How to Backup iPhone without iCloud: Top 3 Ways [2024]

iCloud only gives you 5GB of storage space - not enough to store all your data. Read this guide to know how to backup iPhone without iCloud.

Lena

By Lena / Updated on December 28, 2023

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How do I backup my iPhone without iCloud?

iCloud has stopped working for me. It keeps failing on my iPhone 13. I would like to know how do I backup my phone if I don't have iCloudstorage.Wish they could be as easy to use as possible.

- Question from iPhone user

Backing up iPhone data should be very necessary and when users plan to make an iPhone backup, iCloud or iTunes is often the first thing coming into mind.

Saving things to iCloud makes you restore iPhone or transfer data to new iPhone everywhere you want with the Internet. However, if the iPhone content exceeds 5GB, the iCloud backup will fail.  This is the main reason why many people want to know how to backup iPhone without iCloud storage.

Recently, some users have reported seeing strange photos and videos that don't belong to them when browsing the library through iCloud for Windows. This has led many people to question the security of iCloud. Is this the reason you don't want to use iCloud to backup iPhone?

Fortunately, iCloud is not the only option for iPhone backup. You can choose to create iPhone backup on PC with iTunes or a third-party tool.  If you still want to store your backup in the cloud, there is an excellent cloud storage solution for you.

Section 1. Best Way to Backup iPhone without iCloud or iTunes

Either iCloud or iTunes does not give you the choice to easily manage backup. If you want to take control of your backups, one third-party iPhone data management tool FoneTool can meet your needs. 

  • Backup entire iPhone or selected files to Windows PC

  • Preview every item and select the needed data to backup

  • View and locate data in your backups on computer

  • Create incremental backup to save time and space

  • Restore backup files to iPhone without deleting anything

In short, FoneTool is a good alternative to iCloud/iTunes and even offers more features to help you backup your iPhone the way you want. Click the download button to get it and follow the steps below to backup your iPhone 14/13/12/11/X/8/7/6.

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7
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How to Backup iPhone without iCloud or iTunes

  • The Full Backup will help you backup all content and settings in one click.
  • The Selective Backup will help you backup the selected files.

How to backup your iPhone without iCloud or iTunes - Full Backup

1. Launch FoneTool > Connect your iPhone to computer via the USB cable.

2. On the home interface, choose Phone Backup on the left pane. Choose Full Backup. Click Get Started.

Full Backup

3. Enable backup encryption to backup private data such as Fitness records, Health and Keychain > Select a path to store the backup (Location folder, external hard drive, USB flash) > Click Start Backup.

Start Backup

Backup iPhone without iCloud or iTunes - Selective Backup

1. On the Phone Backup. Select Selective Backup.

Custom Backup

2. Select the data you want to backup > Click OK to continue.

Select iPhone Data

3. Select a path to store the backup and click Start Backup.

Start Backup iPhone

Tips:
● Your iPhone data can be viewed and located. Click the eye icon to view data in FoneTool and click the pin icon to locate data on computer.
● You could backup iPhone to NAS, but you must map the network location to computer before you can see it in FoneTool.

Section 2. How to Backup iPhone without iCloud but with iTunes

Want to save the same things like iCloud works for you? You can turn to iTunes. It will create a backup package for your iPhone. If you don’t know which content will be saved, you can read this what does a full iPhone backup include guide.

1. Download iTunes on computer and connect iPhone to iTunes with a USB cable > Click the device icon.

Device Icon iTunes

2. Select Summary in the left > Choose This Computer and click Back Up Now. It might be finished in about 15 minutes.

iTunes

You can only make a full backup of iPhone (usually more than 8GB) every time with iTunes and these backups will be only saved to C Drive. If you often use iTunes to do that, your C Drive will be jammed with iTunes backups soon.

Besides, like iCloud backups, iTunes backups cannot be viewed, too. If you want to always take control of your backups, you should try Section 1.

Section 3. Backup iPhone without iCloud but with Google Drive

If you prefer to backup iPhone to cloud services, you can choose to backup iPhone to Google Drive. Although Google Drive does not save as much data as iCloud does, it gives you far more cloud storage. You would have 15GB of free storage to save iPhone photos, contacts, and calendars. This could be a proper solution on how to backup iPhone without storage when you have many pictures in Photos app.

1. Download and install Google Drive from App Store.

2. You need to sign in Google Drive with a Google account and click on the Menu icon (parallel lines) in the upper-left corner.

3. Select Settings > tap Backup > tap Start backup.

Google Drive

Conclusion

For some reason, your iCloud backup failed or you just don’t like to backup or restore iPhone with iCloud backup. Indeed, iCloud is not so convenient to use so you want to know how to backup iPhone without iCloud in 2023.

You can use FoneTool or iTunes to backup iPhone to computer. FoneTool is more recommended because it lets you take full control of your backup without Apple ID. If you still prefer cloud storage, you can use Google Drive to backup iPhone data with more free cloud storage.

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