How to encrypt an iPhone backup on a Mac or PC, step by step

Why it is worth the one checkbox

A backup on your computer is a copy of most of your phone, sitting in a folder. A backup on a computer isn’t encrypted by default: you turn on Encrypt local backup in the Finder, the Apple Devices app or iTunes and create a password, and later backups of that device are encrypted too. Unencrypted, it can be read by anyone who copies that folder from your computer, or from a drive you back the computer up to.

Encrypting changes what goes in, too. An encrypted computer backup can include your saved passwords, Wi-Fi settings, website history, Health data and call history, which an unencrypted one doesn’t, and it never includes Face ID, Touch ID or passcode data. So on a computer, the encrypted backup is the more complete one: it is the kind that carries your saved passwords and Health data to a new phone. The guide on what is in an iPhone backup covers the rest of the contents.

Turn it on

1. Connect the iPhone to the computer with a USB cable.
2. On a Mac, open the Finder and click the iPhone in the sidebar. On a PC, open the Apple Devices app, or iTunes if it doesn’t have one (Apple’s article).
3. On the General tab (Summary in iTunes), under Backups, select Encrypt local backup.
4. Create a password when asked.
5. Let the backup run to the end.

Apple’s article says the first encrypted backup immediately overwrites and encrypts your previous backups. From then on, every backup of that phone is encrypted.

Check that it worked

The Encrypt local backup box stays ticked. To be sure, click Manage Backups: Apple’s steps say a lock beside the phone’s name means the backup is encrypted, with the date and time it was made. If there is no lock, run the backup again.

Choose and keep the password

Treat it as a key you may need once, years from now, on the day your phone dies. You can’t restore an encrypted backup without its password; resetting all settings lets you make a new encrypted backup, but it doesn’t open the old ones.

• Make it long: a few unrelated words is easier to remember than a jumble.
• Don’t reuse your computer’s login or your account password.
• Write it down and keep it where your important papers are, or in a password manager you trust.
• Don’t keep it only on the phone being backed up. If the phone is lost, so is the note.

A computer backup is one copy among several you might keep. The guide on backing up photos privately shows how it fits with the others.

If you forget it

Apple’s article gives one way forward. On the iPhone, open Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Reset, then Reset All Settings, and enter your passcode. It doesn’t touch your data or passwords, but resets settings like the wallpaper and Home Screen layout, and it removes the backup password. Then make a new encrypted backup with a new password.

The old backups stay closed for good. If you need what was in them, Apple points to an iCloud backup or an older one instead.

What the backup still won’t hold

Photos are in a computer backup only if they don’t sync to the cloud. If you have not turned on iCloud Photos, an iCloud Backup may include the photos and videos in your Photos or Camera Roll. Some apps also keep their own files out of backups on purpose, and a vault app is a common example. The guide on the Hidden album in a backup goes through what that means for photos you set aside.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps to know why the vault isn’t in this backup: its files would be useless on another phone. Sealed keeps its encrypted files out of your iPhone’s own backups, because the key never leaves this iPhone and a copy in a phone backup would not open on a new phone.

It helps that the vault has its own encrypted backup, which you restore with your recovery key. Files, names, notes and record fields are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded, so iCloud receives only ciphertext. You can restore your vault on a new iPhone from your backup, with your recovery key.

It doesn’t come back from a computer backup alone. Keep your recovery key, or the vault on a new phone won’t open. Your vault key stays on the iPhone it was made on, so on a new iPhone Sealed asks for your recovery key.