[Answered] How Long does iCloud Backup Take and Why?

Why iCloud takes long to backup?

Hello Apple, every time I backup, it takes many hours to back up and I only use up to 30 GB of storage. What can I do? Please help me.

- Question from Apple Community

If you are an iPhone user, you must be familiar with iCloud, which was released by Apple as a built-in application on iPhone. You can use iCloud to backup your iPhone, you can easily restore the whole iPhone data to a new iPhone as well. But sometimes you will find iCloud backup taking days especially when you backup your iPhone for the first time. Keep reading this passage and learn more about iCloud backup.

Part 1. Why it seems that iCloud backup taking forever?

How long does iCloud backup take on iPhone? To answer this question, let’s get started to figure out how the three aspects influence the iCloud backup time.

▶ Data Amount. The more data you have, the longer it will take for iCloud to backup.
▶ Wi-Fi Condition. Since iCloud is a network application, a fast and stable speed of internet connection (your upload speed instead of the download speed) is a prerequisite for iCloud to backup well.
▶ iPhone Condition. You may find your iCloud backup time keeping increasing after you have used your iPhone for a long time. If you find iPhone storage full, it means that its performance is getting worse. Thus, iCloud backup time keeps increasing correspondingly.

Part 2. How long does iCloud backup take on iPhone/iPad?

All in all, for the question “how long does iCloud backup take on iPhone”, the answer is uncertain. If you try to backup thousands of photos, videos or other types of files, it’s no doubt that iCloud backup can take 1 or 2 hours or even take days. Even if you have a good backup habit and you backup once a week, iCloud also runs for about 7–10 minutes every time.

Bonus: How to automatically backup iPhone with iCloud
Step 1. Go to Settings > Tap [your name].
Step 2. Enter iCloud > Select Backup > Enable iCloud Backup.
Once you enable iCloud Backup, it will backup your iPhone automatically as long as you connect your iPhone to a Wi-Fi network and have enough space in iCloud.

Part 3. Back up iPhone/iPad to computer to avoid iCloud issues

Besides the aspects we have mentioned above that slow down the process of iCloud backup, other demerits of iCloud can also be seen.

▪ Limited storeage space. iCloud only provides you 5 GB of storage space to backup which is far from enough. You have to pay monthly for more space, and how much you pay depends on how much space you want to get.
▪ A waste of the storage space. iCloud backs up almost everything from your iPhone, such as your iPhone settings and your purchase history which you don’t mean to backup. It’s also the reason why your 5 GB space runs out quickly. Thus, you may suddenly find that your iPhone backup failed for not enough space in Cloud.

How long do iPhone backups take? This problem may bother you everytime you need to backup with iCloud. To avoid iCloud issues, I’d like to recommend AOMEI FoneBackup, which is a professional backup software for iPhone users. You can easily backup your iPhone to computer with a few clicks without Internet.

What you can enjoy from AOMEI FoneBackup, compared with iCloud,
✔ A selective backup process. You can preview and select the files you want to backup during the process.
✔ A fast backup speed. With the help of AOMEI FoneBackup, you can backup 100 photos in few seconds.
✔ A wide compatibility. It works well with iPhones from iPhone 4 to the latest iPhone 15 series, iPad, iPad Pro, iPad mini. Besides, it is also compatible with the latest iOS, like iOS16.
✔ An incremental backup. It means AOMEI FoneBackup only backs up the data that changed since the last backup.
✔ More functions available. Besides backing up your device, it also enables you to transfer data from iPhone to iPhone with different Apple ID.

Now, download AOMEI FoneBackup and have a try.

You can follow the steps to backup your iPhone now.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to computer with a USB cable > Tap Trust This Computer on your iPhone.

Step 2. Click Phone Backup > Choose Selective Backup and click an icon to preview and select what you want and click OK to return.

Step 3. Click Start Backup and your backup would be saved to computer in seconds.

After your backup finishes, you can go to Backup History to locate, manage, and browse the backup files at any time you like. Besides, AOMEI FoneBackup also enables you to directly access and manage iCloud files.

Conclusion

That’s all about how long does iCloud backup take on iPhone. If you prefer a quick and selective process of backup, you can choose AOMEI FoneBackup to backup your iPhone to computer without any bother of an unstable Wi-Fi connection after the first installation. Feel free to leave your comment or contact us, and we will reply to you as soon as possible.