When you take your iPhone (or MacBook) to an Apple Store for repair there is a good chance they will wipe all the data off it as part of the repair process, and if you lose or damage your phone there is no way to copy data off it, so it is critical that you have cloud backup enabled and working for any data you care about on that phone.

Here is how to check your photos and videos are being backed up on iPhone.

On your iPhone.

  1. Open Settings – Tap on the Settings app.
  2. Tap Your Name – Select your Apple ID at the top of the screen.
  3. Go to iCloud – Tap iCloud to access storage settings.
  4. Select Photos – Tap Photos and turn on iCloud Photos (or “Sync this iPhone” on iOS 16+).
Note: The basic iCloud plan provides only 5 GB of free storage, which may not be enough to back up all your photos and videos. If you run out of space, you may need to upgrade to a larger iCloud+ plan to ensure all your photos are backed up. You can check and upgrade your storage in Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Storage.

Check that your photos are being stored in iCloud.

  1. Visit icloud.com.
  2. Select Photos and make sure you see your recent phone photos there.

On Google/Android.

  1. Open the Google Photos app.
  2. Sign in to your Google Account.
  3. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or initial.
  4. Tap Photos settings. Backup.
  5. Turn Backup on and choose/enable an account to back up your photos to.

To check backups are working.

  1. Go to photos.google.com and make sure you see your recent phone photos there.

Please take a further step and copy your irreplaceable photos/videos and important data to a USB drive and put it in a safe deposit box. You don’t want to lose the video of your kid’s first steps, or photos of your collectibles for your home insurance policy.


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