How to Backup Your Device with iTunes or iCloud?

2017-10-19 11:45:09 / Posted by Brandon Wood to iDevice Topics
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How to backup your device with iTunes or iCloud? As is known to all that regularly backing up data on iPhone, iPad or iPod is very important, especially when you mistakenly deleted some valuable pictures, contacts, or other contents on iOS device, and when you accidentally lost or damaged your iDevice along with the files on your device.

In this case, you will be aware how important it is to backup your device in case of data lost. So this article is about to show you how to sync your phone data to iTunes or iCloud, and computer as well.

Part 1. How to Sync Your iDevice to iCloud for Backup on iPhone/iPad/iPod

Part 2. How to Share Your iPhone/iPad/iPod Data to iTunes Library

Part 3. Alternative Way to Backup Your Device to iTunes or iCloud

Part 1. How to Sync Your iDevice to iCloud for Backup on iPhone/iPad/iPod

iCloud, as one of the common ways to backup iOS data, originally offers free 5G storage space to store iOS data for all Apple users. And if you want more storage space, you can purchase from iCloud.

Importantly, when you need parts of contents from iCloud backup, you need to recover the whole iCloud backup after erasing all contents on your device if you restore iCloud backup directly on your device. Or if you don't want to reset your device, you can refer to the guide: How to Restore from iCloud Backup without Reset.

Here is how to transfer iOS data to iCloud:

Step 1. Unlock your iOS device and go to "Settings" > "iCloud" > enable "Backup" feature.

If it asks for your Apple ID and passcodes when accessing to your iCloud account, just fill the blank as prompted to sign into iCloud.

Step 2. Tap "OK" option when it pops up to ask if you are sure to "Start iCloud Backup".

sync ios device to icloud for backup

Step 3 . After that, you will get a window of "Turning on Backup" and also ask you if you are agree to backup your device when your device is plugged and connected to Wi-Fi. Just tap "OK" to continue backing up process.

Here you can find a progress bar, which reminds you how much time is expected. Please be sure to keep your device connected to an available and stable Wi-Fi network till the whole process is complete.

start to sync ios data to icloud for backup

You may be interested in:

Quick Fixes to Common iCloud Issues

Tips to Use iCloud Photo Sharing on iPhone/iPad/iPod

Part 2. How to Share Your iPhone/iPad/iPod Data to iTunes Library

iTunes is another official way to backup your device in case of losing data. You can also use iTunes to share different files among iOS devices, such as albums, songs, movies, TV shows, books, playlists, ringtones, reminders and etc. Similar to iCloud, if you want to restore iTunes backup into your device, you need to reset your device data at first with the official way.

Here is how to sync data on iOS device to iTunes library:

Step 1. Unlock your iDevice and visit "Settings" > "General" > "Restrictions", then disable the "In-App Purchases" to turn off the automatic syncing feature.

If not, you are not able to transfer the contents that you have manually downloaded with your device to iTunes library.

remove iphone restrictions

Step 2. Connect your device to computer with a USB cord and run iTunes on your computer. Besides please make sure you have downloaded the latest iTunes on your PC.

If this is the first time you link your device to this computer, iTunes will ask you if you want to sync your device to iTunes Library or not. Just select "No" if you don't want to sync all of your phone data to iTunes at once.

Step 3. Now, under the "Option" section, you can select different syncing option for your device according to your need, such as "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected", "Sync with this iPhone over Wi-Fi", "Sync only checked songs and videos", "Prefer standard definition videos" and so on.

select syncing options for your device

Step 4. For specific contents, you can also set up different syncing options for them by visiting the "Music", "Movies", "Podcasts" and other tabs on the left panel to see more options.

For example, click "Music" tab, you will get different options like "Sync Music", "Entire music library" and "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres" and etc. Just select the options you like, then click "Apply" button to start to sync iOS contents to iTunes library.

sync iphone data to itunes

iTunes Can't Recognize Your iPhone - How to Fix it?

Part 3. Alternative Way to Backup Your Device to iTunes or iCloud

Besides iCloud and iTunes, you have another great choice to backup your device, that is, transferring your phone data to computer for backup. Thus you don't need to worry about resetting your device when restoring your device from iCloud or iTunes backup, and you can directly preview or import the backed up data into your device from computer (Mac or Windows PC).

Here it is highly recommended a professional iOS Data Backup tool - Coolmuster iOS Assistant or iOS Assistant for Mac for you. With it, you can not only export or transfer contacts, SMS, photos, videos, music, notes, calendar, apps and more from iPhone X/iPhone 8/iPhone 8 Plus/7/7 Plus/6S/6/5, iPad and iPod touch to computer, but also you are able to import these files from computer to your iOS device as well.

Here is the free trail of the software in Mac and Windows version, please download the right version on your computer, then start to backup your device to computer instead.

Here is how to backup your device to computer:

Step 1. Connect your device to computer with a USB cable, then launch the program after installing. Then the program will automatically detect your device and all the files on your phone.

Here we take the Windows version for example.

connect idevice to computer

Step 2. Now you can visit different file folder to preview and select the contents you want to backup. For example, hit "Contacts" tab, then select one or more contacts, then click "Export" button to save the selected items to computer immediately.

backup your device to computer