iCloud’s not the only destination for your backups

Thanks to iOS 5, iOS devices now have the option to back up wirelessly to iCloud once a night. That’s a great way to ensure that even casual users safeguard their data, but it’s not so convenient if you’re away from Wi-Fi when your iPad requires a full restore. For more control over when backups occur—and where they’re stored—make sure you connect your iOS device to your Mac via USB at least once a day (you can also initiate backups by Option-clicking your device in the iTunes sidebar and choosing Back Up). Either way, you’ll force iTunes to create an archive you can use to restore data and settings to your device, and even to port your backup to another Mac to restore device settings in a pinch.

The first rule of iOS device Backup Club is you back up your iOS device backups.

The backups live in your Home folder, in Library > Application Support > Mobile Sync > Backup. Inside, there’s one folder for every device you’ve backed up to your Mac. But the folders (and the zillion files inside them) have cryptic names, so it’s impossible to tell by looking which one is associated with which device you own. You’ll have to drag each folder to your backup drive, then let iTunes sort them out when they’re imported to another Mac.

With a click, you can keep the contents of iOS device backups from prying eyes.

To do that, just copy the backup folders to the same location on your new Mac (you’ll have to create the MobileSync > Backup folders in Application Support if they’re not already there). Then launch iTunes and select iTunes > Preferences. Click the Devices tab to see your backups, complete with device names, and delete any you don’t need.

You may not be able to tell one iOS backup from another, but iTunes can.

Now that you know how easy it is to transfer your iOS device backups to another computer, you may want to encrypt your backups. Syncs and backups will still work normally, but iTunes will ask for a password before restoring your iOS device from a backup. Connect your device, then launch iTunes, and in the device’s Summary screen click Encrypt (Device) Backup. But be sure to remember your password—if you forget it, you won’t be able to restore your data, and you’ll be stuck returning the device to its factory settings and setting it up manually. But if you ever get into a jam like that, it’s nice to know your data is also tucked away in iCloud.