backing up to iCloud, and restoring from computer

Question

I have 60GB of photos on my iPhone, so I can't back it up to iCloud, I suppose even if I bought the max iCloud plan from Apple? If I turn on iCloud backup for this device and disable photos it can be backed up (at aprox 1.5GB).

With these iCloud settings, I assume manual backups to the computer will be unaffected, that is: they will still back up all data from the phone to the computer, including photos. Am I correct?

The plan is to use iCloud to restore my phone (contacts and apps) in case of emergency, but to have a main backup on my Mac to restore all photos etc. Am I on the right track here?

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

So much confusion over iCloud, so little help from Apple.

iCloud was introduced as an sync service between all your Macs and iDevices. Yes, one can buy storage beyond the free 5GB ... but I'd look closely at the specifics of backing and and restore, and also give it a trial run. Too many posts on lost data and the like on Apple Discussions to think Apple's got the cloud down pat, not yet.

Backing up to your Mac, however, is solid, you've probably got more than enough free space (check that out.) In many cases, I just zip a copy of the relevant folder and drop it into ~/Users/Shared.

BUT, you really want a second location for irreplaceable things like photos. This could be on a portable USB drive, which could also serve as a clone--nothing like having a copy of your whole computer on a start-up disk. I recommend spending also a few bucks a month on off-site backups to A3, using Arq, by Haystack Software, for automatic timed backups of files that change. The restore function is easy and impeccable.