According to the latest statistics, there are approximately three and half billion unique users of smartphones in circulation globally today, which is just under half of the World’s total population. Apple has sold around one billion units cumulatively of all different models of its smart mobile handset, the iPhone, since its initial launch in 2007, though of course, many people have bought more than one of the various devices in order to upgrade their phones over time. These sales figures make the Apple iPhone one of the most popular types of smartphone Worldwide, as its popularity holds firm against rival manufacturers. This means there is a lot of valuable data stored on the devices of huge numbers of iPhone users everywhere, but how and why to keep that data safe?
Why should you backup an iPhone?
Smartphones have become irreplaceable items for almost half of the World’s population, and they are very often kept within reach of their owners at all times. Furthermore, they are used for an increasing number of everyday activities, from contacting friends, family and others – as phones were originally invented for – to browsing the internet and taking photos.
This means that our smartphones usually contain huge amounts of data that is often priceless to its owners, including contact details and message histories, photographs from holidays and other unforgettable moments, music and book collections, emails and internet history, plus game and application data.
For most people it would be heartbreaking to suddenly lose access to any aspect of this data, potentially forever, and yet this is a very real possibility every day – just by losing or damaging their iPhone. Having a backup means that in this case, an iPhone can be easily restored or a new device initiated in the same state as when the backup was created.
source: pixabay.com
How do you perform an iPhone backup
There are two methods for backing up an iPhone, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. The first is by using online cloud storage to make backups automatically, while the second is a manual backup to a computer. The main advantage of using online cloud storage is that backups can be scheduled automatically, at a certain time (usually in the middle of the night), when the iPhone is plugged in to charge and is connected to WiFi. To do this, connect your device to WiFi, then go to Settings, touch on your name / photo, click on iCloud and then tap iCloud Backup and stay connected to the internet until the process is completed. A drawback of iCloud is that free storage is limited to 5GB, and above that, one must pay for a regular subscription. Backing up to a computer gives as much storage as the hard drive allows for free, although the data will only be as safe as the disk that it’s stored on. To perform a manual backup to a PC, connect the iPhone via USB, open iTunes, click on the logo for the device, then tap Summary, and finally click on Back Up Now below the list of existing backups.
