How to set up, back up, restore, and update using iCloud

Everything you need to know about setting up, backing up, restoring, and updating your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iCloud

With iCloud, you no longer need to plug your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC to set it up for the first time, to keep it backed up, or to upgrade the software. Now you can do all of that, and more, faster and more easily, over-the-air (OTA) on your local Wi-Fi network. Because routine tasks, like backups, happen automatically, you don't have to worry about forgetting them and then finding out you don't have one when you need it most.

When you turn on your new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you'll be greeted with a Lock screen that simply says "iPhone", "iPod" or "iPad". That's where we start.

1. Swipe to unlock to start setting up your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
2. Choose your language. Your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will show you the most common languages for the area in which you bought it, but you can tap thedownward arrow icon to see all the choices. Tap the blue Arrow button to continue.
3. Choose you country or region. Again, your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will show you the region where you bought it, but you can tap Show more... for additional options. Tap the blue Next button to continue.
4. Choose whether you want to globally enable or disable location services. Location Services use GPS (on an iPhone or iPad 3G/4G), cell-tower triangulation, and Wi-Fi router mapping to determine the approximate location of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad . This feature is used for turn-by-turn navigation (like Navigon, check-in games (like FourSquare), social networks (like Facebook), geo-tagging (like in the Cameraapp), and utilities (like Find my iPad), etc. Unless you have a particular need to globally disable it, you'll want to turn on the Location Services feature at this point. You can change your mind or selectively disable or enable these services later on in the Settings app (e.g., turn off your Camera app’s geo-tagging, but leave on TomTom’s turn-by-turn navigation). Tap the blue Next button to continue.
5. Choose your Wi-Fi network. Even if you're on 3G or LTE, your iPhone or iPad wants Wi-Fi because there may be a lot of data to move around and blasting through your data cap on setup is no fun. Enter your network password and tap the blue Next button to continue.
6. Wait for Apple to activate your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad . This could take a few minutes.
7. Choose if you want to setup your iPad as new, restore from iCloud backup, or restore from an iTunes backup on a PC. Tap the blue Next button to continue.

How to create an Apple ID

In order to use iCloud, you need to have an Apple ID. An Apple ID can be an iTunes Store/App Store account, me.com email account, Apple developer account, FaceTime or iMessage account, etc.

If you already have one of those, skip ahead to the next section. If not, you'll have to create one.

1. Choose **Create a Free Apple ID**
2. Enter your Location and Date of birth

3. A new window will open asking you to use an existing email address or create a free @me.com address

4. You can use any email address you like, including an existing gmail, Yahoo!, hotmail, etc. address. If you want a new email address, however, to take advantage of Apple's free push email service, select get a free @me.com email address
5. Fill in all your details and tap Next
6. Accept the iCloud Terms and Conditions

That’s it done, you now have a new iCloud account all set up and ready to go!

How to set up a new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with iCloud (clean install)

While you can always restore your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad based on a previous backup of the same or different iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you can also set it up as new. If it's your first device, or if you simply want to start fresh to ensure optimal stability and battery life, setting up as new should be your go-to.

1. Choose sign in with your Apple ID.
2. Enter your Apple ID to login. (Enter your full email address as the username.) Tap the blue Next button to continue. (If you change your mind, you can logout of iCloud, or login under a different account later.)
3. Agree to the terms and conditions of service by tapping the blue Agree button on the bottom left.
4. Confirm your agreement by tapping the Agree button.
5. Choose Use iCloud. You need to do this or none of the other cool stuff will work.
6. Choose Use iCloud Backup. This way you won't have to worry about backing up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad manually to a computer.
7. Choose use Find my iPhone/iPod/iPad. This way, if you lose your device, you can track it down more easily.
8. Choose if you want to automatically send Diagnostics to Apple. It's anonymous and helps make Apple make better products, but if you're uncomfortable with the idea, choose Don't send.

Your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad will now be set up. Because it's communicating with Apple's iCloud servers, it could take a few moments to complete.

How to restore your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad from an iCloud backup

If you have an old iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and need access to your old data quickly, or dread the idea of starting from scratch again, you have the option of simply restoring your new iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad from a backup of your old device.

1. Choose restore from iCloud backup.
2. Enter your Apple ID to login. (Enter your full email address as the username.) Tap the blue Next button to continue. (If you change your mind, you can logout of iCloud, or login under a different account later.)
3. Agree to the terms and conditions of service by tapping the blue Agree button on the bottom left.
4. Confirm your agreement by tapping the Agree button.
5. Choose your backup. You'll see your Latest iPhone/iPod/iPad Backup listed. This is usually the one you want to choose. You'll can also see older backups, and backups of your other iOS devices on the same iCloud account.

A progress bar will show you an approximation of how long it will take to download your backup. Once it's done, your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will reboot.

Once your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad reboots, all your previous settings will be back in place, and you'll be asked to re-enter all your passwords (as a security measure, iCloud will not restore passwords).

Once that's done, your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad will start re-downloading all your apps. You will need to stay on Wi-Fi for any file larger than 50MB to re-download.

How to backup your iPhone with iCloud

iCloud will automatically back up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad whenever you plug it into a power source and it is connected to a Wi-Fi network. iCloud backup requires power so it doesn't run the battery down while backing up, and it requires Wi-Fi because of the potentially large amount of data it will transfer.

How to manually trigger an iCloud backup

If you need to replace or restore your phone, or you know you’ll be traveling for a while and want to make sure the backup is done before you go, You can initiate a manual backup.

1. Launch the Settings app
2. Tap on iCloud

3. Tap on Storage & Backup near the bottom

4. Tap on Back Up Now at the bottom.

Depending on the speed of your Wi-Fi connection and how much you have to backup, it could take a while to complete. When it's done iCloud backup will be up to date.

How to delete an iCloud backup

Since you only get 5GB of free storage with iCloud, if you don't want to upgrade and pay more, you might want to delete some older backups, or backups from iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads you no longer use, to save space.

1. Launch the Settings app
2. Tap on iCloud

3. Tap on Storage and Backup

4. Tap on Manage Storage

5. Check out your current backups stored on iCloud. (Here you can see two iPhones, including one replaced at the Apple Store last week and so no longer needed).

6. Tap on the backup you want to remove from iCloud
7. Tap on Delete Backup

8. Tap on Turn Off and Delete

That’s it, that backup has now been removed and the space reclaimed in iCloud.

How to manually manage what gets backed up to iCloud

If you don't want to, or simply can't delete an entire iCloud backup in order to save space, you can still control what gets backed up. For example, backing up the Camera Roll can use up a large amount of your iCloud storage. Since Photo Stream captures a lot of that data anyway, and isn't counted against your total storage usage, turning off Camera Roll backup can save you considerable space.

1. Launch the Settings app
2. Tap iCloud near the bottom
3. Tap Storage and Backup near the bottom
4. Tap Manage Storage
5. If you have multiple devices on the same iCloud account, tap on the name of your device
6. You'll see a list of apps currently being backed up to iCloud. Not all apps will be shown immediately. Too see them all, tap Show All
7. For any apps you don't really want or need to be backed up, switch the toggle button to Off

The Camera Roll above is 35GB. That could cost you quite a bit in iCloud storage fees!

How to buy more iCloud storage

If you run out of free space, and there aren't any backups you want to delete or apps you want to stop backing up, you can choose to buy more iCloud storage.

1. Launch Settings

2. Tap on iCloud near the bottom

3. Tap on Storage and Backup

4. Tap on Buy More Storage
5. Select your storage increase option -- 10GB for $20, 20GB for $40 or 50GB for $100 per year.

6. Enter your iTunes password to charge the increase to your iTunes account.

If you change your mind, you have 15 days to contact Apple and cancel the storage increase. If you're happy with it, you'll be billed the same amount, once a year, for as long as you keep the selected storage tier.