A set happens once. You can play the same records again next week, but not that room, that crowd or that run of blends at 3am. If the only copy of the recording lives on your iPhone, it is exactly as safe as the phone: lost in a taxi, dropped on a concrete floor, wiped for a trade in.

For DJ recording backup on the phone itself, Ohm has a setting. It is called iCloud Backup, it is off by default, and it does one specific thing. Know what that thing is before you trust it with a set. What it leaves to iOS, and what it costs you in iCloud storage, matter just as much.

Where to find the setting

In Ohm, go to Settings and look under Storage. You will find one card, iCloud Backup, with one On/Off toggle. A new install leaves it at Off.

The subtitle under the title spells out the deal in three sentences:

"Include existing and new recordings in your device's iCloud backup. Large recordings use more iCloud storage. This doesn't sync recordings between devices."

Most of this guide unpacks those lines.

You cannot change it mid set. From the moment a recording begins until you stop it, Ohm locks navigation and Settings stays out of reach. Make the choice before you plug in, or once the set is saved.

What turning it on does

Switch it on and Ohm marks the recordings in your Library as files your iPhone may include in its own iCloud backup. That covers three kinds of recording:

  • USB mixer audio
  • Internal microphone audio
  • Saved Live video

It applies to what is already in your Library and to every new recording too: the moment a new set finishes saving, it gets the same mark. Settings reads "Applying backup setting…" while Ohm goes through the files already there. Every time you open the app, Ohm checks the setting again. Your choice holds.

Switch it off and the files go back to being left out of your iPhone's backup. Nothing is deleted. Ohm leaves any backup iOS has already made alone.

The scope is tight on purpose. The setting reaches as far as your Ohm Library and no further. Other audio on your phone is never scanned, and Ohm imports nothing it did not record.

What it does not do

Four limits, all of them easy to miss.

  • It leaves your phone's own iCloud Backup switch alone. That one lives in the iOS Settings app, and Ohm has no way to see whether it is on.
  • It never starts a backup. The timing is up to iOS. All Ohm controls is whether its recordings are eligible.
  • It does not sync recordings between devices. A set recorded on one iPhone will not show up on your iPad or on another phone.
  • It covers the audio and video files only. Set names, track lists, markers and artwork are outside this setting.

So the Ohm toggle is one half of the arrangement. The other half belongs to iOS.

The iOS half

Apple documents how automatic iCloud Backup works in its support article How to back up your iPhone or iPad with iCloud. To check it on your phone, open the iOS Settings app, tap your name, tap iCloud, then iCloud Backup, and make sure Back Up This iPhone is on.

For an automatic backup, Apple wants three things true at the same moment: the screen locked, the phone on a charger, and a WiFi connection. If you would rather not wait, tap Back Up Now on that same screen; just beneath it, iOS tells you when your last backup ran. Run short of iCloud space and iOS will warn you and walk you through the fix.

What it costs in iCloud storage

The subtitle is blunt about this: large recordings use more iCloud storage. DJ sets in WAV are large.

Your recording format decides how large. Our guide to Ohm's Standard, High Quality and Best formats gives full sizes per hour. The short version:

  • Standard (44.1 kHz, 16 bit): about 635 MB per hour
  • High Quality, the default (48 kHz, 24 bit): about 1.04 GB per hour
  • Best (up to 96 kHz, 24 bit): about 2.07 GB per hour at 96 kHz
  • Internal microphone recordings are mono, so roughly half the stereo size: about 0.52 GB per hour at High Quality.

We have not published figures for Live video, so we are not quoting one here.

Apple gives every account 5 GB of iCloud storage at no cost. Record two hours at High Quality and you are holding about 2.1 GB, close to half of that allowance by itself, before your photos, messages and the rest of the phone take their share.

If you need more, Apple lists these monthly iCloud+ prices in euros, taxes included, on its iCloud+ plans and prices page, dated 16 September 2026:

  • 50 GB: 0.99 EUR per month
  • 200 GB: 2.99 EUR per month
  • 2 TB: 9.99 EUR per month
  • 6 TB: 29.99 EUR per month
  • 12 TB: 59.99 EUR per month

Apple sets these prices and can change them. Check the page before you upgrade.

This cost is why Ohm leaves the setting off until you choose. Turning it on is a decision about your iCloud space, not only about your recordings.

Checking it worked, and what errors look like

Most of the time you will see "Applying backup setting…" for a moment and then nothing more. If Ohm cannot update some files, a message shows up right below the toggle along with a Retry button. It reads as one of these three:

  • "Couldn't update backup settings for 3 recording files. Your files are safe. Retry to finish applying your choice." (The number is however many files did not update.)
  • "Couldn't update backup settings. Your files are safe. Please retry."
  • "Backup settings couldn't be checked while your library is unavailable. Retry when it is available."

"Your files are safe" is literal. Whatever goes wrong with the backup setting, a recording that saved stays saved. If only some files fail, the ones that updated keep their new setting, and Retry finishes the rest.

Then check the iOS side. Back Up This iPhone should be on, and the last backup time on that screen tells you whether anything has run lately. If it is old, plug the phone in on WiFi and lock it overnight, or tap Back Up Now yourself.

Keep a second copy of the sets that matter

iCloud Backup is a safety net. It is not an archive, and a good DJ recording backup plan has more than one copy.

A device backup is tied to your Apple Account and to restoring a phone. You cannot open it and drag one recording out on a laptop. For a set you would hate to lose, such as a closing set, a radio mix, or the one where everything finally clicked, make a copy that lives somewhere you control.

Open a recording from your Library and tap Share. Pick Audio for a WAV, or Audio + Video for a MOV if the recording has video, and the iOS share sheet takes it from there: save it to Files, send it to a computer, or drop it in a cloud folder you already use. Our walkthrough on exporting a DJ set video from Ohm covers the video route step by step.

Turn the setting on if you have the iCloud space and want your recordings in your phone's backup. Then, for the sets that matter, export a copy the same night. One habit covers the phone you might lose. The other covers everything else.