn’t document that method, and backups fail whenever the drive isn’t plugged in, so we don’t recommend it. If your Mac already backs up with Time Machine, the same Apple guidance noted that the iPhone backup folder gets copied along with the rest of your home folder.

How to back up iPhone photos separately

Photos are usually the one thing you can’t replace, and they’re also the easiest to lose track of. If iCloud Photos is on, neither iCloud Backup nor a computer backup holds a second copy of them. iCloud Photos is sync, not backup: delete a photo on your iPhone and it’s deleted on every device, with 30 days to recover it from Recently Deleted.

Three ways to keep a separate copy:

• Import to a computer. On a Mac, the Photos app or Image Capture imports from a connected iPhone; on Windows, use Apple Devices with Microsoft Photos. On Windows, if iCloud Photos is on, Apple says to download the full-resolution originals to the iPhone before importing.
• Copy the import to an external drive, so the photos live somewhere other than your phone and your Apple account.
• Use a separate cloud service. BlueHammer Drive gives you encrypted storage for photos, videos, and documents, with automatic backup, sync across iPhone, Android, and Mac, and sharing links that expire.

Drive doesn’t replace a full iPhone backup, since it doesn’t store settings or app data. What it gives you is an independent copy of the files that matter most. Before backing up a large library, clear out the duplicate photos on your iPhone so you aren’t paying to store the same shot three times.

iPhone backup methods compared

Method	What’s backed up	Storage needed	Automatic?
iCloud Backup	Settings, app data, plus messages and photos not synced to iCloud	iCloud storage (5GB free, most need iCloud+)	Yes, daily on power, Wi-Fi, and locked
Mac (Finder)	Almost all data and settings, minus what’s already in iCloud	Free space on the Mac	Only while connected; Back Up Now forces it
Windows PC (Apple Devices)	Same as Mac	Free space on the PC	Only while connected; Back Up Now forces it
External drive	A copy of the Mac or PC backup folder	Space on the drive	No, unless Time Machine copies it
BlueHammer Drive	Photos, videos, and documents	100GB, 500GB, or 1TB plan	Yes

For most people, iCloud Backup plus one extra copy of photos covers the real risk. Add an encrypted computer backup before big moves like an iOS update or a phone swap.

How to check that your last iPhone backup worked

A backup that quietly stopped months ago is the most common failure, so check the date now and then.

• iCloud: go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup. The date and time of the last successful backup appear under Back Up Now. Tap This iPhone to see the next backup’s size and which apps are included.
• Mac or PC: select the iPhone in Finder or Apple Devices. The General tab shows the last backup date, and Manage Backups lists every backup on that computer. A lock icon means the backup is encrypted.
• External drive: open the copied folder and check that its date matches your latest computer backup.

If the iCloud date is old, the usual reasons are the conditions above not being met (no Wi-Fi, not charging) or iCloud being full.

What a backup can and can’t do

A backup is built to restore a whole iPhone to a recent point. It helps when a phone is lost, broken, replaced, or wiped. It’s not a way to browse old files: you can’t simply open an iPhone backup and pull out one photo.

A few limits to keep in mind:

• Sync isn’t backup. iCloud Photos, iCloud Drive, and Messages in iCloud mirror deletions across your devices.
• Old iCloud backups expire. If you turn off iCloud Backup, the backups stored in iCloud are kept for 180 days, then deleted.
• A forgotten encryption password locks you out of that computer backup.
• A backup doesn’t free up space. If your iPhone is out of room, a backup is the safety net before you clean up; see what to do when iPhone storage is full.

Set up iCloud Backup, keep one copy of your photos outside your phone, and check the date once in a while. That covers most of what can go wrong.