How to Sync Your iPhone and iPad

The easiest way to sync your iPhone and iPad is using iCloud. Syncing allows you to share music, photos, contacts, and more between your iPhone and iPad. Overall, you will be able to sync:

• iCloud mail and drive.
• Contacts, calendars, messages, reminders, and notes.
• Safari browser settings, history, cookies, and bookmarks.
• Apple Wallet
• Health App.
• Game Center
• Siri settings.
• Photos app (including videos).
• Generally, any app installed on your iPhone can also be synced with your iPad.

Note: iCloud has 5GB of free storage available by default, with the option to upgrade to 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB. If iCloud is on, your data will be stored in iCloud, not the device itself. Keeping iCloud on will automatically sync your data across your Apple devices.

Syncing your iPhone and iPad using iCloud

Before you proceed, make sure you:

• Connect both devices to the same Wi-Fi network.
• Create an iCloud backup. You can learn how to do that here.

Here’s how to sync your iPhone and iPad using iCloud.

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings.
   

   

2. Tap your name at the top.

   

3. Tap iCloud.

   

4. Here, you’ll see all of the apps that use iCloud. Enable the ones you want to sync. Repeat these steps on your iPad, and the apps will be synced across both devices.

   

How to check your iCloud storage

If there’s insufficient iCloud storage, your data will fail to sync. Here’s how you can check your iCloud storage:

1. Tap Settings.

   

2. Tap your iCloud name at the top.

   

3. Now tap iCloud.
   

   

4. You’ll see how much space there is on your device at the top.

Are there other ways to sync your iPhone and iPad?

Whereas iCloud is the most common way to sync your iPhone and iPad, there are various other ways. For example:

• Google Drive: the app comes with 15GB of free space, and any file or folder you upload on one device will be synced across all your devices with the Google Drive app.
• Dropbox: anything you upload on one Dropbox account will be synced with other devices.

Note: You cannot sync your iPhone or iPad using a Lightning or USB cable.