How to back up your iPhone and iPad before you install iOS 9
How to back up your iPhone and iPad before you install iOS 9
So you’ve read the iOS 9 overview on
Apple’s website. You’ve made excited noises about all the cool new
stuff, such as Split View, the revamped Notes, QuickType enhancements,
and smarter search. And now, you’re counting down the hours until it’s
released to the masses.
But before you dive in, secure your data, in case iOS 9 becomes "Nein! iOS destroyed all my data!"
Such disasters are rare, but that will be of little consolation if it happens to you. Don't blindly tap install. Back-up your iOS data. Twice.
But before you dive in, secure your data, in case iOS 9 becomes "Nein! iOS destroyed all my data!"
Such disasters are rare, but that will be of little consolation if it happens to you. Don't blindly tap install. Back-up your iOS data. Twice.
Set up iCloud
You get 5 GB of space on
iCloud for free. Use it. Ensure you’re on Wi-Fi, open the Settings app
and select iCloud. Turn on relevant options that aren’t already
activated, to send important data (calendars, reminders, browser
bookmarks, and so on) to the cloud. At that point, these are all safe,
and can be retrieved elsewhere should iOS 8 fire your iPhone into orbit.
Now scroll down to and select Storage & Backup. Tap ‘Back Up Now’. You might have to enter your password, and then you’ll either get a progress bar indicating how long the back-up will take, or you’ll see a ‘Not Enough Storage’ warning. In the latter case, tap Manage Storage, select your device, and under Backup Options, deselect any items you can easily restore from elsewhere. (For example, if you back-up your photos to your PC or Mac, disable Camera Roll, which is usually the biggest block of data.)
Your iCloud back-up will include app data, Camera Roll content, iTunes Store purchases, contacts and messages, notes and calendars, network and email account passwords, preferences, and Safari autofill data. It will also take ages, so don’t leave this until the last minute.
Now scroll down to and select Storage & Backup. Tap ‘Back Up Now’. You might have to enter your password, and then you’ll either get a progress bar indicating how long the back-up will take, or you’ll see a ‘Not Enough Storage’ warning. In the latter case, tap Manage Storage, select your device, and under Backup Options, deselect any items you can easily restore from elsewhere. (For example, if you back-up your photos to your PC or Mac, disable Camera Roll, which is usually the biggest block of data.)
Your iCloud back-up will include app data, Camera Roll content, iTunes Store purchases, contacts and messages, notes and calendars, network and email account passwords, preferences, and Safari autofill data. It will also take ages, so don’t leave this until the last minute.
Back-up to iTunes
Under Backups, click Back Up Now. This will back up your iOS device’s data to your PC or Mac, and you can recover from this back-up in the event of a disaster. (If you use the iTunes sidebar, you can right/Ctrl-click your device and select Back Up.)
Again, this will take ages, and so do it sooner rather than later.
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