Today is iOS 18 day. If you own an iPhone dating back to the iPhone XR, you can download and install iOS 18 today. That means you’ll need to prepare your iPhone before installing it. And to do that, you’ll need a good backup of your data.

At its September event, Apple not only announced the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models, but also set September 16 – Monday – as the official release date for the release version of iOS 18.

But you don’t want just any backup—you want a special kind of backup that will make your life a lot easier in the unlikely event that you need to revert to iOS 17. With this solid backup, you’ll feel more confident using the new iOS 18 features like improvements to text messaging, improvements to Apple Maps, and mirroring your iPhone from a Mac to macOS Sequoia. And here are 7 iOS 18 settings you’ll want to change ASAP.

Why an archive is essential before installing a new iOS version

You are probably used to using iCloud Backup to have a regular fallback for your data. It runs in the background (when you sleep and charge your device) and creates the least amount of backup overhead as long as you have enough iCloud storage space. Go to Settings > (your name) > iCloud > iCloud Backup and switch Back up this iPhone if it is not already active.

But if you want to upgrade to a full version of iOS, such as from iOS 17 to iOS 18, an iCloud backup brings a problem: You can’t restore from that cloud backup if you go back to iOS 17. And unfortunately, iCloud only stores the most recent backup—you can’t choose from previous backup iterations. If you try to use a cloud backup of iOS 18 to roll back to iOS 17, you’ll get an error message. (Creating an archive is also an important step when installing iOS betas.)

For this reason, you need to create a backup copy on your computer.

Should you encrypt the local backup?

Before you create this archived backup, you should decide whether you want to enable any of the options, Encrypt local backup. For security reasons, this feature encrypts the data to prevent anyone with access to your computer from accessing it. This option also keeps sensitive information such as saved passwords and personal data in the health and fitness apps in the backup.

The downside is that you have to create a separate password for the backup. If you forget or lose that password, the entire backup is useless, so you should write down that password somewhere where you can easily retrieve it. In the context of creating an iOS 17 backup as a fallback for installing the iOS 18 beta, you have to decide if this is an acceptable compromise.

Create a local iPhone archive on your Mac

This type of backup only requires storage space and a little patience:

1. Connect the iPhone to your Mac.
2. Open a new Finder window (select File > New Finder Windowor press Command-N).
3. In the sidebar on the left, select your iPhone under Locations.
4. If you want to encrypt the data, click on the Encrypt local backup check box and set a password.
5. On the General tab, click Secure now.
6. Click Manage backups.
7. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) on the backup copy you created and select Archive.

Marking the backup as an archive prevents it from being overwritten during the next local backup or automatically deleted when your Mac is running low on storage space.

Create a local iPhone archive on Windows

The iTunes app remains the most important tool for working with a connected iPhone on Windows. Open iTunes and follow these steps:

1. Connect the iPhone to your Windows computer.
2. In iTunes, click the iPhone Button top left.
3. Click Summary.
4. If you want to encrypt the data, click on the Encrypt local backup and set a password.
5. Click Secure now.
6. Click Manage backups.
7. Right-click on the backup you created and select ArchiveThis extra step prevents the backup from being overwritten during the next local backup or automatically deleted if the computer runs out of space.

With an archive in place, you can safely use the iOS 18 beta and rest assured that you can quickly get your iPhone back up and running if for any reason you need to revert to iOS 17.

For more, check out what you can do with the iPhone 16’s new camera button and your monthly reminder to clear your iPhone cache.