BACK UP YOUR OLD iPHONE OR iPAD
Get ready to transfer all your important data to your brand–new device
MOVING TO A new iPhone or iPad? Well, there are multiple ways of doing that, too. Whichever option suits you best, it’s a very good idea to ensure that you have a full backup of absolutely everything on your current device before you move to your new one, and that you keep backing up your new device to keep your important data safe.
Apple offers two kinds of device backup: wirelessly to iCloud, and via a cable to iTunes or Music, with the backup stored on your Mac.
The former is more convenient, but you’re limited by the size of your iCloud account, which for non– students is 5GB unless you pay for a larger storage capacity or have an Apple One subscription.
There is a workaround, though: if you head into Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Prepare For New iPhone, you can get 21 days of extra iCloud storage to move your apps and data to your new device.
Once that 21–day period is over, you revert back to your standard storage amount, and the free 5GB tier just isn’t enough to back up even the most modest iPhone. That means you’ll need to get more storage if you want to keep using iCloud for your backups.
Go to Settings > iCloud > Manage Storage; the cheapest upgrade is currently $0.99 a month for 50GB, rising to $2.99 for 200GB and $9.99 for 2TB.
If you’re moving from an Android device or Chromebook to an iPad, you’ve got multiple options here. If you’ve been using Google’s services and apps such as Google Photos, Google Calendar, Google Chrome and so on, which are the defaults on most Android and Chromebook devices, you can install Chrome on your Mac and access Google’s apps in that or in Safari. If you’d rather use Apple’s apps, use Google Takeout to export your data in Apple–friendly formats. We’ll show you how to do that here.