Back it up! Your smartphone contains important memories

Back it up! Your smartphone contains important memories

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SALT LAKE CITY — We depend more and more on our smartphones these days.

They are often our only camera and have taken the place of MP3 players and laptops for many. Gone are the days of having a physical record of our contacts; what is in our phone is often all we have.

Surprisingly, despite our dependence on the electronic data stored in our smartphones, many are not backing up their devices. Ask anyone working in the cellphone industry and they'll tell you of countless heartbroken mothers who have lost every photo they had of a new baby and the business professionals who have lost decades worth of contacts when a phone was damaged or stolen. Too many rely on their cellphone retailer to move data from phone to phone when new phones are purchased.

Most know they can back up most everything on their phones but never get around to it. A surprising number of people think things are backing up automatically to some magical place in the cloud and are sorely disappointed to find out they hadn't turned those options on inside their phone settings. Most of us doubt we'll ever have a phone stolen or broken beyond repair, but it happens every day to thousands of Americans.

The following are some simple, and often free, ways to protect everything that matters to you. Let's start with your smartphone itself.

Photo credit: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

If your phone does have an SD slot, take advantage

The Apple iPhone has never allowed for external storage media. Fewer and fewer Android and Windows devices are allowing for it. Many were disappointed this year to see that the newest Samsung flagship, the Galaxy S6, omitted an SD card slot for the first time in the device's history.

It won't help you should your device be lost or stolen but the SD card will almost always survive physical and water damage. Music, photos, videos, contacts and more can often be set to store automatically on the card rather than your phone's internal memory.

Online, these SD cards can often be purchased for less than $40 for 128GB of storage. Considering that Apple charges $100 for each 64GB jump in internal phone memory, it's a small price to pay for added peace of mind.

Photo credit: iceink/Shutterstock

There are still physical syncing options

If you're one of the steadily shrinking minority that is still skeptical of cloud based solutions for backing up important data, there are still physical syncing options. iPhone users can still sync manually to any computer or laptop using iTunes. Android phone users can use apps such as DoubleTwist or SyncDroid. Windows phone users can take advantage of the WindowsPhone app to sync with PCs and Macs.

Physical syncing, via USB cable, is only as good as how often you back up. Some of the options above will allow for automatic wireless syncing whenever the two devices are in range and that option can save a person much heartache if they've forgotten to physically plug in and sync in more than a year. Remember, too, that all of your important data will now be tied to a laptop or desktop computer that is also subject to theft or damage. Consider a portable hard drive to back up your most important photos, videos and music.

Photo credit: racorn/Shutterstock

Use email to sync contacts, calendars

Most smart devices these days allow for simple syncing of contacts and calendars with an email account. Gone are the days of limited contact storage on SIM cards. Via Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Me.com and others your contacts and calendars, at a minimum, can be saved via the cloud. This also means that any device you sign into, such as your laptop or tablet, using that email address can be used to access everything stored there.

It is important to make sure this email sync is turned on within your smartphone settings and that you check those items you want syncing automatically. By doing so each new phone you purchase going forward can be synced with your contacts and calendar or more by simply signing into your email account.

Photo credit: Syda Productions/Shutterstock

Check with your mobile provider for cloud storage options

Each carrier offers free options that will provide ample storage for most of the things we hold dear such as photos, videos and contacts. Even text messages can be saved in the cloud.

Verizon Cloud offers up to 25GB of free storage and AT&T Locker offers up to 50GB for free depending on your rate plan, for example.

Photo credit: View Apart/Shutterstock

Cloud storage apps are popular, convenient

Increasingly, cloud storage apps are the most popular method for securing important data. iPhone users should consider going to iCloud.com, if they haven't already, to take advantage of 5GB of free storage. It is only $0.99 per month to increase that to 20GB. In the iPhone settings, one can designate which items they'd like to be syncing on an automatic basis.

For Android users, or those that already use Gmail, check out Google Drive. Google provides for 15GB of free storage for videos, music and photos. In addition, you can collaborate with all of your Google data including emails, documents and calendars.

Windows Phone users and those already invested in the Microsoft environment will love OneDrive. Microsoft provides for 15GB of free storage for all of your media and that will double to 30GB if you choose to have your photos, taken with your smartphone, auto-uploaded to One Drive.

DropBox is consistently the most popular cloud storage app despite the fact they only offer 2GB of free storage. There are numerous ways, such a referring friends for example, that will allow you to earn more free storage. For only $10 per month DropBox offers an incredible 1TB of storage.

It is important to note that all of the apps listed above work across platforms. If you have a Mac computer, a Windows tablet and an Android phone you will still be able to sync all of your important data and files across each platform using any one of the above apps. Make certain photos, videos and music downloads are selected to automatically sync to your chosen app from your smartphone and other devices.

Phone and computer manufacturers have often furthered the myth that it is difficult to sync files across various operating systems. Apple and Samsung, for example, would prefer all your devices are manufactured by the same company. The cloud, however, makes it possible for all of your important files to be synced across a variety of devices running different platforms.

By using one, or a combination of a few, of the options above you won't be subject to heartbreak or career ruination when a smartphone goes missing… or for a swim.


Mike Stapley is a father of two, is business sales manager for a telecom company and is an aspiring novelist living in Salt Lake City. Contact him at mstapley4@gmail.com

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