How to back up your iPhone to a Mac or Windows PC

TwinHop team · Updated October 10, 2026

Connect the iPhone to the computer with a data cable, unlock it, tap “Trust”, and start a backup. You need about as much free space on the computer as the phone uses, and the first backup takes 10 to 40 minutes. A backup on your computer doesn’t depend on iCloud storage or your internet connection, and it is the only source of app data when you move to a new iPhone.

What you need

• A cable that carries data. Some cables only charge. Plug the iPhone straight into the computer, without adapters or USB hubs.
• Free space on the computer of about as much as the phone uses (Settings → General → iPhone Storage on the phone shows it). iOS backs up the whole phone only, there is no way to back up part of it.
• On Windows: the Apple Devices app from the Microsoft Store (or iTunes). Without it Windows can’t see an iPhone at all.
• Time. The first backup usually takes 10 to 40 minutes. Later ones are faster: a new backup adds to the previous one.

How to back up with TwinHop

1. Connect the iPhone with a cable, unlock it and tap “Trust” when it asks. Enter the passcode if the phone asks for it.
2. In TwinHop, choose “Save a phone backup” (or start a move: the first step of every move is a backup).
3. Keep the phone unlocked for the first minutes and leave the cable alone. If the backup seems to stand still, look at the phone: it may be waiting for the passcode.

Backing up works without a license key, on Mac and on Windows. The backup is saved in TwinHop’s storage folder. To keep backups on another disk, open Settings → Storage and choose a folder there, for example on an external drive.

What is in a backup

Photos and videos stored on the phone, messages, contacts, calendars, notes, voice memos, settings, the Home Screen layout, and the data of every app: progress, documents, settings, history. It is everything you need to make a new iPhone a copy of the old one.

What isn’t, and why the backup is smaller than the phone

Don’t worry if the phone uses 180 GB and the backup takes 70. That is normal. A backup doesn’t include:

• the apps themselves. Only their data is saved; the apps are downloaded again from your purchases;
• iOS itself, caches and temporary files;
• music and books bought from Apple or synced from a computer, and music saved offline in streaming apps;
• photos that are only in iCloud. With iCloud Photos and “Optimize iPhone Storage” turned on, the phone holds lighter versions, and the originals stay in iCloud. They come back on any phone signed in to the same Apple Account.

Encrypted backups

Your Mac or PC may have been set to encrypt local backups of this iPhone at some point. The setting belongs to the phone and stays with it. TwinHop works only with unencrypted backups and tells you before it starts if encryption is on.

There is no switch for this in the iPhone’s Settings: it can only be changed from a computer. Apple explains it in About encrypted backups.

• Windows: open TwinHop Settings, go to “Devices” and click “Turn off”. Or, in Apple Devices or iTunes, clear the “Encrypt local backup” checkbox.
• Mac: in the Finder, select the iPhone in the sidebar, open the “General” tab and clear “Encrypt local backup”.

You will need the backup password: the one set on a computer earlier, not the phone’s passcode and not your Apple Account password. The phone will ask for its passcode. After turning encryption off, back up again.

Know what you give up: without encryption, call history, saved passwords, app sign-ins and Health data aren’t included. Apple keeps them only in encrypted backups.

Forgot the backup password? On the iPhone, go to Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Reset → “Reset All Settings”. Your data stays; settings such as wallpaper, brightness and Wi-Fi networks are reset, and so is the backup password.

Apple’s own guides

Apple describes the same backup with its own tools in How to back up your iPhone or iPad with your Mac and How to back up with Windows. A TwinHop backup is the same kind of local backup, made over the same cable.

Keep it safe

• Back up again before a big change: before an iOS update, before handing the phone in for repair, before you erase it.
• The backup is yours. It is an ordinary folder on your disk. It stays there after a license ends and keeps working as a source for a restore.
• Restore when you need it. TwinHop restores a backup to the same phone or to a new one with “Restore from a backup”. A restore makes the phone match the backup, so anything added to the phone since will be gone.