When you back up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud, Apple automatically encrypts the backup to safeguard your data against unauthorized access. However, when you back up your iOS/iPadOS device on a computer, you have to manually encrypt the data for an additional layer of protection. Luckily, it’s as straightforward to encrypt local backups of an iPhone/iPad on Windows computer as it is on Mac. So, if you are willing to password-protect your iPhone or iPad backup on your Windows device to restrict its access, let me help you get started!
Before, taking you through the quick steps, I would like to highlight a few notable points worth checking off upfront. If you are familiar with the basics, you can start with the steps right away using the table of content below.
- Difference Between Encrypted and Unencrypted iPhone Backup
- Advantage of Taking Local Backup of iPhone and iPad on Computer
- Take Encrypted Back Up of iPhone and iPad Using iTunes on Windows
- Restore Your iPhone or iPad from Encrypted Backup on Windows
Difference Between Encrypted and Unencrypted iPhone and iPad Backup
Precisely speaking, the major difference between the encrypted and unencrypted iPhone and iPad backup on the computer is the included data. The encrypted backups are locked/encoded and include information like:
Apart from letting you password-protect your data, the encrypted backup feature also lets you backup sensitive information, which is why it’s so essential. On the contrary, the unencrypted backups are less secure and don’t include information like health and saved passwords.
While backing up iPhone via iCloud is incredibly easy, Apple offers just 5GB of free cloud storage, which is too little for all the photos, videos, music, and all the files stored on your device. The limited free cloud storage aside, you can’t restore your device from iCloud backup without first erasing the device, which is a tedious affair.
On the other hand, if you have a local backup of your device on your computer, you can restore your iPhone or iPad from the backup as and when you want. That’s super convenient.
- First off, download and install the latest version of iTunes on your Windows computer. Then, connect your iPhone/iPad to computer and launch iTunes.
- Next up, enter the password to protect your device backup and then click on Set Password.
How to Restore Your iPhone or iPad from Encrypted Backup on Windows
The process of restoring the iPhone and iPad from encrypted backup is just as easy.
