Should I be backing up iPhone to iCloud?

March 8, 2025 6:56 PM

Let's say I'm traveling solo for a couple of weeks. My phone completely dies or is lost forever. If I can get to an Apple Store and/or T-mobile, how would they get me set up with a new phone that replaces the old one? I currently don't back up my iPhone to iCloud, but should I be doing this to have peace of mind for the scenario mentioned above? Is there another plan that is better?

I can't believe I'm so dependent on this little device for everything these days. If I lost my phone on vacation, I would want to replace it quickly, so I could access at the very least: photos, text messages, email, and the airline app I use.

Normally if I travel with my partner, at least there is another phone I could use as backup, and to access our shared passwords using 1Password. If I'm not traveling with my partner, what can I do to give myself some peace of mind?

Details:
• I have a 256GB iPhone 11. A couple times on a past trip it mysteriously struggled to power on, which is probably why I am asking this question.
• I could bring another Apple device like a laptop or tablet with me, but am hoping I don't have to.
• I currently don't back up my entire phone to iCloud. Mostly because I have a ton of photos and never liked the Apple Photos app. But is this worth doing? Would that make it much easier to get a new phone while traveling and have all my data load onto it?
• I back up all my phone data to a local hard drive periodically, and Google Photos more often.
• I keep a printout of my 2FA Google login codes if I needed to get into my gmail account from another device.

posted by oxisos to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Best answer: Go through each item and decide if you use it often enough for it to be worth the space. Like I don't need to back up my weather app as I can just add those cities again, but it is also probably only a few KB, so I have not turned it off.
I don't back up mail, calendar, or messages as I think those would put me over the 5 GB quickly. Photos I have going two non-icloud places, and it is also a space hog, so I don't back them up. Make sure to get on wifi every day to make sure your photos get backed up, if you have that setting in Google to wait for wifi.
posted by soelo at 7:36 PM on March 8

Best answer: I would say that yes, it’s absolutely something you should do, at least for the time you’re traveling. You’ll need to pay for extra iCloud space, but you can pay by the month, so it’s not a big commitment.

Recovering your phone from an iCloud backup is drop-dead simple. I’ve used it every time I’ve upgraded by phone, and it just takes a little time. Backups are fast as well, since you only back up what’s been added or changed since the last backup.
posted by lhauser at 10:26 PM on March 8 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Do you have a backup for photos? If not, unlesss you have some privacy or other ethical reservation about using iCloud backup, that seems like the thing to do. If your old phone is fully backed up to iCloud when you lose it (which may require a subscription as noted above), you can buy a new iPhone, spend 15 minutes going through the setup process and your own phone will essentially be resurrected completely (might take a few hours on WiFi to get all your pics actually on device, but that’s a background process).
posted by skewed at 8:38 AM on March 9

Best answer: Your question: "...should I be doing this to have peace of mind for the scenario mentioned above?"

Answer: Yes. IMO, it's worth the money to have everything backed up. You can walk into any Apple Store in any city in the world and walk out with a new iPhone with all your info/data installed within an hour or two (perhaps less, depending on how busy they are.)
posted by SoberHighland at 8:39 AM on March 9 [1 favorite]

Best answer: > Do you have a backup for photos? If not, unlesss you have some privacy or other ethical reservation

iCloud now offers Advanced Data Protection which claims to do full end-to-end encryption of may kinds of data such as your photos. ADP also makes it easier to get locked out of your data, so be sure to read and understand the pros & cons before jumping in.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 9:54 AM on March 9

Best answer: Another plus to (at least short-term) iCloud backup is you can access this info from any web browser at iCloud.com. (Make sure that you've memorized your Apple ID (aka Apple Account) password, since you won't have 1Password available when you're using a non-personal system.)
posted by Jesse the K at 11:21 AM on March 9