ELI5: 'Backing up' an iPhone

tigerstyle · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:22

I don't use an iPhone but my sister does. She has an iPhone 6s. She wants it 'backed' up for safety.
I'm an android user, I use Google Photos for my photos, and my google account for everything else, I don't save music onto my phone, there is nothing of use one my phone. So I don't manually backup because there is nothing on it that matters. SMS I just delete, Call history I don't care about, Apps I'll just download what I want when I need it.

What is the equivalent of this on an iPhone? She seems to think she needs a like for like digital copy of her phone for safekeeping, is this so, or can it not be done by icloud account (what is an icloud account?) Does icloud have unlimited photo storage like Google Photos, or would Google Photos be worth installing and using? Where would SMS, Call History, Apps etc go? can that all be done online/to the cloud?

Ultimately not looking to get to involved with her phone, but have to help her out...

Cheers!

tom_e · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:25

iCloud will back everything like that up also if she has access to a PC/Mac she can use iTunes to take a full carbon copy of her phone.

iCloud is not unlimited though you get 5gb free IIRC, then I think 50gb is 70p a month then there's a few levels above that.

ChrisD. · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:32

As above, use iCloud if it's less than 5GB in total. Other option is to back the photos up to Google photos using their app and turn that bit off in iCloud as the rest of it shouldn't be above 5GB. Unless of course she can part with 79p a month to have a full carbon clone on iCloud.

Broken Hope · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:51

If you use iTunes make sure you enable encrypted backups or she'd lose health data and passwords.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220

tigerstyle · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:52

So if photos are on Google Photos, the phone is then totally destroyed, a new phone is bought and the icloud backup synced, it will be a carbon copy of the day of the last icloud sync?

Or is icloud not carbon copy backup, that would have to be done over itunes?

ChrisD. · 21 Aug 2017 at 12:55

tigerstyle said:
So if photos are on Google Photos, the phone is then totally destroyed, a new phone is bought and the icloud backup synced, it will be a carbon copy of the day of the last icloud sync?

Or is icloud not carbon copy backup, that would have to be done over itunes?

What?

If the phone is backed up to iCloud with all options checked, it's a carbon copy.

If the photos are not backed up, but are instead sync'd with Google photos, it's not a carbon copy. She'd have to restore the phone, then sign into Google photos and then they'd download.

tigerstyle · 21 Aug 2017 at 13:12

Sorry i meant a carbon copy excluding the google photos, knowing they are over the 5GB so excluded from what would fit in free apple icloud.

I wasn't sure if Tom_E meant that only a pc/mac itunes backup counted as carbon copy. And icloud was a lighter version of a backup.
Sounds like both backups are equal to each other though. Do they include app settings, and data within apps?

tom_e · 21 Aug 2017 at 13:36

As far as I'm aware, To create a full exact copy including the iOS then it must be connected to a machine through iTunes.

ChrisD. · 21 Aug 2017 at 13:51

tigerstyle said:
Sorry i meant a carbon copy excluding the google photos, knowing they are over the 5GB so excluded from what would fit in free apple icloud.

I wasn't sure if Tom_E meant that only a pc/mac itunes backup counted as carbon copy. And icloud was a lighter version of a backup.
Sounds like both backups are equal to each other though. Do they include app settings, and data within apps?

iCloud and iTunes backups contain everything including app data unless you specifically select to not back it up.

tigerstyle · 21 Aug 2017 at 14:09

cheers guys

ChrisD. · 21 Aug 2017 at 14:34

That's the beauty of iOS, it really is foolproof to back literally everything up.

I think Apple are missing a trick only offering 5GB though, most photo libraries are well beyond this and with Google offering unlimited photo upload on a rival platform would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I were high up in Apple.

Either that or most people are just mugs like me and pay the 79p.

tom_e · 21 Aug 2017 at 14:38

ChrisD. said:
That's the beauty of iOS, it really is foolproof to back literally everything up.

I think Apple are missing a trick only offering 5GB though, most photo libraries are well beyond this and with Google offering unlimited photo upload on a rival platform would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I were high up in Apple.

Either that or most people are just mugs like me and pay the 79p.

To be fair Google isn't unlimited if you want to backup the original photos, only if you choose to just back up a "High quality" copy whatever that means.

ChrisD. · 21 Aug 2017 at 14:54

tom_e said:
To be fair Google isn't unlimited if you want to backup the original photos, only if you choose to just back up a "High quality" copy whatever that means.

Ah, I do recall there being some form of a limit, just couldn't remember what it was.