Have you ever experienced the pain of losing all your photos, videos, and documents on your iPhone? Well, it can happen to any of the 1 billion users who haven’t taken the necessary steps to ensure their data’s safety. Cloud storage services, such as iCloud, have taken the pressure off smartphone users. Your photos can be seamlessly backed up onto the internet, where they are easy to retrieve or download from any device. Read this simple guide to learn how to backup iPhone photos.
Why Use iCloud?
The iCloud is Apple’s own syncing service that allows users to securely back up their data like photos, messages, and apps to the cloud storage. Once your data is uploaded, it can be accessed on all of your Apple devices or by using the iCloud website.
Apple provides every iPhone user with 5GB of free iCloud storage. However, 5GB will likely be full very quickly, so most iPhone users upgrade to one of the monthly paid plans.
If you do need more space, Apple offers 50GB of storage for $0.99/month, 200 GB of storage for $2.99/month, or 2 TB of storage for $9.99/month. These plans can be shared among your loved ones, provided they also have Apple products.
With Family Sharing, everyone is able to use their own private account, so all the data remains private. This function permits up to six people to share photo albums, a family calendar, and locations, without sharing accounts. It’s a very useful tool if you’re a family of iPhone users.
What Does iCloud Backup Include?
Cloud Computing has many notable benefits, and iCloud certainly gives its users peace of mind.
With Apple iCloud, you can backup:
- App data
- Apple Watch backups
- Device settings
- Home screen and app organization
- iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
- Photos and videos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
- Purchase history from Apple services, like music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books
You also have the option to choose what is backed up and what isn’t, including Calendars, Contacts, Health Notes, Photos, Reminders, and more. To manage this, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud and simply select which apps you do or do not want to sync to iCloud storage.
Getting iCloud Up and Running
Before you begin, it’s a good idea to check that your account has sufficient space available in iCloud. To do this, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage. This shows you how much iCloud storage you’re using and exactly how much space each app is taking.
To automatically backup your iPhone, turn on iCloud Backup by navigating to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and toggle iCloud Backup to on. Your data will be backed up daily, provided your phone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi.
If you prefer to do it manually, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now. Here, you can see exactly when the last time your device was successfully backed up.
How to Backup iPhone Photos to iCloud
Photos capture a specific moment in time and, often, you can’t put a price on them.
That’s why it’s important to know how to use iCloud for photo backup. All you have to do is follow these simple steps:
1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap on your name at the top to get to your Apple ID page
3. Choose iCloud from the list
4. Next, click on Photos
5. Toggle iCloud Photos to on, making sure you’ve turned it from grey to green
And that’s it. Every photo you take on your iPhone will now automatically be uploaded to your iCloud account
If your device is broken or stolen, you will be able to access all your photos from the iCloud website by logging in with your Apple ID. There is still hope of reclaiming your phone if it has been lost or stolen. You can track it down by enabling the Find My iPhone app.
Running Out of Storage on Your iPhone?
Photos can take up a lot of storage space, but Apple has a solution for their users who have filled their regular iPhone storage.
You are given the option to keep compressed versions of uploaded photos in your gallery, thus saving you a whole lot of space.
Start by navigating to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Here you are able to tick Optimize iPhone Storage. This will free up plenty of space on your iPhone, and the full-resolution versions of your photos can be downloaded whenever you please with iCloud.
What If I Only Want to Backup Certain Photos?
Well, Apple has got you covered again. Perhaps you don’t want to splash out on a monthly iCloud plan, or you are almost out of space in your 50GB or 200GB account.
To backup individual photos:
1. Go to the Photos app on your iPhone
2. Choose the picture or video that you want
3. Tap the Send icon
4. Send the picture or video to the Files app by selecting Save to Files > iCloud Drive > Save
5. Visit iCloud.com on a Mac or PC and sign in using your Apple ID
6. Drag your chosen file into the Photos library
Breathe Easy With Your Data Backed Up
Now you’re good to go. We’ve wrapped up how to backup iPhone photos to iCloud, and we recommend that you do this immediately. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes, so what are you waiting for?
Perhaps you have treasured memories on your iPhone, and by following these steps, these pictures and videos will remain safe and sound.
Leave a comment below and click here if you’re interested in learning how to enable the Find My iPhone app.
