Hello,
I am trying to help my girlfriend backup her iPhone and Macbook.
I am a bit unfamiliar with the Apple ecosystem, and she's still not very familiar with the technical aspects of it.
With my android and PC, it seems a bit more straightforward. Certain programs or services will backup everything, and I can restore it all exactly as it was at that time.
But the Apple webpage for iCloud Backup lists a bunch of things it backs up, meaning, it doesn't backup everything?
I'm trying to figure out the best way to make backups of her phone and laptop so she can restore them exactly as they were when each backup was made.
Do iPhones and Macs have this type of option? Backing up everything, like taking an image of them at that point, including all apps, all files, all settings, every little thing, and then using that to restore them at a later date if needed?
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Any direction or guidance you might be able to provide is greatly appreciated.
I'll update with any solutions or options for your opinions if I'm able to find any.
7 Comments
mbirth@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 340d
If you have the iCloud storage available, you can do iCloud backups. It will backup all the data from the phone, but not the apps themselves. (Those apps will auto-install after a restore, though.)
As for the Macbook, the usual way is an external USB drive and TimeMachine (which should be preinstalled). You can also take a complete backup of the iPhone using macOS's Finder (the phone should popup there as a "drive" once connected via cable) and then backup everything to a HDD/SSD via TimeMachine.
freedickpics@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 320d
Just to piggyback on your comment, it is possible to directly back up an iOS device to external storage, but it's not officially supported. You have to create a symbolic link from the default backup location (~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup) to the external drive
bobsuruncle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 340d
This is it. Just be aware the music on the phone doesn’t get backed up to iCloud or with a local backup on the Mac. Also backing up your iPhone to your Mac will eat up quite a bit of storage so I would stick with the iCloud backup for the phone. For the Mac, don’t rely on iCloud as it doesn’t back up anything outside of iCloud data, and your files in the documents and desktop folders. You would have to reinstall all the programs, printers, setting and all those little tweaks you have made to personalize your system. Time machine is the way to go. The added bonus is depending on the size of the external drive, you could recover a file you deleted 6 months ago by mistake.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 340d
iCloud. It can backup everything or not, you have the choice.
kaitco@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 340d
Couple questions: Does she “buy” music and/or movies and manually add those to her phone via something like iTunes? If no, then we don’t have to worry about extra things to backup manually. If yes, there’s more steps involved.
Go to Settings (it’s a grey app with that name, you may need to search for it by pulling down from the Home Screen starting with your finger in the middle of the phone), and look at the top of Settings. Does it show her name and icon at the top?
If Settings shows her name at the top, tap where it says her name. Scroll down a bit and find where it says her name and “This device”. Like mine would Kaitco’s iPhone and just below that it would say “This iPhone 15 Pro”.
Tap that option. At the top, it should show things like Find My iPhone, iCloud Backup, and AppleCare & Warranty. iCloud Backup should be listed as On. Tap on iCloud Backup, and make sure that “Back Up this iPhone” and “Back Up Over Cellular” are both green and checked on.
Then, tap on Back Up Now to ensure the latest backup is complete. Just below this setting, it should show the last backup date and time or Never if the phone had never been backed up.
If when you go into Settings, it does not show her name at the top, there are a lot more steps to take to get her Apple Account associated with the phone and so forth, so let me know.
tiz@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 339d
Off topic but I kinda want to know for future reference how you would
On Android. I have tried so many things but found none.
vimmiewimmie@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 336d
I'm still getting to the other responses and trying to check on their recommendations or statements, but my thoughts for Android were a situation like a custom recovery environment which I've found to have the option of creating a backup for the phone.
Any corrections anyone has for whether that was a valid understanding or not is highly welcomed.