How to backup iCloud Photos

I m new in iCloud services. Don’t understand how to backup my photos in ICloud and access them later.

iPad, iPadOS 18

Posted on Aug 3, 2025 08:53 PM

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2 replies

Aug 4, 2025 01:07 AM in response to arindam149

iCloud is a synchronization service, not a backup. You can enable iCloud Photos in settings and sync your library across your Apple devices.

you can also store your iPhone backup in iCloud (which will include photos so long as iCloud Photos is not enabled). Your backup of your phone will always reflect the current state of your device. Eg. If you delete images, the backup will no longer contain those images.

Aug 4, 2025 10:15 AM in response to arindam149

arindam149 wrote: …Don’t understand how to backup my photos in ICloud and access them later.

It's not entirely clear what you mean.


Perhaps you mean using iCloud to back up pictures on your iPad? Then muguy's warning is important-- if iCloud "backs up" your pictures, then it also duplicates any mistakes you make! This is not what most people want in a backup! Are you sure that iCloud is what you want?  iCloud Photos isn't a separate storage device like an extra hard drive. iCloud is a synchronization service that makes your pictures available on other devices and accessible with a web browser on any computer anywhere. Is that what you need? Many people use iCloud because, through synchronization, iCloud provides a way to free up space on small devices, but again, that's not a backup.


Or, perhaps "backup my photos in ICloud" means you are using iCloud Photos, and so so all your pictures are at iCloud.com, and you're wondering how to have a real, robust backup to a separate external drive? In that case, you can connect a hard drive directly to your iPad and use "Share>Save to Files" send the pictures to the external drive. Or, with a browser on a computer, you can go to iCloud.com and download pictures to the computer from there.


Can we add any clarification?

How to backup iCloud Photos

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