You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Creating Periodic Apple Watch Backups

Recently my pristine 7 month old 4th Gen Apple Watch failed two days after swimming with it on for the first time. When Apple gave me a new Watch, I was dismayed to learn when setting it up that the most recent Apple Watch backup stored on my paired Apple iPhone was from last January when I upgraded from my 3rd Gen Apple Watch to my then new 4th Gen Apple Watch. Other than going through the lengthy process of periodic unpairing and then re-pairing my Apple Watch, is there no way to force my iPhone and Watch to store backups of the watch on my iPhone?

Apple Watch

Posted on Sep 6, 2019 9:59 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 6, 2019 12:05 PM

“Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your companion iPhone, so you can restore your Apple Watch from a backup. When you back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes, your iPhone backup will also include your Apple Watch data.”


Watch data backs up as part of your normal iPhone backup. When you pair a new Watch to your phone,you should be able to restore from that version. For more info on how Apple Watch data is backed up, where it’s located, and what it included, see this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518

Similar questions

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 6, 2019 12:05 PM in response to William Mckelvy

“Apple Watch content backs up automatically to your companion iPhone, so you can restore your Apple Watch from a backup. When you back up your iPhone to iCloud or iTunes, your iPhone backup will also include your Apple Watch data.”


Watch data backs up as part of your normal iPhone backup. When you pair a new Watch to your phone,you should be able to restore from that version. For more info on how Apple Watch data is backed up, where it’s located, and what it included, see this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518

Sep 6, 2019 7:23 PM in response to deggie

Deggie, thanks for weighing in but after reading your challenge to my assertion, I went on a lengthy live Apple Support Chat with two levels of agents and they both confirmed what I said, namely that under the current iOS and watchOS, the Apple Watch is only backed up when you do an Unpair command. I think you are confusing when Apple Watch backups are created with when the iPhone is backed up to iTunes or iCloud which is as you say. You can confirm my point yourself by pulling up your current list of Apple Watch backups on your paired iPhone. My hope is if enough of us are made aware of this design shortcoming that we can Feedback Apple into fixing it. If you're not sure how to find your Apple Watch backups on your iPhone, go to your iPhone Settings -> General -> iPhone Storage -> wait for the list to fill in and then scroll down to Watch (alas the list is sorted by storage space used rather than by app name so you have to search a long list. -> touch Watch in the list and you’ll see a list of your Apple Watch backup images with their dates which you can selectively delete. Note the back up images are tiny so they don’t store much and they thus tend to be located towards the bottom of the long list. Be prepared to be shocked and dismayed as I was! Thanks again.

Sep 6, 2019 3:08 PM in response to connorfromgrinnell

Thanks ConnorfromGrinnell for your speedy but alas incorrect reply. Until my recent disaster with my 4th Gen Apple Watch, I too had mistakenly believed that my Watch was being backed up frequently to my iPhone, how frequently I didn't know but I presumed it was frequent enough to cover lost, stolen or damaged Apple Watch situations adequately. To the contrary, to my utter dismay, the iPhone ONLY makes a backup of your paired Apple Watch when you unpair it, which obviously in the case of an unexpected Watch loss, theft or disabling damage situation, one is unable to accomplish. I desperately hope Apple will address this serious design shortcoming in next week's announcements and failing that, do a better job of letting Watch owners know the peril they're in.

Sep 6, 2019 3:35 PM in response to julieda

Dear Julieda, thank you for your very useful weblink revealing where the illusive Apple Watch backup is stored on the iPhone and be selectively deleted. However as you will see in my reply below to ConnorFromGrinnell, the problem my recent calamity revealed is that despite your weblink being correct, the iPhone does not regularly create backups for our Apple Watches, instead only doing so on the rare occasion when the Watch is unpaired from the iPhone, something ordinarily occurring only when upgrading to a replacement Watch from a working older Watch. Thanks again though for the worthy weblink.

Sep 6, 2019 5:23 PM in response to William Mckelvy

His reply is not incorrect. The Watch does do one more full backup when you unpair it but it is also backing up whenever you backup your iPhone (in my case nightly to iCloud). I'm not sure who told you the Watch doesn't do this but they are incorrect and there is nothing Apple needs to change or correct. If you changed the settings on your Watch/Watch App or you Watch was malfunctioning then yours might not have done so. If you were not backing up your iPhone, or using an encrypted computer backup you would not have one.

Creating Periodic Apple Watch Backups

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.