this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2025
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Hello,

I am trying to help my girlfriend backup her iPhone and Macbook.

I am a bit unfamiliar with the Apple ecosystem, and she's still not very familiar with the technical aspects of it.

With my android and PC, it seems a bit more straightforward. Certain programs or services will backup everything, and I can restore it all exactly as it was at that time.

But the Apple webpage for iCloud Backup lists a bunch of things it backs up, meaning, it doesn't backup everything?

I'm trying to figure out the best way to make backups of her phone and laptop so she can restore them exactly as they were when each backup was made.

Do iPhones and Macs have this type of option? Backing up everything, like taking an image of them at that point, including all apps, all files, all settings, every little thing, and then using that to restore them at a later date if needed?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Any direction or guidance you might be able to provide is greatly appreciated.

I'll update with any solutions or options for your opinions if I'm able to find any.

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[–] mbirth@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If you have the iCloud storage available, you can do iCloud backups. It will backup all the data from the phone, but not the apps themselves. (Those apps will auto-install after a restore, though.)

As for the Macbook, the usual way is an external USB drive and TimeMachine (which should be preinstalled). You can also take a complete backup of the iPhone using macOS's Finder (the phone should popup there as a "drive" once connected via cable) and then backup everything to a HDD/SSD via TimeMachine.

[–] freedickpics@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago

You can also take a complete backup of the iPhone using macOS’s Finder (the phone should popup there as a “drive” once connected via cable) and then backup everything to a HDD/SSD via TimeMachine

Just to piggyback on your comment, it is possible to directly back up an iOS device to external storage, but it's not officially supported. You have to create a symbolic link from the default backup location (~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup) to the external drive