"Your iPhone cannot be backed up"

[scouser75]

Hi guys, I keep getting this message on my iPhone 12 Pro running the latest FW. Can someone please confirm whether backing up the iPhone is different to backing up my emails, calendar, messages, Notes etc ?

I backup my phone to my laptop. But do want my emails, messages etc backed up to iCloud. With this in mind, would it be possible to turn off the iphone backup but keep the mail, messages etc backup?

Thanks 🙂

 

[HouseLannister]

Having an image of your phone on your laptop would be helpful if you are running betas and likely to break something and need to roll it back. Is your laptop a Mac running Tahoe?
Is your email address an @icloud.com? If so, they already have your email backed up. Ideally, your backup strategy would be to also backup those to a 3rd party service in case Apple loses your email. One backup source is two too few, IMHO.

 

[scouser75]

Having an image of your phone on your laptop would be helpful if you are running betas and likely to break something and need to roll it back. Is your laptop a Mac running Tahoe?
Is your email address an @icloud.com? If so, they already have your email backed up. Ideally, your backup strategy would be to also backup those to a 3rd party service in case Apple loses your email. One backup source is two too few, IMHO.

Hi House Lanister thank you for the advice.

I do have an icloud email, which I'm currently backing up to iCloud, along with Calendar, messages, Notes etc.

If I say no to back up my phone to icloud, can I continue to back up the above to iCloud?

And what I will do after your advice is also backup my phone to my kid's laptop. Just to have double security.

 

[kissfan]

Do you have enough storage on iCloud to back up your phone image?

Sounds like you have cloud backup turned on.

Check the use: Settings->Account
Look at iCloud storage and iCloud backup.

 

[scouser75]

Do you have enough storage on iCloud to back up your phone image?

Sounds like you have cloud backup turned on.

Check the use: Settings->Account
Look at iCloud storage and iCloud backup.

Not enough storage for the whole phone like I back up on my Mac but I do have enough for backing up my mail, messages etc.

So would it be safe to turn off the phone back up without it risking not backing up my usual icloud mail messages notes?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Maybe just a terminology issue but there is no “backing up” of most of that data to iCloud; there’s “syncing” of it though. Synced data isn’t a “backup” in that if you change or delete something on the phone, it changes/deletes on iCloud too; there’s no way to “restore” it.

Disabling iCloud BACKUP does not prevent iCloud SYNCING of data.

So would it be safe to turn off the phone back up without it risking not backing up my usual icloud mail messages notes?

if you’re referring to data SYNCING to iCloud, yes, you’re safe.

 

[scouser75]

Thank you Gents for the help. I'm pop off now and turn off phone backup.