Backup on computer or icloud?

Whatever works best for you.
I do both. I'll shut off the iCloud backup and backup to my iMac every so often. Then turn iCloud backup on and let it do its thing as well. I see it the same as with the iMac, both a TimeMachine and SuperDuper backups/clones and both kept in different locations.

It isn't backed up if it's only done one way and kept in one location!

 

If your backup is < 2GB I'd go with iCloud, > 2GB go with a computer backup.

 

Do you keep your media in iTunes? If so backing up the phone to the computer would work great, it is what I do. A backup doesn't store all the media on your device. For example, my phone backup is only about 3gig where I have over 20 gig of items on my phone. From my understanding the backup only keeps things like photos and references the other items which are part of iTunes.

 

This is correct. The backup file also doesn't actually store your apps. Just the data associated with them including screen placement. I use iTunes Match, but if I were in OP's situation, I would still backup to iCloud. This way, I can restore my phone on the go if I were to ever have to have a replacement.

Then you can just sync to your computer to get the music and photos.

 

I happen to think iCloud is the way to go.

- I purchase 20GB of storage from Apple for $40 a year. Pretty cheap for a total of 25GB of storage.

- I am trying to break the ties of my devices from my computer. I don't want to rely on syncs/backups/setups with a seperate device.

- I figure if I'm traveling and my phone is destroyed, i can easily walk in a store, buy a new iphone, and restore from iCloud instanly. If my backups were on a computer back home, this wouldn't be possible and I couldn't restore.

sever the tie between your computer and phone/tablet. use iCloud 100%

 

Personally, unless your computer is brand new I'd say go with iCloud.

If you don't care about your backups and realize that your HDD may crash at any point in time go with local storage.

My buddy just texted me today saying his power supply went on his computer and he had to restore his iPhone to nothing. Granted he can go out and buy a power supply at any time, but if he had backed up to iCloud his phone couldve been restored a lot easier.

 

So how long is a typical restore from iCloud say you had 60 apps on your iPhone? I understand there are are a lot of variables. Just a guestamet.

 

~10 minutes for the data. I restored my 50-app iPad3 in about 8 minutes a few days ago. Then it takes just as long as it would to sync to your computer to actually reinstall the apps. Maybe just a tad slower since it's doing it over the network; but very comparable.

 

You can backup to both iCloud and computer. Set your iPhone to backup to iCloud. Then on your computer, in iTunes, right-click or control-click the iPhone under Devices. Choose "Back Up" from the pop-up box.

Best of both worlds. Your iPhone gets backed up to iCloud regularly, and then you can choose to backup to your computer as needed.

 

No need to turn iCloud backup off and on. Keep it turned on all the time, then every so often, connect to iTunes, right click the device in iTunes sidebar, and select "backup" from the popup menu. Voila, a backup on your computer in addition to the one in iCloud.

 

I don't want to pay for more iCloud storage so I just back it up to my PC, but then I also back my PC up to an external hard drive in case my hard drive ever dies.

 

I think I back up my iPhone one time only and have not done it again. I'm not sure if I have it off but I have not receive anything saying that my phone needs to be backup.

 

If you have a computer running iTunes there is simply no reason not to backup locally as well. Backing up using both methods gives you the best of both worlds. If you are on-the-go you'll have access to your iCloud backup if needed. If you are at home you can simply perform a full restore locally instead which eliminates the need to download your apps all over again from the AppStore.

 

I use iCloud. Got to try it for the first time a few days ago and it went perfectly.