The Right Way to Backup Your iPhone Before Installing iOS 18 Beta

The iOS 18 public and developer betas are now available for anyone to install on compatible iPhone models, giving you access to previews of features that will be rolling out to millions of phones this fall.

Before you jump into the beta arena, however, it’s important to remember that these are pre-release versions of the iPhone’s operating system, which should give you some pause. While we haven’t encountered any spectacular problems with the betas so far – aside from the fact that you can’t roll back to the previous version of watchOS on the Apple Watch – it’s always best at this point to install the iOS 18 beta on a phone that isn’t your everyday device, as you may encounter bugs and other software issues.

And most importantly, make sure that you not only have a good backup of your iPhone data, but the right kind of backup. for you start the process of installing the iOS 18 beta. Follow these steps to ensure you don’t lose any data if you decide to go back to iOS 17 later.

And while you’re here, check out how RCS messaging works on iOS 18 and check out our iOS 18 beta cheat sheet.

Why iCloud Backup Isn’t Working for the Beta Versions

You’re probably used to using iCloud Backup to maintain a regular fallback for your data. It runs in the background (when you’re sleeping and charging your device) and requires the least amount of backup friction, as long as you have enough iCloud drive space available. Check out Settings > [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup and turn on Back up this iPhone if it is not already active.

However, when it comes to iOS betas, an iCloud backup introduces a problem: you can’t restore from that cloud backup if you roll back to iOS 17. And unfortunately, iCloud only keeps the most recent backup — you can’t choose from previous backup iterations. If you try to use an iOS 18 cloud backup to restore back to iOS 17, you’ll get an error.

That’s why it’s important to make a backup of your computer.

Should I encrypt the local backup?

Before creating this archived backup, you should decide whether you want to enable any of the options, Encrypt local backup. For security, this feature encrypts the data to prevent anyone with access to your computer from accessing it. This option also backs up sensitive information, such as saved passwords and personal data in the Health and Fitness apps.

The downside is that you have to create a separate password for the backup. If you forget or lose that password, the entire backup is useless. Therefore, you should write down that password somewhere where you can easily find it. In the context of creating an iOS 17 backup as a fallback for installing the iOS 18 beta, you’ll have to decide whether that’s an acceptable tradeoff.

Create a local iPhone archive on your Mac

To create this type of backup, all you need is disk space and some patience:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac.
2. Open a new Finder window (choose File > New Finder Windowor press Commando-N).
3. In the sidebar on the left, select your iPhone under Locations.
4. If you want to encrypt the data, click the Encrypt local backup checkbox and set a password.
5. Click on the General tab Backup Now.
6. Click Manage Backups.
7. Right-click (or Control-click) the backup you created and choose Archive.

Marking the backup as an archive prevents it from being overwritten by the next local backup or automatically deleted if your Mac runs out of space.

Create a local iPhone archive on Windows

The iTunes app is still the primary way to work with a connected iPhone on Windows. Open iTunes and do the following:

1. Connect iPhone to your Windows computer.
2. In iTunes, click on the iPhone button at the top left.
   
3. Click Resume.
   
4. If you want to encrypt the data, click the Encrypt local backup option and set a password.
   
5. Click Backup Now.
   
6. Click Manage Backups.
7. Right click on the backup you made and choose ArchiveThis extra step prevents the backup from being overwritten by the next local backup or from being automatically deleted if the computer runs out of space.

With an archive in order, you can use the iOS 18 beta safely, knowing that you can quickly get your iPhone back into service if something comes up that warrants a return to iOS 17.