How to Restore iPhone From Backup in 2025? An Updated Guide
Admin
- September 18, 2024
- 9 min read

Now everybody has a mobile phone in his pocket and along with it, has an opportunity to listen to music, watch videos, take photos, as well as find ways to entertain himself in just a few clicks.
Well, sometime or the other, we all have lost our precious data, and it happens suddenly; and when it does, if we haven’t ensured any sort of backup option, then we regret it. This is the reason backing up your iPhone always makes sense.
There are a few such moments when your iPhone will malfunction sometimes to be fully restored, meaning they have to do a factory reset.
Later on, if they haven’t created any backup to upload all of their cherished photographs, videos, apps etc into the device, then the problem is aggravated.
Maybe you bought a new phone, and you had to put everything, all the important things that can be stored there, into this new phone. All these demands require a backup.
It’s also very similar to backing up an iPhone to an iTunes backup, depending on the type of platform you’re using.
Windows users even those running on older versions of macOS-use iTunes and its options to restore data that has been routinely saved and of value to include in iCloud.
But if you have a Mac running on macOS Catalina or later, you can count on the Finder application.
Another alternative is the factory restoration of your iPhone and downloading everything back of your amazing data directly from iCloud. Now, we are going to guide you through the steps on how to back up step by step so that you can precisely know what you are doing.
How to restore your iPhone from other backup alternatives?
Method 1: Restore iPhone via iCloud.
Step 1: Open up iCloud and then follow the device setup until you have reached the Apps & Data screen.
Step 2: Tap “Restore from iCloud Backup.” Then, enter your Apple ID
Step 3: Tap on the one you have chosen to restore from your list of iCloud Backups then tap restore. All of your backups will be dated and sized. You may be prompted to update your software before restoring, complete the prompt and continue with the rest of the instructions on the screen to finish the restore.
Step 4: If all will be recovered: your apps and purchases, you will need to sign in to your Apple ID.
If all data is successfully recovered—your apps and purchases—you may need to sign in with your Apple ID again.
Method 2: Restoring iPhone from iTunes backup
Here’s How you can restore iPhone backup using iTunes
Step 1: Launch iTunes on your PC or older Mac, then click the iPhone icon in the top-left corner of the iTunes window.
Step 2: Click “Restore Backup.”
Step 3: Select the name of the backup you want to restore and click “Restore”.
The iPhone will take a few minutes to restart and it will load a screen showing the Apple logo. Do not remove your iPhone from the computer, as the iPhone needs to sync and complete the restore process.
Within a few minutes, your iPhone should be restored step by step, and you can start using it normally.
Method3: Restore your iPhone through the application Finder.
Step 1: Open the Finder on your Mac
Step 2: Connect your iPhone through a cable to your computer.
Step 3: Open the restoration process and type in the passcode if you had set a PIN
Step 4: Initially From device locations tap your iPhone device click General tap “Restore Backup”
Step 5: From the bottom list, choose the desired backup and Tap restore wait for the restore to end.
The buttons in the Backups section will be greyed out while the backup is being restored.
You’ll see a status message below with a progress bar, indicating that your iPhone is being restored.
If you are going to do all the above, then congratulations because you will be able to recover your iPhone through the Finder application!
Also Read: How To Reopen the App Store on Your iPhone and iPad?
Method 4: Connect an iPhone to a Windows PC via iTunes?
Need to access or view files from your iPhone with a computer? Are you required to transfer files from your iPhone to your computer? Well here’s the very first way of doing it.
This is through the installation of iTunes, which centralizes all your installation requirements to begin. Through a USB connection, you can easily attach your iPhone to your laptop or PC.
With that, you can upload files such as pictures, movies, TV programs, tones, books, and hundreds more on your iPhone. In addition, it opens iTunes to share all your data files between your gadget.
How to Connect iPhone to your Laptop or Windows PC Using iTunes:
Step 1: Unlock your iPhone using its passcode and connect the same to the laptop or Windows PC with a USB cable.
Step 2: Wait for iTunes to automatically open on your computer.
Step 3: You then click the “Device” button from the iTunes. You then choose the type of content you wish to sync from the computer to the iPhone or vice versa for sync from the device for backup.
Step 4. Now you can transfer files from computer to iPhone; Type, choose Music, Movies, TV shows, Photos or data. From this window, you are going to select the files you will transfer, then click on the “Sync” icon.
Step 5. That’s all! With the steps above, you should now realize that dealing with data between your iPhone and laptop is not any kind of hard nut to crack.
This method is ideal if you’re managing media files like photos, music, and videos, and it allows for syncing between your computer and iPhone
Method5: Connecting an iPhone to a Computer using a USB Cable
Probably the most straightforward method to connect an iPhone, iPad, or iPod to your computer is by using a USB cable.
This will use no iTunes and no third-party software installation; however even though it is easy to do, only connecting your iPhone via a USB cable allows you to browse through pictures and videos off of your iPhone that you might transfer into the computer.
This will fail for users who upload or transfer particular file types. Now let me take you through how one may use USB, to connect an iPhone to a computer to transfer iPhone photos into a PC.
Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your computer. You are going to make use of a USB cable in that process.
Step 2: Unlock your iPhone. Trust the computer.
Step 3: Open “This PC” on your computer. There you will find your iPhone, under its name. If it does not appear then perhaps you have a problem with “iPhone not showing up on PC”.
Step 4: Once found search through the folder “Internal Storage”, then “DCIM”, then “100Apple”. There you should find all photos and videos saved on your iPhone.
Step 5: Copy and paste files and photos by dragging the file or picture into its new desired location. Now you can import pictures and videos from your iPhone using the above steps.
Note: This method works only for browsing photos and videos. For transferring other file types, you may need to use third-party software or sync using iTunes.
Also Read: Are iPhones Intrinsically Safe?
Method 6: Connect iPhone to computer wirelessly
All of the above methods demand you have a USB cable in your devices. However, if you do not have one then you will be requiring a wireless connection.
For that reason, you can now connect your iPhone and laptop through cloud-based services without any cables.
How to link iPhone and computer wirelessly:
Step 1: You go through the “Settings” and then choose”[your name.]” Finally, tap “iCloud.
For instance, you can transfer photos from your iPhone to a computer just by tapping the “Photos” tab of iCloud settings and enabling “iCloud Photos”.
Step 2: Simply open any browser from your computer and access www.icloud.com.
Step 3: Now log in using the password of your Apple ID from your iOS.
Step 4: Now tap on iCloud and, by clicking on “Photos,” you can view all photos that are saved to your iPhone on your computer. You also have an option to download an image or video from your iPhone to your computer.
Step 5: Tap on the download button.
This is as easy as the steps written above in activating your capability for wireless connectivity of your gadget without having to depend on using a USB cable.
This method allows you to wirelessly manage your iPhone data without the need for a physical connection. However, it requires an active internet connection and sufficient iCloud storage space for syncing.
Conclusion
Restoring from an iPhone using an iCloud backup is a process so simple, so easy, if one knew how to do this. For starters, it’s important for the simple reset method and more involved select the restore method.
These tools and tricks allow control over data on an iPhone. Alright then, be patient and prepared; the right approach will ensure that the device is restored as soon as possible.
FAQs
Q1. Why would I want to back up my iPhone?
This comes in handy for you to have an entire backup of your data should your iPhone get stolen, lost, or destroyed. You will always have regular backups being done to iCloud or your computer, and this will mean that pictures, apps, contacts, settings, and much more will be there when you need them.
Q2: How long it will take to restore an iCloud backup?
This may take some time depending on how large your backup is, the amount of bandwidth they allow you to use, and how heavy their servers are from the time you initiated the restoring. Some of the smallest restores might just take you but a few hours to an afternoon, while the bigger ones might take quite a while and take you a day or more.
Q3. Does restoring from iCloud delete my data?
Yes, but only if you are activating a new iPhone or resetting to one that already exists; you choose to restore from an iCloud backup. You’re going to clear all the data on that device. This is why regular backups have to be done so you can obtain the most up-to-date info to place back onto your device.
Q4: How to selectively choose what is to be restored from the iCloud Backup?
Technically you cannot choose the kind of data, and the whole restored copy; third-party application Wondershare Dr.Fone will allow choosing what to restore – texts, contacts, photos, etc.