If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, there are several ways to backup your device. Backups are important if your iDevice is damaged, lost or stolen, and are useful when upgrading from an old model to a newer one.

Backup to iCloud: to backup wirelessly to iCloud, go to Settings –> iCloud, sign in with your AppleID (if needed), then tap Backup. Here you can enable the iCloud Backup option which saves device configuration settings, account info, photos, messages, etc.. Apple provides 5GB of free storage, and if you need more you can purchase upgrades directly from your device.

Backup to your computer: before there was iCloud there was iTunes, and the program can still be used to backup your iDevice. When you connect your device to your Mac or PC iTunes will sync music, photos, apps, etc., and will perform a full backup if iCloud Backup is disabled. If iCloud backups are enabled, you can still run a manual backup by selecting your device in iTunes when connected, then clicking the Back Up Now button on the device’s Summary tab.