Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which is better? iCloud Backup or iTunes?

WhackyNinja

WhackyNinja

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 6, 2012
1,840
437
Kissimmee, FL
Hi, Im familiar with iOS. I had an iPod Touch (4th gen) in 2010 and now I have an iPhone 5. But I've been wondering.

Is it better to backup your iPhone on iCloud or iTunes?

I've been using iTunes backup ever since iOS 4 which was before iCloud
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
iTunes is much, much, much more convenient in my opinion. Otherwise you're having to restore from the internet (iCloud account), and that has a downside of taking much, much longer being that they can be in gigabytes.
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
You can do both. The thing you have to pick is which one you want to be automatic and which one you want to be manual. When you pick one that's what it's doing...saying which one is auto. It's not saying you can't do the other method in addition.

I have iCloud set to automatic so it happens when I'm asleep. Then, about once a week or so, when my phone is plugged in to iTunes I right-click it and tell it to back up. That way I have both.

If I'm ever planning ahead to restore (like, a I'm getting a new phone) I'll make a new iTunes back-up and use that. It's much faster.

But if my phone ever falls in a lake I'll be glad I have that nightly iCloud back-up that's probably newer than my iTunes back-up. In that case I'd restore from iCloud.
 
N

nw9

macrumors regular
May 1, 2012
115
1
Jessica Lares said:
iTunes is much, much, much more convenient in my opinion. Otherwise you're having to restore from the internet (iCloud account), and that has a downside of taking much, much longer being that they can be in gigabytes.
Click to expand...
I agree. iTunes is still more convenient and quicker. It's also piece of mind to me when I have a backup that I can make sure is saved and backed up. iCloud has already had a major shutdown problem awhile back when many people couldn't access their iCloud accounts. This might happen again in the future when you need to do a restore. The worst case scenario would be if iCloud losses all your data.

That's the problem I have with cloud services in general. We have to trust someone else to make sure everything is backed up properly and that their servers will be available when we need them. Many of them do a good job, but there are times when it would've been good if I had my own backup copy to use. There have been a few times when I couldn't access my data when I needed it. Cloud services can be great, but I still wouldn't fully depend on them entirely.

Small White Car said:
You can do both.
Click to expand...
That's probably the best solution. It's a good idea to have multiple backups.

Small White Car said:
But if my phone ever falls in a lake I'll be glad I have that nightly iCloud back-up that's probably newer than my iTunes back-up. In that case I'd restore from iCloud.
Click to expand...
I've been good about backing up every night in iTunes, so it's not a problem for me. It's a habit that I've been doing with my Mac and my computers in general, so it was an easy habit for me to do with my iPhone. I know not everyone is willing to do it though.
 
Last edited:
WhackyNinja

WhackyNinja

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 6, 2012
1,840
437
Kissimmee, FL
nw9 said:
I agree. iTunes is still more convenient and quicker. It's also piece of mind to me when I have a backup that I can make sure is saved and backed up. iCloud has already had a major shutdown problem awhile back when many people couldn't access their iCloud accounts. This might happen again in the future when you need to do a restore. The worst case scenario would be if iCloud losses all your data.

That's the problem I have with cloud services in general. We have to trust someone else to make sure everything is backed up properly and that their servers will be available when we need them. Many of them do a good job, but there are times when it would've been good if I had my own backup copy to use. There have been a few times when I couldn't access my data when I needed it. Cloud services can be great, but I still wouldn't fully depend on them entirely.



That's probably the best solution. It's a good idea to have multiple backups.


I've been good about backing up every night in iTunes, so it's not a problem for me. It's a habit that I've been doing with my Mac and my computers in general, so it was an easy habit for me to do with my iPhone. I know not everyone is willing to do it though.
Click to expand...

Thanks you two! I might as well probably do a iCloud backup and once a week an iTunes backup like it was said before. I still think iTunes is quicker but you never know when you may need a backup in an emergency.
 
N

nw9

macrumors regular
May 1, 2012
115
1
WhackyNinja said:
Thanks you two! I might as well probably do a iCloud backup and once a week an iTunes backup like it was said before. I still think iTunes is quicker but you never know when you may need a backup in an emergency.
Click to expand...
If you had to choose only one, I personally would pick iTunes backups for the speed and convenience. If you also have bandwidth cap limits then that would be a factor in your decision too.
 
C

CTHarrryH

macrumors 68030
Jul 4, 2012
2,935
1,431
I do both as others have stated.

I also have an issue - stated other places that when I wake my phone up in the am it always says it has just completed a backup (wake up at 5 - last backup time is 5) so I'm not sure I totally trust iCloud at this point in time. But if you ever need it and not at your iTunes computer iClouds will be very important.
 
F

FlatlinerG

Cancelled
Dec 21, 2011
711
5
Why not both? Let it back up to iCloud each night and use iTunes to back it up when you know you've made some significant changes that warrant an extra backup.

No harm in having more than one backup.
 
KeepCalmPeople

KeepCalmPeople

macrumors 65816
Sep 5, 2012
1,457
659
Los Angeles, California
With iTunes on Windows 7, restoring from an iTunes backup has been very hit-and-miss for me. I'd say 50% of the time the backup runs successfully but the restore fails because the 'backup wasn't successful' (according to the message). When I restore I do an iCloud backup and iTunes backup, try to restore from the iTunes backup, and if that fails, restore from the iCloud backup (which has NEVER failed for me).

One other thing - if you restore from an iTunes backup, all your non-Apple content in iTunes also is restored.
 
Sheldonsmith

Sheldonsmith

macrumors 6502
May 14, 2011
296
67
Is there a way to do a manual iCloud backup via WiFi, yet still sync normally to iTunes on a PC?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom