How To Back Up an iPhone To iCloud

There are at least two fairly easy ways to save the contents of an iPhone for restoring on a new or replacement phone. One is to use iCloud, the external, Internet-accessible storage option that Apple provides. The second, a less useful option, is to back up the phone to a Mac or Windows computer using Apple's iTunes software and the charging cable issued with the iPhone.

Here are step-by-step instructions for backing up your iPhone to iCloud. You may not have sufficient storage in iCloud to back up all the photos on an old iPhone unless you have chosen to buy more iCloud storage. You should be able to have all your contacts backed up without any difficulty. Then when you buy a new phone it will be fairly easy to get the contacts back. The iCloud backup doesn't handle music; you may have to reload music later.

How to turn on iCloud Backup: Within Settings, select "iCloud." Make sure "iCloud Drive" is set to ON. Make sure "Contacts" shows green (turns on). Make sure "Backup" is set to ON.

Select "Backup" and on the next screen, select "Backup now." If you're connected to WiFi and you have sufficient iCloud space, the phone's contents will be copied to iCloud. If you lose your phone and get a new one, you can download the contents from your iPhone to the new phone.

An attached photo shows what that iCloud screen within Settings looks like. Whatever you back up here should be able to be loaded onto a new iPhone at Verizon or the Apple Store, Target, Best Buy, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and probably even Walmart. Or you can do it yourself: you can restore the photos and data yourself, from iCloud, as part of the process of setting up a new phone.