How To Backup Iphone To Icloud With Cellular Data

Apple wants your iPhone to be connected 24/7, and it has put a whole bunch of features into iOS that do that. Problem with this is, these settings can put a serious dent in your cellular data plan, which either means that you end up being kicked to a lower-speed tier by your provider, or you pay extra fees.

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Now, I don't mind paying for what I'm using, but I'm reluctant to pay for things happening in the background on my iPhone that are of dubious benefit to me.

OK, let's take a tour of the settings in iOS 15 that are the ones most likely to burn a hole in your data plan.

And bear in mind that even if you have an unlimited plan, your provider may well limit how much high-speed bandwidth you have available.

Backing up over Cellular

How to find this setting: Settings > [tap on your name at the top] > iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Over Cellular to off .

This is one of those settings that, Apple warns, might "cause you to exceed your cellular data plan." With that in mind, I think that as long as there are times when you are in Wi-Fi coverage, this is a setting best turned to off.

Photos

How to find this setting: Settings > Photos > Cellular Data and here you have two settings: Cellular Data , which uses a chunk of your allowance, and Unlimited Updates , which Apple warns you might "cause you to exceed your cellular data plan."

People take a lot of photos and pushing these over the cellular network can use up a lot of data.

Personally, I have both turned off because it's a heavy user of both data and battery.

iCloud Drive

How to find this setting: Settings > Cellular > iCloud Drive (scroll to the bottom to find this)
and tap to turn it off .

Depending on how much you use apps such as Pages and Numbers, this could be insignificant, or it could be a lot of data. But unless it's vital stuff that you want instantly backed up to iCloud, I recommend turning this off and letting the documents sync when you are connected to Wi-Fi.

Browser preloading

Where this setting lives depends on the browser you use, so if you use a different browser, you might have to do some searching.

Safari : Settings > Safari and tap Preload Top Hit to off.
Chrome : Fire up Chrome, tap the three dots in the bottom-right corner, tap on Settings and then Bandwidth , and turn Preload Webpages to Only on Wi-Fi or Never .

Browsers try to be smart and make themselves look faster than they are. One way they do this is to use preloading of the top search results. Sure, it's a time-saver, but it's also one of those features that can waste bandwidth.