How Do I Backup My iPhone to PC and iCloud with 3 Methods

Backup your iPhone is necessary if you don’t want to lose any data on your iPhone. Refer to this post, it will demonstrate 3 methods of how to backup an iPhone to a computer or iCloud easily.

Dylan

By Dylan / Updated on March 4, 2024

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Why is Backup my iPhone important?

"My iPhone storage is full, So the auto backup is no longer available. Then What happens if I don't back up my iPhone? Should I get another way to backup my iPhone without iCloud? Thanks!"

--From an iPhone user 

Backing up your iPhone is creating a copy of the device in a safe place such as your PC, external drive, or cloud drive. For all iPhone users, it is necessary to make an iPhone backup. An estimated project shows that 30% of iPhones can be lost, or stolen, and got an issue like a white screen throughout their lifetime.

If you don't back up your iPhone, once a data disaster occurs, you will lose your iPhone data such as photos, videos, files, music, and contacts forever. In addition, if you got a new iPhone, restoring your backup and restoring to the new iPhone is an effective and easy way to transfer iPhone data

You may know iCloud and iTunes, but you are not familiar with them or don't want to use iCloud or iTunes.  Just keep on reading,  in this post, we will introduce professional iPhone backup software to help you backup your iPhone easily, as well as guide you on how to use iCloud and iTunes to backup your iPhone.

backup iPhone

How do I backup my iPhone to my computer and cloud storage?

FoneTool, iCloud, iTunes,  are the most common tools for creating an iPhone backup. If you want to backup iPhone to a Windows computer, FoneTool and iTunes can help you. Or you can backup your iPhone to a cloud drive-iCloud. And you can check the table below to see the comparison, and you can choose a suitable one.

  FoneTool iTunes iCloud
Backup and restore Speed Superfast Fast Medium
Storage Device Support PC, HDD, External drive PC iCloud server
Storage Path Selective C drive iCloud server
Size Limit Unlimited Unlimited 5GB free storage 
View Backup Files × ×
Universal Restore Possible Incompatibility Possible Incompatibility
1-click to transfer data to new iPhone × ×

Method 1. Backup iPhone with Professional iPhone backup software

To backup an iPhone without iTunes and iCloud, FoneTool can be your best choice. It easily creates a copy of your iPhone photos, videos, contacts, messages, and other data to a Windows 11/10/8/7 computer or an external hard drive. It uses a user-friendly interface so anyone can easily handle the it.

FoneTool support 2 backup ways to meet different demands:

Full Backup: It creates a full iPhone backup on computer. A full backup includes photos, music, contacts, media files, and app settings.
Selective Backup: This feature enables you selectively backup photos, videos, contacts, music, etc. to a computer.

You can check the main advantages of FoneTool below.

● FoneTool backup an iPhone, iPad with very fast speed.
● You can specify a storage location to save the backup files. And you can even easily backup your iPhone to a flash drive or external drive.
● This tool supports universal restoration. You can restore your backup to another different iPhone/iPad, even they are using a different Apple account.
● It is a free iPhone backup software and there are 100% no advertisements or plug-ins.

Now, let's start to know how to use this application. You can click the download button to install this software. We will show you how to backup iPhone

Download Freeware Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 1. Connect iPhone to a computer with a USB cable. Tap Trust This Computer on the iPhone.

Step 2.  Launch and open FoneTool on the connected computer. Click "Phone Backup". Move the cursor to "Full Backup". Click "Get Started".

Full Backup

Note: If you want to directly transfer data from iPhone to iPhone, you can click "Phone Transfer" and choose "iPhone to iPhone" transfer

3. Here, you can enable the backup encryption and select the backup path. Then click "Start Backup".

Start Backup

Then wait for the process to get finished. To restore the backup image, you can go to Backup History page to locate and restore the backup.

How to selectively backup iPhone

You can click "Selective Backup" to selectively backup iPhone contacts, videos, pictures, messages, etc.

Step 1. On the Fonetool, choose "Phone Backup" > "Selective Backup".

Step 2. Select the data you want to backup

select files

Step 3. You can click the Backup Storage Path to specify a backup location. Click "Start Backup".

click backup

Method 2. How to backup my iPhone with iTunes

iTunes is an official tool. It was initially designed to manage the purchased music and videos. Now, it also provides a way to backup most data including settings on your iPhone in one folder. 

Note:
1. iTunes only allows you to make a full backup of your iPhone, so you can’t preview and select data. And it requires you to erase all content on the target device when you restore the back image.
2. What iTunes backup include: iTunes will backup most local data like photos, videos, messages, call logs, contacts, settings, local files, app data. etc. 

Step 1. Connect iPhone with your computer using a USB cable.

Step 2. Run iTunes, and make sure it detects your iPhone. Then click the phone-shape button.

Step 3. Click “Summary” on the sidebar. You can view some basic information about the connected iPhone.

Step 4. Choose “This computer” and click the “Back Up Now” button.

Backup Iphone On Itunes

Method 3. How do I backup my iPhone to iCloud storage

iCloud is another official tool for Apple users. It is able to store content on your iPhone and keeps your data up to date across all Apple devices. And it just provides 5GB of free storage. Make sure you have enough space to complete an iPhone backup. If your iCloud storage is full you can delete some data on iCloud or buy upgrade your iCloud plan.

Step 1. Go to "Settings", tap the name banner, select "iCloud", and then "iCloud Backup".

Step 2. Toggle on "iCloud Backup". 

Step 3. When your iPhone is connected to Wi-Fi, it will automatically run a backup. And you can also tap "Back Up Now" to manually backup the iPhone to iCloud right away.

I could view the storage of iCloud backups by repeating step1, tapping Manage Storage, and then selecting Backups. To delete a backup, choose a backup from the list, then tap Delete Backup.

Icloud

Conclusion

Now you have know the answer to "How to backup my iPhone". You can perform a iOS backup with or without iTunes, or iCloud. But compared with iTunes and iCloud, FoneTool is a free professional iPhone backup application with easy operation and a simple interface.

you can backup camera roll photos, videos, and other files like contacts, messages, and music within a few steps. And you will not be interrupted by ads using this software. Anyway, it’s not bad to choose these applications as your iPhone backup tool.