When you set up your Apple Watch and pair it to your iPhone for the first time, it’s automatically backed up. This is a great feature and ensures that even if something goes wrong with your watch, you can always get things back up and running as if nothing happened.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to back up your Apple Watch and tell you what data is included in your backup.
How to Back Up Apple Watch
If you regularly back up your iPhone, then your Apple Watch data should already be backed up. Because Apple Watches pair to our iPhone devices, most of the data and apps installed on the Watch back up to the iPhone device automatically.
But automatic backups do not cover everything. For instance, the passcode that users need to input to access their device will not be backed up if lost.
If your Apple Watch is backed up, even if it needs to be reset and brought back to factory settings, most of its app and data content can be restored easily with the latest backup version.
As long as your Apple Watch is paired to an iPhone device and is in its proximity, the latest version of the watch’s system is backed up automatically.
There are no settings to toggle this on or adjustments to be made, it is defaulted to regularly back up data and apps.
But if you were curious where the settings are, you can assure that backups are set up to active by looking in your profile of the iPhone settings.
- Simply navigate to the iCloud tab
- Make sure iCloud Drive and Watch are toggled on, as well as any aspects you want to be backed up.
- Tap Back Up Now if it has not been backed up recently.
If you unpair your Apple Watch from the iPhone at any time, a snapshot is taken of the last version of the watch in order to restore it to the latest possible backed-up point.Â
Here’s what your Apple Watch backup includes
The automatic backup includes the majority of your Watch’s data including:
- The layout of the home screen
- The watch’s selected face along with any customizations
- Time zone, brightness, haptics, dock, notification, Siri, and other general system settings
- As long as all of the apps are set to backup to iCloud, all app-specific settings will also be backed up
- Any photos or music that was synched to the phone when it was last paired to the watch will be backed up.
- Health and fitness data
Here’s what your Apple Watch backup doesn’t include
However, there are a few things that the Apple Watch backup will not include. These are not included not for the inconvenience but for privacy protection reasons. The aspects not backed up include:
- The Apple Watch passcode
- Any debit or credit cards linked to the Watch via Apple Pay
- Bluetooth pairings
- Messages
Conclusion
As you can see, backing up your Apple Watch is pretty easy. All you need to do is pair your watch with your iPhone via Bluetooth. The Apple Watch Backup feature automatically backs up daily and syncs any data and software updates between your watch and your phone.
This way, if you ever need to restore your Apple Watch, there won’t be any data loss. Just remember that as long as your Apple Watch is paired to your phone, every time you sync it, the backup will happen automatically.
