Back up your most important data

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Back up your most important data

When selecting the option "Back up your most important data on your [iPhone/iPad] to iCloud", what exactly is the "most important data"?

iPhone 8

Posted on Sep 28, 2020 6:29 PM

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Answer 1

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leolibe Author

Level 1

13 points

Oct 5, 2020 10:23 PM in response to ryane77

Thanks for your answer. It partly answers my question, but raises another doubt.

iCloud backups can be carried out directly from the iOS device over WiFi, or through a MacOS device using the option I had originally asked about ("back up your most important data on your iPhone to iCloud").

Your answer does not distinguish between these two options, essentially treating them as the same.

However, when I try to back up my iOS devices directly, using WiFi, an error message tells me that my 50GB of iCloud space are not sufficient, and I am subsequently treated to an option to upgrade to 200GB (for more money). On the other hand, there are no difficulties to conduct my backups to iCloud through the MacOS.

So, either the iOS is inaccurately estimating iCloud space, or the two backup possibilities yield backups of different size, and should therefore not be treated as the same.

Given the ease of estimating space, I'm more inclined to believe the latter. So my question stands: what exactly is being backed up with the two iCloud backup methods? What is not being backed up through the MacOS option which is being backed up using the direct iCloud backup using WiFi?

Thanks

Leo Liberti

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Answer 2

ryane77

Community Specialist

Oct 5, 2020 10:49 AM in response to leolibe

Hi there leolibe,

Thanks for posting! Backing up your data is certainly important, and it sounds like you have a question about the options you're seeing when you connect your device to your computer.

For reference, this has great information about How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The option you describe would let you back up your data to iCloud as opposed to backing up locally to your computer. Here's more about what an iCloud backup consists of, keeping in mind that it will not include content you've already synced to iCloud: About backups for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

"iCloud backups

With a Wi-Fi network connection, you can make a backup of your device using iCloud. You don’t need to plug your device into a computer or even be at home to back up with iCloud.

iCloud backups include nearly all data and settings stored on your device. iCloud backups don't include:

Data that's already stored in iCloud, like Contacts, Calendars, Notes, iCloud Photos, iMessages, Voice Memos, text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages, and Health data
Data stored in other cloud services, like Gmail and Exchange mail
Apple Mail data
Apple Pay information and settings
Face ID or Touch ID settings
iCloud Music Library and App Store content (If it's still available in the iTunes, App, or Apple Books store, you can tap to re-download your already purchased content.)"

We hope this answers your question!

Kindest regards.

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Back up your most important data

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