Backing up an iPhone to a Mac

[MikeFromMesa]

I tried to backup an iPhone 12 to my Mac mini (running Ventura). I checked the Apple webpage and they gave very specific instructions:

1. Connect iPhone and your computer with a cable.
2. In the Finder sidebar on your Mac, select your iPhone.
   To use the Finder to back up iPhone, macOS 10.15 or later is required. With earlier versions of macOS, use iTunes to back up iPhone.
3. At the top of the Finder window, click General.

Since I am running Ventura on an M2 Mac the OS is later than 10.15, but there is no "General" link for me to click in the Finder window. Sec the screen shot below.

Can anyone tell me how to backup an iPhone to an M2 computer?

 

[MacInWin]

You have to trust the iPHone on the Mac, and the Mac on the iPhone to get them to connect and go past that screen. Then the menu shows up and the "General" tab is there. I know it works because I am on Ventura as as the screenshot says, iOS 16.5. So click on the "Trust" and then look to the iPhone and see a prompt there to trust as well.

 

[MikeFromMesa]

You have to trust the iPHone on the Mac, and the Mac on the iPhone to get them to connect and go past that screen. Then the menu shows up and the "General" tab is there. I know it works because I am on Ventura as as the screenshot says, iOS 16.5. So click on the "Trust" and then look to the iPhone and see a prompt there to trust as well.

View attachment 38639

Thank you.

I had pressed Trust on both devices before I posted the question, but I did not wait for the device sync to complete. It took so long (about 15 minutes) that I thought it was hung and closed the window. When I tried again this morning the backup dialog showed up and I was able to do the backup.

So, again, thank you.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Every once in a while, I backup my iPhone and iPad to my Mac. In the past I didn't need to enter my passcode every time I did that, but now I have to.

I've always wanted to be able to automatically back it up to both the cloud and my Mac every day.

 

[MacInWin]

Every once in a while, I backup my iPhone and iPad to my Mac. In the past I didn't need to enter my passcode every time I did that, but now I have to.

I've always wanted to be able to automatically back it up to both the cloud and my Mac every day.

What iPhone, what Mac, what version of iOS and what version of macOS?

 

[MacInWin]

Thank you.

I had pressed Trust on both devices before I posted the question, but I did not wait for the device sync to complete. It took so long (about 15 minutes) that I thought it was hung and closed the window. When I tried again this morning the backup dialog showed up and I was able to do the backup.

So, again, thank you.

15 minutes is much longer than it should take. 15 seconds is closer. I would check the cable you used to see if it is dodgy. One thing is that to connect, both the Mac and the iPhone need to be unlocked and, as I said, trusted.

 

[Howard Brazee]

What iPhone, what Mac, what version of iOS and what version of macOS?

iPhone 12 Pro ios 16.6, M1 iMac macos 13.4.1.

 

[MacInWin]

Ok, there is an update to Ventura to be 13.5.1, but that's not needed to get what you want. (I would do it, though, as there are security fixes in that update.)

Open Finder, connect the iPhone by USB cable. In the Finder sidebar, find the iPhone and double click to open it. You should get a panel shwoing the data on the iPhone. In the "Backups" section you have to choose to backup to iCloud OR to the Mac. You cannot chose both. However, if you set Finder to use iCloud, it should do a daily backup of the critical data.

Then, if you want a backup on your local machine, you can use something like iMazing to do that. Again, connect the iPhone by USB, launch iMazing and set up backup to the Mac using that. I'm not sure if iMazing will be "automatic" or not, but at least it is available to you.