How to Fix iCloud Backup Taking Forever Issue

There are lots of situations where we need to back up our iPhone iPad iPod touch, like new iOS 15 upgrading, getting a new iPhone 13 to set up, in case of data loss accidentally, and more. And many users are fond of backing up iPhone iPad to iCloud.

If you choose to back up your iPhone via iCloud service, you may find that it takes so long to finish the iPhone backup, or even the iCloud backup failed. Here in this guide, we will talk about how long does iCloud backup take, the solutions to speed up iCloud backup as well as what does iCloud backup include.

How Long Does iPhone Back Up to iCloud Take

iCloud can be the most common and convenient way to back up our iPhone iPad iPod. Then, how long does it take to backup the iPhone to iCloud? Actually, it’s hard to give you a confirmative answer to this. The time iCloud takes to back up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch depends on the files which will be backed up and your Wi-Fi network speed, and it may take 30 minutes to even hours to backup. Sometimes, the backup may fail for kinds of reasons like poor Wi-Fi connection.

If your network speed is slow and unstable, even a small amount of data will take a lot of time to back up. Also, if the majority of storage space on your phone has been taken and there is too much data that needs to back up, then it will take longer to finish the iCloud backup process. Besides, make sure that you have enough iCloud storage to store the files. Otherwise, it may cause the iCloud backup to take forever issue.

How to Fix: iCloud Backup Taking Forever Issue with 6 Solutions

iCloud backup slow issues have bothered lots of iOS users. Here are some solutions that may help you resolve the problem, and speed up your iCloud backup speed. Here are ways to solve the iCloud backup taking forever issue.

Way 1. Clean up Your iPhone

iCloud offers every user 5 GB of storage for free. If the size of your backup content is way more than 5GB, then you need to pay for more storage. Clean out useless or unneeded data on your iDevice before backing up to iCloud, which could make the backup faster and smoother.

Way 2. Disable Large Files Backup

Sometimes large files are also the reason why your iCloud backup taking such a long time. For example, you may have some apps that you don’t use frequently or piles of unwanted photos. Select those apps, photos, or files that take up a lot of space, disable them.

If you are an iTunes user, you can also back up useful large files with iTunes. This article may help you a lot, How to Backup & Restore iPhone iPad with iTunes.

Way 3. Reduce iCloud Backup Size

Turn off the backup for those non-essential data types and select only what you need to back up. About how to turn off unnecessary Apps, you can follow the steps below:

On your iPhone iPad, go to Settings App > General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage in iCloud column > Select the device you want to manage in BACKUPS column (if you are using the same Apple ID on more than one iDevice) > CHOOSE DATA TO BACK UP column > Tap on “Show All Apps” > Select the unnecessary Apps and tap on it to turn it off > Tap on Turn Off & Delete.

Way 4: Back Up to Computer Instead of iCloud

For most iPhone iPad users, the photos and videos occupy much storage on their iDevice. Just for me, I am working with a 16 GB iPhone 6, but the Photos & Camera takes about 2GB storage. If I make an iCloud backup, no doubt, the Photos & Camera will eat up almost half of the free iCloud storage, and it also takes me a long time to make a whole iCloud backup. I believe my situation is not rare and may happen to most iDevice users.

If you are stuck on the iCloud backing up problem, like iCloud storage is not enough or iCloud backup takes forever, and you all have one thing in common – Photos & Camera takes too much space on your iPhone, at this moment you can consider backing up your photos to the computer. And here’s the detailed guide, which offers you several ways: How to Backup iPhone Photos to PC or Mac Computer >

After backing up all the photos to the computer for backup, you can delete them from iPhone iPad to make the iCloud backup smaller, and speed up the iCloud backup speed. Read this guide to learn how to delete photos from iPhone iPad.

Way 5. Using a Reliable Internet Connection

Using a reliable, fast Internet connection as possible when backing up your iOS devices. And close other working procedures or applications using the Internet to increase the bandwidth available on your iOS devices. Besides, you can contact your ISP if you have slow Internet.

Furthermore, here’s a recommended method for you. Connect your device to Wi-Fi, and charge it before you go to bed at night, it will back up your data silently. And when you wake up the next morning, it already has your backup files.

Way 6. Try an iCloud Alternative to Backup iPhone

Some users stick to iCloud backing up iPhone iPad, probably because of its automatic backup feature. But you need to notice that this would happen only when iPhone iPad is connected to WiFi and in charge. Besides, every time iCloud backs up, it will create a new file, even though most of the data is as same as the one before, which will waste a lot of your iCloud storage. All iCloud backup files are not enabled to view, either. So in this part, we recommend you use AnyTrans to back up iPhone content. Here are the features of AnyTrans Air Backup.

Step 1. Download AnyTrans and install it on your computer firstly.

Step 2. Run it on your PC/Mac > Make sure that iPhone iPad and computer are connected to the same WiFi. The first time you try Air backup, you need to connect your iPhone to the computer with a USB cable.

Step 3. Choose “Backup Manager” tab > Click the “Trust This Computer” option on your device > Click “Air Backup for [your phone] automatically” option. 

What Does iCloud Backup Include

Making an iCloud backup so that you have a copy of the files on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. In this case, you can easily get your important data back by restoring from the iCloud backup you made before. Then, what iCloud Backup includes? Here’re the files that iCloud support to backup:

• App data
• Apple Watch backups
• Device settings
• HomeKit configuration
• Home screen and app organization
• iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages
• Photos and videos on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch1
• Purchase history from Apple services, like your music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books
• Ringtones
• Visual Voicemail password (requires the SIM card that was in use during backup)

The Bottom Line

As you can see, here are all about how to speed up iCloud backup. If you have tried all the general tips, but still finds that iCloud backup takes a long time, you could try AnyTrans to explore a different backup method.