Q My iPhone’s storage is filling up with old issues of magazines. How can I back them up to my Mac to retain access for future reference?

A This depends on how you subscribe to the magazines on your device.

Zinio’s advice in its FAQ is to delete old issues by tapping the Edit button in the top toolbar of the Library view, then tap the Remove button. Tap the X which appears at the upper right corner of that issue, and confirm that you want to remove that issue from your iOS device. You can restore an old issue, so long as your subscription remains current, by tapping the Edit button again, then tapping Restore, and the + button that appears at the top right corner of that issue.

Titles accessed through Newsstand – and later News – and standalone apps may offer a similar facility, but you will need to check that issues can be restored safely before removing them in substantial numbers. If you break your subscription this could lose access to older issues prior to resuming your subscription.

So if you rely on maintaining a reference library of any title, you may still prefer to keep a print subscription going, for those publications which still offer one.

Updated from the original, which was first published in MacUser volume 30 issue 3, 2014.