How to make a copy of the most important thing you have on your cell phone (and suffer a little less if you lose it)

A smartphone is more than a touch screen.

Valuable digital information is stored there: the photos of the last vacation, the video of the birthday party or an important message from the boss. In a hyperconnected world, it is not difficult to imagine the amount of information that we have stored there.

Think about every photo or video you take or every message you send. Perhaps not all of them are important, but there will be some that you do not want them to miss.

Having a cell phone damaged, or stolen, represents a significant financial burden; It doesn’t help if the information is also lost forever.

For this reason, those who know about technology always recommend doing a backup of what you don’t want to lose.

Whether for security or because you want to change devices or update the operating system, both Android and iOS, having a back-up Not only does it help keep your information from being lost forever, it frees up space on your device and helps keep it in a more secure place.

Photos and videos

In the case of people who have a phone with an Android operating system, one of the best options is the application google photoswhich can be downloaded completely free.

The app automatically creates a backup of every photo and video you take and saves it to the cloud. To do this you have to:

• Open the app
• Tap the profile picture in the top right corner
• Select photo settings
• Turn on backup and sync

Google Photos is not completely free. You can use up to 15 GB of storage at no cost and pay a monthly amount thereafter through Google OneGoogle’s cloud storage subscription service.

Amounts will depend on the amount of storage desired and range from $1.99 per month for 100GB to $149.99 for 30TB.

Google One not only allows you to store the information saved in Google Photos, it also allows you to backup the device, including applications, SMS messages and call history.

To back up to Google One:

• Open phone Settings
• Touch the Google option
• Enter “Backup”
• Activate “Google One Backup”
• Go back to the main “Backup” settings
• Tap “Back Up Now”

Another option is Amazon Pictureswhich offers unlimited photo storage plus 5GB video storage with a Prime subscription, while 100GB storage costs $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year.

Music

Google One is a good option for photos, videos, or information saved both on the device and in Gmail and Google Drive. But with music it’s a different matter.

Youtube music It is Google’s main music service since the closure of Google Play Music in 2020. Its application has been downloaded more than one billion times and allows it to be used by both the app and the web browser.

YouTube Music allows uploading up to 100,000 songs. For it:

• Go to music.youtube.com
• Click on the profile picture in the upper right corner
• Select “Upload Music”
• Choose the songs you want to upload and select Open
• To play the songs, both in the app and on the website, go to Library > Songs > Uploads

other files

But what happens when it is an important file?

There are services like Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive that provide a reasonable amount of free storage, with additional space available for a monthly or annual fee.

The application auto sync allows automatic file synchronization between different devices connected to the same account (cell phone, tablet, others); and it has specific versions for Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Box.

And what about iPhone?

With devices that use Apple’s operating system, iOS, things are a bit easier.

The simplest and most recommended option is to backup iPhone to iCloudApple’s cloud storage service.

• Connect to a Wi-Fi network
• Go to Settings, tap your name and then the iCloud icon
• Make sure the switch is turned on to get automatic backups when your iPhone is charging, locked, and connected to Wi-Fi
• Tap Back Up Now to make a backup
• Check or uncheck all those options that you want to make a copy of, such as photos, messages or contacts

iCloud allows up to 5 GB of free cloud storage. As with OneDrive, once that capacity is exceeded, you have to pay an amount, which varies from US$3 per month for 200 GB to US$10 for 2 TB.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp It is the most widely used instant messaging application in the world. Although there are more secure options or options with different functions, this app has positioned itself among both Android and iOS users.

To create a backup of WhatsApp in Google Drive, you first need a Google account on the phone and the Google Play Services application installed.

• open whatsapp
• Touch the More Options icon > Settings > Chat > ​​Backup > Save to Google Drive
• Select how often you want to save copies (other than Never)
• Select the Google account to use to save the copy of the chat history
• Press Save using to select the type of network

WhatsApp also allows you to activate the end-to-end encrypted backup option, or generate a backup manually.

For iOS, to make a manual copy:

• WhatsApp Settings > Chat > ​​Chat Backups > Backup Now
• Automatic and scheduled backups can be enabled by choosing the frequency between daily, weekly or monthly

The copies will be saved in iCloud. But please note that the free capacity is up to 5GB. To save space, Apple offers the option to skip or include videos in the copy.

What if I don’t want cloud storage?

Cloud storage offers many advantages, such as the option to access files at any time and from any device, in most cases having an internet connection.

But it is not an option for everyone, either because they do not want to pay for additional space, to avoid possible hacks or simply because global storage is simpler.

Both Android and iOS allow you to store information locally on Windows PC or Mac computers.

From iPhone to Mac:

• Connect iPhone to Mac computer
• In the Finder sidebar on the Mac, select iPhone (The Finder is available for macOS 10.15 or higher operating systems. Other versions require iTunes for file transfer)
• At the top of the Finder window click Files
• Choose Transfer from iPhone to Mac option

In the event that you do not have a Mac but a Windows PC, the procedure is the same but using iTunes.

Using an Android mobile, the procedure is different. Google allows you to connect the device to a Windows computer and copy the files easily. In case of transferring the files to a Mac computer, an application called Android File Transfer is necessary and can be downloaded from the official Android page.