Paul Morris on October 4, 2019, 8:37 am

How To Backup, Restore iOS In macOS Catalina Finder Without iTunes

Here’s how to use Finder within macOS 10.15 Catalina to backup and restore iOS without iTunes on a connected iPhone or iPad.

Let’s dive right in and take a look at the relatively simple process.

Step 1: First and foremost, connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac with a USB cable. The device will ask you to provide permission or trust the machine by entering the passcode.

Step 2: Launch the Finder application on your Mac. You will see your device listed in the sidebar. Select it to get information and more options for your device.

NOTE: This is a good time to actually choose the ‘Back Up Now‘ option to go through the process of creating a backup. You can also use iCloud Backup to create a backup just as long as you are sure that you have your information secure.

Step 3: If you have performed a backup above – and you should have- then you can use the ‘Manage Backups‘ button to ensure that it is saved correctly with today’s date on it.

Step 4: Before restoring the device, turn off Find My iPhone by going to Settings > iCloud on the device and ensuring that Find My iPhone is turned off.

Step 5: Now, with Find My iPhone turned off, back in Finder, ensure that your device name is still selected and choose the Restore iPhone/iPad button. Keep in mind that this will restore your device to the very latest available version of iOS or iPadOS. If you want to restore or downgrade to a very specific version of iOS or iPadOS, then you will need to have the IPSW file and do a manual restore.

Step 6: Now, you will need to let the process complete, which doesn’t actually require much, if any, interaction from you. Just ensure that your device isn’t disconnected from the Mac.

Step 7: Once complete, the Finder instance will tell you and give you confirmation of a successful restore.

Step 8: You will then be given an option within Finder to either set the device up as a new device or restore it from a backup. If you performed a backup, then you will be able to select that option and choose the requisite backup from the drop-down menu. Select Continue.

And that’s all that she wrote! You shall be left with a restored device running your latest backup information!