How to Back up iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) to PC with or without iTunes

I have an iPhone 11 with 256GB of storage and I back up the contacts, messages, movies, or whatever it's automatically uploaded with the iCloud sync. Now I got a new PC, and need a computer backup for the extra security. But how do I back up iPhone 11 to PC? Btw, I'm using iCloud Photos and put all taken pictures onto the cloud. Is there any way to get them backed up, too?

One top priority among the wisest of geek-world is having data backups, and the same goes for your iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro (Max). While uploading data to iCloud is undoubtedly an ideal way to go when it comes to backing up your device, it's still a common practice to back up iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) in a PC or a Mac locally. This article will target at how to perform backups on a Windows computer and all the instructions below can apply to a PC running Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 or newer version.

[Further Reading: How to Back Up an Apple iPhone to Mac Easily]

Just bear in mind that the following approaches focus on making on-site data backups from iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) onto a Windows PC. You can check out this article to archive the copies of the iCloud Drive files, photos and videos in iCloud Photos, and any content that's preserved in iCloud.

Back up an iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) on PC using iTunes

Here comes the most obvious option: iTunes, Apple's intuitive backup program that costs nothing. It excels at copying nearly the entire iOS device data locally in one go, even though you wish to make a full encrypted copy of iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) on Windows laptop & desktop. Should data loss occurs, it'll grant for restoring all the original contents from the iTunes backups.

Have latest version of iTunes installed in your Windows computer, then follow up:

• Open iTunes and hook up iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) to the PC.
• When the Device button appears on the top left, click on it. (See what to do it doesn't show up.)
• In the sidebar, open the Summary page.
• In the Backups section, check This Computer option.
• Hit Back Up Now button to back up iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) data to Windows computer.

If something goes awry during the process like the popping up error message, saying "not enough space", etc., walking through this handy guide to iron out the issue and then try again.

Verify the iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) backups in PC here: C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup. To avoid ruining any of your backup files, never edit, rename or even relocate the iTunes backup files from where it's original saved. If the archives max out your PC's C drive, you can delete the one that you no longer need from here.

However, the contents in the iTunes backups aren't stored in a readable format and the only way you can decipher them back to normal is to restore them back to your device. If this bothers you, then it might be time to invest in a third-party backup application that specializes in this area.

Back up iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) to Windows PC without iTunes

Efficient and feature-rich, iOS Data Backup & Restore boasts the flexibility that every user can expect on doing iOS & iPadOS device backups on Windows or macOS computer. There're no limits on what to back up - you can select all data categories or only desired ones, and to the size of a file or the total backup size. Better still, you could access to view and manage the data inside the backup files. One more appreciated feature is that you can back up everything from iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) into a Windows-based computer: iMessage, call history, app photos, Safari bookmark, voice memos, and more.

Now, let's move on to do a local backup of iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) on a computer running Windows. Rest assured that all the backed-up data will remain exactly the same as they were when you copied them over.

Step 1: Launch the tool and click iOS Data Backup

Start the software and build a direct USB-based connection between your device and the machine.

Then, go to More tools in the lower left corner, and select the tab entitled iOS Data Backup & Restore from the resulting window.

A window will open, from which you need to click on iOS Data Backup button to go on.

Now, you'll be presented with two choices: Standard backup and Encrypted backup.

The default Standard backup mode can work fine for most backup stuff. If you need to protect the sensitive or confidential files within the backups, choose Encrypted backup mode.

Then, confirm your selection by hitting the Start button.

Step 2: Determine the sort(s) of iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) data to copy over

On the next window, you'll get a preview of all the supportable types of data that you can back up. Select the one(s) you need by checking the box(es) next to the category names. You can also highlight all of them by marking the Select All option.

Step 3: Make an iPhone 11 (Pro, Max) backup using PC

Once the selection is over, click on Next button and the tool will take care of the rest on its own.