backup iphone to cloud
Devices fail, so you should constantly be backing them up. Think about it, your smartphone or tablet has your photos, your videos, your contacts, your emails, your browser history, your schedule, and more. Now imagine all of that gone. Yes, I know. Gruesome. That’s why you need to backup all of your data every day.

Losing it would be a disaster. There are many cloud storage solutions, but for iOS devices, the easiest by far is iCloud. You can also use Dropbox to automatically backup all of your media (which I do), but iCloud covers a far wider range of data, which Dropbox can’t touch.

If you automate that daily iCloud backup, you never really have to think about it ever again. Setting this up is very straightforward, so you can’t use the excuse of “this is too difficult” to avoid doing it. One thing I should point out though before we start is that the standard free 5GB that Apple gives you for iCloud backup is almost never enough. If you are a snap-happy photographer, a wannabe Spielberg with your videos, or a contact list the size of a Yellow Pages, then you will need more storage space.

More on that later. A lot of apps back up to iCloud, a lot more than you may think. If you are low on storage space, then you need to take a good long hard look at what is taking up that space. Some of it can probably be deleted and switched off for the future.

First, let’s find out where on your phone or iPad you need to go to get started. Go to your Settings. Then tap on the top bar next to your picture. On the next screen, tap the iCloud option. So we are first going to see if we need to delete any unneeded iCloud baggage. So click on “Manage Storage”.

You will then see (if you scroll down) the apps that are taking up space on both your phone and iCloud. The two biggest space hogs are the photos and the eBooks. With the photos and the videos, you can use the Dropbox app, turn on “Camera Uploads“, back up the photos, then delete them from your iOS device.

With iBooks, assuming you bought the book from iTunes, you can simply delete it when you are finished with it. If you ever want it again in the future, you can just re-download it. An alternative (the nuclear option) is to wipe the app and all of its data from your device in one go. So if we wanted to get rid of iBooks and all of the books installed on your device, tap iBooks. Tap “Delete Documents & Data” to wipe the lot.

As it says underneath, it cannot be undone, so make sure you are sure. What if you need more iCloud space, That’s very easy to do. Go back to the previous screen and tap on “Change” in the “iCloud Storage” section. The plan you’re currently on will be at the top, and the other available ones are below. As you can see, I am on the highest plan (2TB), so upgrading is not possible for me.

But if you are on one of the lower plans, you can choose between 50GB, 200GB, and 2TB. All at extremely good prices. My only complaint is that they should have a 500GB and 1TB option as well. If you upgrade a bigger plan, you will be charged the extra amount for the remainder of that month.



OK, you’ve cleaned out all the unnecessary gunk from your device, and you’ve bought some more space. Now it’s time to fill that space up with your data. There are two ways to do an iCloud backup. Apple provides you with two methods to do an iCloud backup manually - through the device itself or through iTunes. Cloud. Scroll down until you see iCloud Backup. On the next screen, the backup function will either be on or off (depending on whether you’ve used it before or not).