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Technical Advice
It doesn’t take much work to keep copies of your phone’s photos, videos, and other files in case of an emergency.
By J. D. Biersdorfer
J. D. Biersdorfer writes the monthly tech tips column and saves one thing or another.
What would you do if you permanently lost all the photos, notes, and files on your phone?
If you have a backup system, you probably know what to do next: repair everything on a new phone. But if you have no idea about it, don’t worry – the backup procedure has been simplified so much that it only requires a few clicks on the screen. Here’s a quick rundown of some tactics to keep your files safe and up-to-date.
When you first set up your phone, you created (or connected) a loose account with Apple, Google, or Samsung to use the services and company. For example, it would be the Apple ID on your iPhone, the Google account on your Android phone, or the Samsung account on your Galaxy device.
With this account, you had five GB of free iCloud storage from Apple or 15 GB of online storage from Google and Samsung. This server area is used as an encrypted virtual locker for your phone’s backup app, but it can fill up quickly, especially if you have other devices connected to your account and storing files in it.
When you get close to your storage limit, get warnings and an offer to subscribe to more server space for a monthly fee, usually a few dollars, for at least an additional hundred gigabytes. (Note that Samsung’s transient cloud backup tool provides an unlimited amount of garage for 30 days if your Galaxy is in the repair shop or in condition to be upgraded. )
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