How to Back Up Your Phone and Computer

Phones get dropped, laptops get stolen, and hard drives fail without warning. A backup is the cheapest insurance you can buy for your photos and files. Here is a simple plan.

The 3-2-1 rule

Keep 3 copies of anything important, on 2 different types of storage, with 1 copy somewhere else, such as in the cloud. It sounds technical, but it just means "do not keep everything in one place."

Phones

• iPhone: turn on iCloud Backup in Settings, under your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup. Also turn on iCloud Photos if you want your pictures protected.
• Android: turn on Google backup in Settings, and use Google Photos to back up pictures and videos.
• Check once a month that the last backup date is recent.

Computers

• Windows: use File History or OneDrive to protect Documents, Desktop and Pictures.
• Mac: use Time Machine with an external drive, and consider iCloud Drive as the off-site copy.
• An external drive plus a cloud service gives you both a local and an off-site copy.

Test your backup

A backup you have never restored is a guess. Pick one file, restore it, and make sure it opens.

Before any repair

Back up before handing over any device. Repairs are safe nearly every time, but data loss is possible, and a backup removes the worry. We can help you set it up, and we recommend one before any work begins.