How to Back Up My iPhone without iTunes
Last Updated on October 18, 2023 by Jason Ben
iTunes used to be a rather good approach for iPhone users to make a backup of their full iPhone data. However, from macOS Catalina, iTunes is replaced by Apple Music on mac and you can’t install iTunes on macOS 10.15 or later versions. This is an important reason for many people why they want to find an alternative way to back up iPhone instead of using iTunes.
Besides, there are many more situations that you intend to back up iPhone without iTunes.
- You want to selectively back up your iPhone data.
- You don’t have a computer.
- iTunes is no longer available on your computer like Windows 7 or XP. (Please note that on Windows 10, you can get iTunes on Microsoft Store.)
Before updating this article, I have done a great research and pick up several approaches to back up iPhone without iTunes. You shall choose one that fit your circumstances.
How to Back Up iPhone without iTunes via iCloud
iCloud is the primary choice for many people to create backup of their iPhone, since it is very simple and easy to use. So, if you don’t want to use iTunes then turning to iCloud will be a wise option.
- On your iPhone, go to Settings.
- Tap on your Name.
- Tap on iCloud.
- Scroll down and tap iCloud Backup.
- Tap on the toggle to enable iCloud Backup. Here you can see a pop-up window telling you that “Your iPhone will no longer back up to your computer automatically when you sync with iTunes.” Tap on OK.
- Tap on Back Up Now. Remember to keep your Wi-Fi connection stable during the process.
iCloud have little space left?
You can select some data not to be backed up to iCloud. Since photos and videos are usually taking up the majority of an iPhone storage, you can set not to sync them to iCloud backup by closing the toggles. In this way, you can back up your mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, messages, keychain and more via iCloud. As for photos and videos, you can back up them to your computer with iOS Content Manager as method 3 →.
How to Back Up iPhone on Mac without iTunes via Finder
Whereas iTunes is no longer available on masOS since 10.15, the features are kept built into other applications, and the iOS backup feature is now integrated to Finder. Hence, without iTunes on Mac, you can use Finder to back up your iPhone to your Mac. Let’s dive into the process.
- Open a Finder window on your Mac.
- Plug your iPhone into your Mac with a valid USB cable. And trust the computer on your iPhone if needed.
- In the left sidebar column, you will see an iPhone display under the Locations group.
- In the Backpups section, choose Back up all of the data on your iPhone to this Mac.
- Click Back Up Now button.
To protect your backup data, you can even encrypt the iPhone backup with password. While, it is not necessary if you think that your Mac is always safe.
To back up iPhone with Finder on Mac is a fair good choice. However, the files that backed up with Finder are all contained in a back up file that can not be viewed. If you want to view some photos or videos that you take with your iPhone on Mac, then I will suggestion you to back up your iPhone photos and videos with an iOS Content Transfer →, with which you can backup any kind of data types on your iPhone and you can view them as normal files on your Mac anytime you want.
How to Back Up iPhone to Computer without iTunes via iOS Content Manager
To selectively back up iPhone files to your computer without iTunes, you can try to use iOS content manager that can copy all your iPhone data to your computer (Windows and macOS), which is equal to backing up iPhone.
Among the various iOS content manager, today I would like to introduce iCareFone – a well designed and developed iPhone Data Manager tool available on Widdows and Mac. Let’s see how this program can help us to back up iPhone without iTunes.
Step 1 Install iCareFone on your computer, and connect your iPhone and trust the computer on the device.
Step 2 On the top menu bar, select Manage tab. Here you can see the options to copy all most all data types on your iPhone including: Photos, Audio, Videos, Contacts, Apps, Books, and Bookmarks.
Step 3 To back up the files, you just need to tick on the check box and click Export at the operating bar.
It is an advised and alternative way to back up your iPhone without iTunes, which I think is the best one among these three methods.
Conclusion
Above-mentioned approaches are the best ways to back up your iPhone without iTunes in various situations that you can pick up according to your existing condition.