How to Backup iPhone to Google Drive

Want to back up your iPhone data to Google Drive?

Google Drive is a top-rated cloud storage service, and therefore, if you are planning to back up your iPhone device to Google Drive, it will be a great idea. In this article, we are going to share a few different techniques that you can follow to backup iPhone device data to Google Drive.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started –

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How to Backup iPhone to Google Drive

iPhones are great, especially from a privacy and security standpoint. However, due to this top-notch security, iPhones make it really hard for users to transfer data such as photos, contacts, videos, and more to non-iOS devices.

However, that doesn’t mean you cannot transfer all this data to an Android smartphone. You can use the Google Drive backup feature to create a backup of your iPhone data that you can use on any other iOS or non-iOS device later.

Another great benefit of backing up your iPhone data to Google Drive is that it adds another layer of protection for your data.

Here are a few benefits of doing this –

Backing up your iPhone data to Google Drive makes it very easy to access or migrate your data to non-iOS devices.
It makes shifting from iOS to Android very easy without worrying about data loss.
You get free access to 15 GB of cloud storage with Google Drive, which is more than sufficient to backup essential iPhone data. You can also further upgrade to other plans to increase storage capacity.
Google Drive is much more affordable compared to iCloud.
You will have an additional backup that could save you if any catastrophic situation occurs.

So, those were the benefits of backing up the iPhone to Google Drive. Now, let’s talk about how to do that. For this, we have three different methods that you can follow –

Manually Backup Contacts, Calendar, and Photos to Google Drive

To backup all your essential data such as contacts, photos, calendar, and more to Google Drive, this manual technique works great. However, we don’t recommend using this technique for backing up your photos because that will take quite a lot of time.

We recommend following the next method that we have mentioned in this article, especially for backing up photos.

To back up your iPhone data to Google Drive using this method, you have to follow these simple steps –

Download and install the Google Drive app from the Apple App Store.
Open the app and log in using your Google account credentials.
On the Google Drive app homepage, tap on the hamburger icon from the top left corner of your screen to open the menu.
Here, you have to tap on the Settings option.
Now, you have to tap on the Backup option.
Here, you will see a bunch of settings and data that are ready to back up to Google Drive. Tap on each option and enable the backup option.
Once you are done with that, you have to tap on the Start Backup option.

Doing this will initiate the backup process.

We don’t recommend using this technique to backup photos because the entire process runs in the foreground. We tried to minimize the app so that the backup process could run in the background, but it stopped the backup process for us.

This means you will be kind of restricted from using your smartphone for a couple of hours if you use the method for backing up photos.

Instead, we recommend you follow the next method to back up your iPhone photos to Google Drive.

Read How to Hide a Folder in Google Drive

Backup and Sync iPhone Photos to Google Drive

If you want to back up your iPhone photos and videos to Google Drive, this technique is going to be perfect for you. The best thing about this technique is that it keeps the backup and sync process active even when the app isn’t open.

Plus, it automatically backs up new photos and videos, meaning you don’t have to go to Google Drive again and again to initiate the backup process.

To back up all your photos and videos using this method, you have to follow these simple steps –

First, go to the Apple App Store and download and install the Google Photos application.
Now, open the app and log in using your Google account credentials.
Tap on the hamburger icon located at the top left corner of your screen.
Next, tap on the Settings option.
Here, you will see a bunch of options. Tap on the Backup & Sync option and enable it.

That’s it. This will enable the automatic backup and sync feature, and all of your photos and videos will automatically be backed up to Google Photos.

With the Google Photos application, you get access to a bunch of control settings such as video and photo quality, preferred backup option, and more.

Plus, it gives you easy access to all your photos and videos simply by installing the Google Photos application on any other device.

Read Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive

Manually Back Up Files and Folders – Using Apple Files App

So far, we have discussed how to back up photos and other essential data such as settings, contacts, and more, but what about other files available on your iPhone?

Now, this can be achieved by uploading each folder one by one using Google Drive, but that will take a hell lot of time and is kind of frustrating.

But we have a solution for that. We can use Apple’s File app to automatically enable the backup of all of your Apple Device’s files to Google Drive.

To do this, you have to follow these simple steps –

Download and install the Google Drive app on your iPhone. Make sure that you have provided Google Drive with all the necessary access to your iPhone.
Open the Files app and tap on the Browse option.
Now, click on the three-dot icon located at the top right corner to open Settings.
Select the Edit option and enable the Google Drive option by toggling it on. You may be asked to sign in to your Google account.
Now, navigate to the On My iPhone option.
After that, you have to select the folders that you want to backup to Google Drive and copy them.
Now, go to the Google Drive folder and create a folder named iPhone Backup and paste the files there.

That’s it. All your files will be copied and uploaded to Google Drive.

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Closing Comments

There you have it – a detailed article on how to back up your iPhone to Google Drive.

The iCloud is a great backup and sync tool offered by Apple, but it only gives 5 GB of free storage access. On the other hand, Google Drive offers 15 GB of free cloud storage. Along with that, the backup and sync feature of Google Drive is equally great as iCloud and also can be very helpful when shifting from iPhone to Android. These are some of the reasons people want to back up their iPhones devices to Google Drive.

Shirley

Hello, my name is Shirley. I’m a Google Drive expert and have been working with the platform since it launched. I’ve written extensively about Google Drive tips and tricks, and have created numerous tutorials on how to get the most out of the platform. I also enjoy creating tutorials to help people learn how to use Drive like pros. Read more