This article was co-authored by Luigi Oppido. Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work.
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This wikiHow teaches you how to export and save a full backup of your iPad to your computer. You can save a local backup to your computer and an online backup to your iCloud account.
Steps
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1Plug your iPad into your computer. Use your iPad's USB charging cable to plug it into your computer.
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2Open iTunes on your computer. The iTunes icon looks like a blue-and-purple musical note icon in a white circle. You can find it in your Applications folder on Mac or on the Start menu on Windows.
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3Click the iPad icon on the top-left of the iTunes window. This button will show up below the Play/Pause/Skip buttons near the upper-left corner of the app window. It will open your iPad's summary.
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4Select iCloud or This computer under "Automatically Back Up." You can find these options in the "Backups" section on the Summary page.
- This will allow you to automatically save a local or online backup of your iPad whenever it's connected to your computer.
- You will have to apply the changes before your backup is saved.
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5Click Back Up Now under "Manually Back Up and Restore." This will immediately save a full backup of your iPad to this computer.
- You can always restore your backup on this computer.
- You can see your latest backup's date and location under "Latest Backups."
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6Click Apply to save your changes. This will save your iPad's new backup settings, and save an automatic backup to the selected location.
- If you don't change your automatic backup settings, just click Done to quit the iPad settings.
Community Q&A
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QuestionAre there any other ways you can back up an iPad?
Luigi OppidoLuigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
Computer & Tech SpecialistYes. The easiest way to do it is to skip iTunes and just go through iCloud. Sign in with your Apple ID, go into the settings on your iPad, and then click your name at the top to open up your storage options.
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QuestionWhy can't I back up all of my images on iCloud?Luigi OppidoLuigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
Computer & Tech SpecialistPictures take up a ton of space, and you're only given 5 GB of storage space on iCloud. You have to pay $1.99 a month to get unlimited iCloud space.Support wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.
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QuestionAre there any ways that don't involve Apple services to backup my iPad?Luigi OppidoLuigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. He is also the host of the Computer Man Show! broadcasted on KSQD covering central California for over two years.
Computer & Tech SpecialistIf you have an online Dropbox or Google account, you can use those to backup your iPad. You do need a true, absolute backup to do this, though.Support wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.
About This Article
1. Plug the iPad to the computer.
2. Open iTunes.
3. Click the iPad icon on the top-left.
4. Select iCloud or This computer.
5. Click Back Up Now under "Backups."
6. Click Apply or Done on the bottom-right.
