How to back up your smart phones

How to back up your smart phones |

In 2017, it is safe to assume that the majority of folks have most of their lives stored on their smart phones. From calendar items and schedules (complete with alarmed reminders), to important text messages, to a bazillion photos of friends and family, the storage on such devices can fill up quite quickly. If the thought of suddenly losing everything that’s saved on your smart phone scares you, then you definitely need a reliable back up strategy. At Imagine Now IT we can now recover the data on your smartphone, if you are on our hosted email platform.

iCloud for iOS devices
Having your email hosted with Imagine Now IT will ensure your data can be retrieved as required. For those not on our services, iCloud reliance is an option. iOS devices such as iPhones, iPads or iPods can all be backed up fairly easily using Apple’s apex of online services- iCloud. This service can be used to access and share photos, documents, music and data between iOS devices, Macs and Windows PCs. There is 5GB of storage available for free on iCloud, so if you have low storage requirements, backing up data comes at no cost to you. However, most of us will have that in photos alone, but don’t despair, upgrades are inexpensive. For $1/month you can have 50GB of storage, for $3/month you get 200GB of storage, and for $10/month you’ll have 1TB of storage.

The extra 50GB of storage at $1 per month is more than sufficient for most users. You can even set your phone to automatically backup your phone to iCloud when your phone is plugged in as long as it is also connected to WiFi. Phones are typically charged once per day at minimum, which means your phone would be backed up daily. That’s $12/year for peace of mind and protection of your digital data.

To enable backup on your iOS device, click on settings iCloud Backup. You will be required to sign in to iCloud, then you can select “Backup Now.”

Android devices backup
Having your email hosted with Imagine Now IT is great protection, however, there are still options for those without hosted email services. Sadly, this process is not as straight forward as that of the iOS device. Android devices can be plugged in to your laptop or PC using a USB cable and files can then be manually dragged and dropped over. This can be time consuming and does require you remembering, and making the time to complete the backup.

Having a Google account on your Android phone can speed this process up by automatically backing up your contacts, calendar, passwords, application data, and most settings. However, some things are not automatically backed up, such as pictures, videos and texts, which are equally (or even more) important. To save images, recordings and text messages, Google Drive can help. Google provides 15GB of free space (slightly more generous than Apple), and if this is insufficient, for $2 per month, you can have 100GB of space, and an extra $10 per month will buy you 1TB.

Manufacturer Apps
Individual phone manufacturers often have their own backup app solutions through their own clouds, such as HTC Backup and Samsung Kies. Such apps are capable of backing up contacts, some settings and some user data, however, it does not include the apps themselves nor any lower level data.

Third Party Apps
Photos, contacts, call histories and certain documents can be backed up using third party apps such as Lookout, ESET Mobile, 360 Security or Titanium Backup, among others. They also provide protection against viruses and malware. Other services such as theft prevention services are available from some of these apps, sometimes at an additional fee.

There are multitudes of storage options available on the market, no matter what device you’re using. Don’t be in a position where the loss or damage of your phone means losing important personal data or precious, irreplaceable memories captured on phone cameras. If you are interested in the security offered by having a hosted email platform, as the easiest way to restore lost data, contact Imagine Now IT today. Also, if you have any questions in regards to storage, using the cloud or you have a business in need of cloud services and intellectual property protection, give us a call at Imagine Now IT today on 49344966.

You May Also Be Interested In...