iPhone Backups Minus the Cloud

Do you really own your own data if it is stored in the cloud under terms and conditions that are indecipherable to the average person? Maybe, maybe not. Is the service provider keeping your data secure and protecting your privacy. In general, yes they are — until a breach occurs and they aren’t anymore.

These issues are particularly concerning when it comes to backups of the data on your phone. So much of our digital lives is spent on phones these days, and there is a lot that we would all like to keep private, from financial information to stored passwords and sensitive emails. Unfortunately, the backup services that our phones default to send all of that data to some mysterious location in the cloud, and if we choose to use it, we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Fortunately, there are other options. Giovanni, for instance, has created something called the iOS Backup Machine. As the name implies, it was designed to backup iPhones, and it does so completely offline. It is a small, portable device, and the design is open source so that you can build your own.

The main idea was to create an entirely self-contained backup appliance that relies on neither iCloud nor a traditional computer. The iOS Backup Machine is built around the Radxa Zero 3W, a compact single-board computer comparable to a Raspberry Pi Zero, but equipped with faster and more reliable onboard eMMC storage. Into this Giovanni integrates a microSD card dedicated solely to storing encrypted backups, a Waveshare 2.13-inch E Ink display for live status updates, and a PiSugar 3 UPS that ensures stable, corruption-free operation even if power is removed unexpectedly.

Using the device is as simple as turning it on and plugging in an iPhone. From there, automation takes over. The system runs libimobiledevice’s idevicebackup2 tools to perform a full encrypted backup directly to the microSD card. The E Ink display provides continuous readouts: prompts to unlock the phone if needed, the encryption state, percentage completion, and any errors that arise. When finished, the screen shows a success confirmation, timestamp, and owner information. Because the E Ink display is bistable, that information remains visible even with the power off.

Pressing the UPS’s auxiliary button briefly shows the time of the last backup and remaining storage space. If the iPhone is unplugged mid-backup, the system halts safely and logs the interruption. All activity is saved to a log file, making it easy to review past runs.

For many people, entrusting critical personal data to opaque cloud systems feels like a necessary compromise. Giovanni’s iOS Backup Machine demonstrates that it doesn’t have to be. With a bit of hardware tinkering and open source tools, fully local, fully private iPhone backups are possible.