Apple iPhone:
Cloud backup and photo sharing
This course shows you how you can back up photos and other important documents with the cloud from your Apple iPhone. You'll also learn how you can share photos with friends and family from your iPhone using the cloud.
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Transcript
Welcome to the "iPhone: Cloud backup and photo sharing" course. When you choose to create an Apple ID as part of setting up an iPhone, you also get a free service called iCloud. That lets you back up your files, photos, and videos. You can also synchronise or sync your photos, videos and files across different devices such as your iPhone, iPad and computer. iCloud also comes with lots of free software, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, and much more. And it also comes with the Siri voice assistant which accepts voice commands to search the web, set reminders and many other useful things. In this course, you'll learn how to use the Photos app to back up your photos and videos to iCloud. So that you can see them on any device and share them with family or friends. It should take around 12 minutes to complete the video but you can pause or rewind to check any steps you're unsure about.
Before you get started, check that your iPhone is fully charged and has the latest version of its operating software. You'll also need an internet connection over home Wi-Fi or using mobile data via mobile phone account and plan. And you'll need to have the Photos app installed on your phone and be signed into your Apple ID using its email address and password. Finally, your iPhone should be switched on, unlocked and showing the Home screen.
To get started, let's look at some of the features that iCloud offers. From the Home screen, find the Settings icon and tap on it to open it. Because you are signed into your phone with your Apple ID, your username will be at the top. Tap on it. The Apple ID screen will appear. Find iCloud in the list of options and tap on it. The iCloud page opens. iCloud provides you with five gigabytes of free cloud storage space for your photos, videos, and other files and documents. At the top of the page, you can see a multi-coloured bar that shows how much of that storage you've already used up. You can tap Manage Storage to see some options for purchasing more storage space, if you think you need it. Under the Apps Using iCloud heading you will see the sorts of things that have been backed up to iCloud from your iPhone.
Each app has a switch next to its name. When the switch is coloured, that means it's on and that app is backing up to iCloud. Let's look at some of the apps that can be backed up to iCloud. 'Contacts' includes your saved phone numbers and details for friends, family, and other people or businesses you want to save in your phone. iCloud keeps a backup of these, so if you lose or decide to sell your iPhone, you won't need to enter all these into your new device. 'Messages' is a backup of the text messages you send and receive on your iPhone. 'Keychain' is a useful system for saving your passwords. You can use your Apple ID to look them up and use them across other Apple devices. 'iCloud Backup' is a special category that saves your iPhone settings whenever you plug it in to recharge.
It's really useful if your iPhone ever breaks, is lost or you have to replace it for some other reason. When you get your replacement iPhone, you can sign into it with your Apple ID and use iCloud Backup to restore your iPhone to how it was before you had to reset it. Now, let's scroll back up this list and turn our attention to 'Photos'. The Photos app, will keep all your precious memories safely backed up to the cloud and you can choose to view photos and videos on another device using your Apple ID or select photos and videos to share with friends. Tap 'Photos' now to set it up with iCloud. On the next screen you'll see some options, at the top is a switch called iCloud Photos. If this option is turned off, you can turn it on by tapping the switch so it moves to the right and turns from grey to coloured. When this switch is on every time you take a photo on your iPhone, the photo will be automatically backed up to iCloud. Next are two options called Optimise iPhone Storage and Download and Keep Originals.
Optimise iPhone Storage will make sure your iPhone always has enough storage space on it by only keeping screen sized copies of your photos and backing up the full-sized photos to your iCloud. Download and keep originals means the full sized photos will be kept on your iPhone. This will take up more space but you will always have a full copy of the photo suitable for printing on your iPhone. Tap the option you'd prefer to use and a blue tick will appear next to it. Because iCloud comes with only five gigabytes of free iCloud storage and your iPhone comes with at least 64 gigabytes, it's best to choose Download and Keep Originals. The Shared Albums feature lets you create and share photo albums with other people. You can explore this in more detail later but for now, let's leave this switched off. If this is the first time you've turned on the iCloud Photos option, your iPhone will now be busy backing up your photos to iCloud. While it's doing that, press the Home button to return to the Home screen. Now, let's see how to share photos and videos with a friend by sending an iCloud link via Messages.
A link lets you share files that are too large to attach to a message, so is good for sending multiple photos and videos. Find the Photos icon, which looks like a colourful flower. Tap it to open the Photos app. Your photos will appear. They might be arranged by years, months or days. If you don't already have the all photos view selected, tap this button to see all your photos in a grid. Let's select a few photos to share. Tap the Select button at the top right of the screen. Now tap the photos you'd like to share. Each photo in the grid that you tap will show a blue tick in the bottom corner, showing that it is part of your selection. Tap additional photos to add them to the link you're about to share. You can scroll the grid by swiping up, so more recent photos appear at the bottom. Now look for the Share icon in the bottom left of the screen. It looks like a square with an arrow coming out of the top. Tap on it. The Share menu appears. Scroll this until you find Copy iCloud Link and tap it.
Your iPhone will show an alert saying Preparing iCloud Link. Wait a moment and the sharing menu will disappear and you will see the Photos app again. Now, press the Home button to go back to the Home screen, find and tap the Messages icon to open the Messages app. To start a new message, tap the Compose icon on the right of the screen. It looks like a square with a pencil. A new message appears. Enter a name or mobile phone number in the To field. And when the right contact name appears tap on it, tap and home the message box a little pop up will appear with the word Paste in it. Tap Paste. Your iCloud Photos link will appear in the body of the message. Well done. You can add a personal note here too, Make sure to press the space bar first so your note doesn't mess up the link. Tap the Send button to send the link to your friend or family member. When they receive the link, they can tap it to open their smart phones web browser and see the photos you shared.
Now that you shared your photos, press the Home button to return to the Home screen and finish this course. Congratulations! You have learned how to set up iCloud to back up your photos and videos and to share them using an iCloud link. When you're ready, you can learn how to your Apple computer to access the photos you've backed up to iCloud by watching the Apple desktop or laptop video called "Sharing photos and location with the cloud"..