My iPhone 13, purchased in April 2022, is down to 55% battery health and frequently shuts off unless it stays connected to power. I want to replace the battery, but I'm worried about losing my data during the repair. I upgraded to the 50 GB iCloud plan and started syncing, but I have about 37 GB of photos and only 6 GB has uploaded after six hours. The photos also aren't visible on my other devices yet. What's the safest and quickest way to back everything up without putting extra strain on the failing battery?
3 Answers
Since you have a Mac, make a local encrypted backup with a cable. Connect the iPhone, open Finder, select the phone, choose to back up all data to the Mac, enable encryption if you want saved passwords and health data included, and start the backup. This avoids waiting for the photo library to upload to iCloud. You can also import the photos directly to the Mac, then verify that the files are actually there before taking the phone in.
The amount of storage on the phone doesn’t make an iCloud upload faster or solve an iCloud storage limit. The important things here are having enough cloud space, a stable Wi-Fi connection, and keeping the phone powered on. Once the upload completes, check the backup date and confirm that your photos are accessible before replacing the battery.
Keep the phone plugged in while the backup finishes. With 37 GB of photos, the total time depends heavily on your upload speed, and the phone shutting down would be much riskier than leaving it connected. Avoid using it heavily while it syncs.
I do have a Mac and an iPad, but I wasn’t sure how to back up the photos to the Mac instead. I’ll try the wired backup and check that it completed.