Aug 12,2019 • Filed to: iTunes Music Transfer • Proven solutions
You can’t always control what happens to your media. Sometimes, things just don’t work the way you want them to, and it’s always too late that you realize that you should have created a backup. Before that happens, and you end up losing your entire music collection, you should definitely learn how to backup music to iCloud (or any backup tool really.) Continue reading down below to learn three effective solutions for keeping your iPhone music safe and secure.
Before we go into how you can back up your music onto iCloud, let’s do a quick review of what iCloud actually is. For most of you, you probably know the basics — it’s a storage service provided by Apple that allows you to create secure backups of your media (be it photos, videos, songs, etc.) So that, should anything bad happen, you’ll always be able to get your phone/device to an older but more secure state.
Does iCloud Backup Music?
What most people probably don’t know about iCloud, is how it actually works. When you think backup, it makes sense to picture actual copies of your data at a remote location. However, that’s not how it works. Everything in your iCloud is encrypted when you back up your music. That means, that you won’t be getting full copies of your work. There are a couple of issues with this, that you might have already figured out:
- You cannot access singular files using this encrypted backup.
- In order to use the backup, you must remove and refresh everything.
- For Music, only iTunes Music is allowed.
What does that last part mean? Well, it means — that if your music came from an outside source (outside of iTunes), it will not be backed up. The only thing that can and will get stored is iTunes purchased or synced music.
Now that we’ve reviewed how iCloud works, let’s discuss how you can use it on an iPhone! For this, the tools are literally within your reach (you won’t have to download anything new or extra.) Everything you need is built-into your device and can be found under the Settings menu. The only thing, however, is the fact that you need to have an iCloud account to be able to use this option. So, be prepared to spend a bit of time signing up and signing in — which we won’t be showing on our quick tutorial.
Guide to Backup Music to iCloud by iPhone
Step 1— iCloud
As mentioned, everything you need to backup music to iCloud on your iPhone is under Settings. On there, you should be able to find iCloud (as is shown in the image below.) Select that in order to change your settings and make use of the backup now option.
Step 2 — Backup
Once you’re on the iCloud settings (you’ll notice that there are a bunch of apps there — but you can ignore those settings, which are probably on by default, and) scroll straight down. Right before the end, you’ll see a refresh icon called Backup. Click that in order to change the backup settings on your iPhone.
Step 3 — Turn on Backup
If all you want is for your iPhone to automatically backup your data whenever it is connected to Wi-Fi, the make sure to enable the iCloud Backup option (by clicking the toggle pointed out in the image below — and making sure that it is green.)
However, if what you’re looking for is to actually back up your phone at this instant, then click the Back Up Now button provided. Either way, those are the two different options available to you as far as iCloud backups on your iPhone go!
Next, let’s turn on the automatic backup of music to iCloud to your iCloud Music library on your PC with the iTunes software! Just like before, we’re only going to be showing you the actual method of turning on the automatic backup feature. However, you are expected to have an iCloud account already before the following tutorial is of any use to you. You’ll also need to have iTunes installed and launched (which it is on Mac computers, but for PCs you’ll have to download and install it yourself.)
Steps to Backup Music to iCloud by iCloud Music library
Step 1— Preferences
Where are the backup settings for your iTunes library? Well, it’s not necessarily somewhere you’d probably expect it to be. However, it is where iTunes stores most of its settings, and that is the Preference menu.
- To gain access to the Preference menu, you can either open it up manually by going to the Edit tab and browsing and selecting it yourself.
- OR, you can press the Ctrl key and the “,” key on your keyboard simultaneously!
- Use iMusic download feature to download songs from YouTube and other popular websites (Record feature is also available)
- Toolbox feature with all sorts of extra tools that you can use (removing DRM, backing up iTunes library, restoring iTunes library, etc.)
- Tag editor for changing your metadata (album name, artist name, genre, album cover, and so much more).
- Automatic transfer and sync for your iTunes library and your iOS/Android devices.
- Easy Backup and Restore feature (which we will demonstrate below)
- Download songs on your Mac/PC from more than 3,000 music sites.
- Record Songs and Playlists from Spotify and other streaming audio sites.
Step 2 — General
For editing your iCloud Music Library settings, you won’t have to go too far into the General Preferences menu (shown below.) In fact, it’s the very first option available. So If you want to back up your music library automatically to your iCloud, you’ll need to make sure that the iCloud Music Library option (highlighted below) [1] is turned on. All you have to do next is click the OK to save the changes you made to your preference settings.
For this last portion, we’re going to be using a more ‘non-traditional’ method of backing up your iPhone music. For this, of course, we won’t be using iCloud or its services. Instead, we’re going to be using a third-party program called iMusic in order to create a permanent backup copy on our PC (which some might prefer), especially as iMusic will allow you to selectively backup what you want to back up. What else does iMusic offer for you? Let’s break down its main features:
iMusic - Backup iPhone Music without iCloud in Simple Clicks .
Tutorial to Backup iPhone Music without iCloud by iMusic
Step 1— Toolbox
As mentioned, for this tutorial, we’re going to be showing you iMusic’s manual backup and restore feature. This is actually an ‘extra’ feature (iMusic is a very multi-versatile program.) To find the Backup/Restore iTunes option, go to the TOOLBOX menu by clicking its icon at the top of the iMusic window.
Step 2 — Backup
After clicking the Backup/Restore iTunes option, the following window should appear. On there, there are really only two options available — one for backing up and one for restoring. Of course, for backing up our music, we’re going to be selecting the Backup option.
Step 3 — Select What to Back Up
Next, as we mentioned in the very beginning, you can actually select what you want to backup (be it your music, your videos, your photos, etc.) For our sample, we’re only going to be backing up the music of our iTunes library [1.] All you have to do next is click the Backup button at the bottom of the window.
Tip: You can also choose where the backup is saved (the default is the iTunes folder.)
Step 4 — iMusic Backup Folder
As mentioned, you can choose where the backup goes. For us, however, we chose to save it at the default iTunes folder. Which you can locate under This PC > Music > iTunes.
Conclusion: That’s it for our “Backup Music to iCloud with Different Effective Solutions” article. Of course, we were able to demonstrate the traditional way of doing this — either directly on your mobile device or through the automatic iCloud Music Library feature that the PC version of iTunes provides. This is all through online of course — and will require that you have an iCloud account and an iOS device. However, if you’re on Android (or any other phone outside from an iPhone) this is definitely not going to work for you. Fortunately, there are other ways of backing up your music — just like how we showed you with the iMusic software.
Try it out for yourself if you’re looking for an alternative to iCloud! iMusic has a FREE trial available for both Mac and Windows computers.
Video Tutorial: iTunes Backup and Restore by iMusic
Adam Cash
staff Editor
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