How to force Mac to make iPhone backup to iCloud?

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How to force Mac to make iPhone backup to iCloud?

Every time I connect my iPhone (with the Lightning cable) to my Mac, it wants to back up my iPhone 8 Plus locally to my MacBook Pro, even though previously it has been backed up to the iCloud. Usually I have to Skip Backup at the very beginning of the process, or wait 40+ minutes before I can sync music from my Music.app library. I have tried to make full local backup, then delete it, but the next time I connect iPhone to my Mac, again "local backup" is preselected, even though it has iCloud backup. Grrrrr. How to force it to remember to have iCloud backup selected? This drives me crazy.

iPhone 8 Plus running iOS 14.2, MacBook Pro 15.4" (mid 2014) running macOS Big Sur.

iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 14

Posted on Dec 19, 2020 6:30 AM

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Answer 1

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Guntis Author

Level 1

39 points

Dec 19, 2020 1:57 PM in response to Loganscott74

No, I DO NOT want my iPhone to be backed up to my Mac, but that's what's always happening. I've selected dozens of times to back it up to iCloud, bet whenever I open Finder > iPhone, "Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac" is preselected and often backup process is going on. How can I make it forget that there even is an option to back up to my Mac? All I need is to sync my music library. Here's example:

Once backup has started for about 5-6 seconds, it's useless to press Skip Backup button, it's not skipping anything. Have to wait loooong time while it's completed and then syncing happens.

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Answer 2

Dec 19, 2020 12:22 PM in response to Guntis

Hello there,

If you want to back up your iPhone to the cloud, you do not have to plug in into your Mac. In settings > AppleID (your name, or the thing on the top) > iCloud > iCloud Backup > Back Up Now. This will back your phone up to iCloud. However, if you still prefer to backup to iCloud on Mac, then you can still do so. My device does not seem to automatically backup anywhere when I plug it in. If it says it is syncing, that is not backing your phone up the computer, or anywhere, just looking at the info on your device. If it is not syncing and does in fact automatically back up locally to your mac, then try going to the options section and turn off automatic syncing, then sync your device to force it to recognize the change.

If that does not work then can you attach a screen recording of your Mac when you plug in your device? This may help me see what is going on.

Hope this helps!

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How to force Mac to make iPhone backup to iCloud?

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