Getting a replacement iphone sent to me, what do I need to do?

[MisterBigMack]

Hi

Managed to crack the back of my iphone 5 and claimed on my phone insurance which they are replacing with another iPhone 5, I have been told to back up anything that I have on the phone, what do I need to do?

I have icloud activated on the phone with it synced with my iMac, I know I can easily get the contacts back and calendars and everything but I have a lot of photos on my phone, I think it is all in my photo stream but when i get my replacement phone how do I go absolute getting it all back on?

 

[AboutThisMac]

Do you backup to iCloud or with iTunes?

 

[MisterBigMack]

Backup with iTunes....

 

[AboutThisMac]

An iTunes backup will backup everything.

When you get your replacement, hit 'Restore from Backup' and select the last backup you made.

After you've done that, your new phone should be a carbon copy of the one you sent in....

 

[WilliamG]

I recommend backing up with iCloud over iTunes. I've found that iTunes fails to restore most of my apps/saves after, whereas iCloud has never failed me.

 

[MisterBigMack]

Ok, to be honest in the near future when the new iPads are released I am selling my mac to get an iPad so my backups will eventually be all in iCloud...

In which way is backing up to icloud different? Or just rather then to a HDD it's done to the cloud?

Thanks very much, forgot I could restore a backup!

That saves all my photos on my device? Like I said I kjow everything else is saved with iCloud but I didn't know about my photos..