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How to back up and restore your Apple Watch

Published May 5th, 2015 5:05PM EDT
Apple Watch Backup and Restore
Image: Chris Smith, BGR

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Data on the Apple Watch can be backed up and then restored, a process that should be familiar to many iOS and OS X users. However, like many new things on the Apple Watch, it’s not an obvious procedure and it takes some time figuring it out. Luckily, Cult of Mac wrote up a quick guide explaining exactly how Apple Watch backups work.

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You can’t actively back up the Watch as you do with your iPhone, so don’t look for that option — it’s actually an automatic process that takes place as soon as you unpair the Watch and iPhone.

“Apple Watch backups are included as part of your iPhone backups to iCloud or iTunes, but you can’t view information in the backups in iCloud,” Apple says in the device’s user manual.

Restoring that data is also a simple process, and this time it’s one that you can control. You just have to launch the Apple Watch app on the iPhone and then choose Restore from Backup. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to choose which backup to restore to the watch, and you’ll be able to use it just like you did before having to restore it to factory settings.

In a previous post, we showed you that the Apple Watch lacks a “Find My iPhone”-like feature and we explained why that’s the case. Follow this link to read more details about what you can do to protect your data on the Watch and prevent unwanted people from accessing it.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.