So you just bought a new iPhone or reset your old one back to factory default. That means, you probably want to get all the old data and settings you
had on your phone up and running on your brand new or reset iPhone. And the most convenient way to do so is restoring your iPhone from a previous iCloud Backup. In this article I’ll explain how to restore iPhone from iCloud Backup in quick and easy steps.
What Is An iCloud Backup?
Basically, an iCloud backup is a duplicate of all the data, layouts, and other settings on your iPhone that is stored on Apple’s cloud service known as,iCloud.
Here’s what is included on iCloud Backup:
- App data
- Images and videos saved on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (unless you use iCloud Photos)
- Apple Watch backups
- iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages (unless you use Messages in iCloud)
- Device settings
- Visual Voicemail password (You’ll need the SIM card which was in use during backup)
- Home screen and app arrangement
- Purchase history from Apple services, such as your music, films, TV shows, apps, as well as books
- Ringtones
Having said that, there are a couple of stuff that are NOT included in an iCloud backup. These mostly include your data such as emails, Notes, Contacts, Calendars,
And bookmarks if you are an iCloud user.
This is because iCloud already stores this data on Apple’s servers separately from an iCloud backup, therefore, no need of including this data
in the iCloud backup.
Before Restoring An iPhone From iCloud
Before you restore an iPhone from iCloud, you need to ensure you already have an iCloud backup of your iPhone.
For this to happen you’ll need to have hadenabled iCloud backups on your iPhone beforehand.
To set up your iPhone to back up to iCloud, simply follow these steps:
- Start the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap on your profile at the top of the display (this will be your name).
- On the next screen, select iCloud.
- Now scroll down and tap on iCloud Backup.
- On the Backup screen toggle the iCloud Backup switch to ON position.
After performing the above steps, your iPhone will automatically back up to iCloud each day provided your iPhone is plugged to power and connected to a Wi-Fi network.
This means, you’ll have a new iCloud backup with the most latest apps and settings each day.
Therefore, when you restore from iCloud you’ll have your iPhone with the most lately used settings again.
How To Restore An iPhone From iCloud
OK, now that your iPhone’s data is backed up to iCloud, you are ready to restore your new or reset iPhone from iCloud. Here are step-by-step instructions for how to restore a current
iPhone that you are already using:
- Launch the Settings app.
- Now, tap General.
- Next, tap Reset.
- Next on, tap ‘Erase All Content and Settings’.
On the Apps & Data screen, choose Restore from iCloud Backup. - Enter your Apple ID to sign in so your phone can access your iCloud backups.
Go to ‘Choose backup’, then choose the backup you want from a list of available
backups in iCloud.
And here are the instructions for how to restore iCloud backup on new iPhone:
- Switch on your new iPhone.
- From the Apps & Data screen, choose Restore from iCloud Backup.
- Enter your Apple ID to sign in so your phone can access your iCloud backups.
Go to ‘Choose backup’, then choose the backup you want from a list of available
backups in iCloud.
After you’ve followed the above given steps, your iPhone will begin restoring from iCloud. It’s worth noting however, restoring from iCloud can take a while depending
on the size of your iPhone backup. If your iPhone backup is quite a lot of gigabytes, it could take an hour or so.