It is essential to back up your photos and videos from your phone regularly. You will never know when an accident might happen. With a lost phone, or worse, a stolen phone, you might find yourself saying goodbye to a year or more worth of pictures and videos. If you did not back it up, the only backup you might have left is the photos that you have uploaded in your social media accounts. Keeping your photos only on your smartphone is not a smart move. Ask someone who lost months, even years, worth of photos when their phone fell in the toilet.
Lost phones are not the only things that you have to worry about. Phones can get damaged, and you might need to see a phone repair service. Here are some ways to keep your precious and beautiful memories safe, no matter what happens to your smartphone:
1. Use an online storage platform.
There are cloud services that you can use to back-up your photos and videos. Some of these online photo storage platforms even offer unlimited storage for your files, for a fee, of course. Some offer limited storage capacity for free. Here are some of the online storage platforms that you can choose from:
- Dropbox – Has a maximum capacity of 3TB and compatible with Mac, Windows, Linux, Windows Mobile, iOS, and Android.
- Google Drive – Has a maximum capacity of 30TB and compatible with Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
- Apple iCloud – Has a maximum capacity of 2TB and compatible with Windows, Mac, and iOS.
- Microsoft OneDrive – Has a maximum capacity of 1TB and compatible with Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile.
- Google Photos -Has unlimited storage for free, but will downscale your pictures to 16MP. If you want to store your pictures in their original sizes, you will get only 15GB of storage capacity.
- IDrive – Has a maximum capacity of 10TB and compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.
- Livedrive – Has an option for unlimited back-up, and supports Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
The best thing about using an online storage platform is that all you need to do is connect to a stable Internet through Wi-Fi. No need to plug your phone on your laptop. You can also download and sync your files with other devices that you use.
2. Back-up your photos on your computer or laptop.
Probably one of the easiest ways to back-up your precious memories is to save them on your computer or laptop. It also makes your photos and videos accessible, without the need to go online. However, it is wise to have a secondary measure in case your computer’s hard drive will crash and delete all your stored files.
3. Save them in an external hard drive.
If you have saved your photos and videos on your laptop, make another set of copies in an external hard drive. You can connect to your external hard drive through a USB cable or wirelessly through Firewire. However, avoid touching the USB cable when transferring files. A sudden disconnection can interrupt the process, and worse, corrupt your files and damage your external drive.
4. Make prints and create an album.
Going old school can save those precious vacation photos. For essential pictures, such as your baby’s photos, have them printed and create a physical photo album. There are also online services that allow you to upload your photos using album templates, and they print your pictures in a nifty photo book that you can keep and treasure. In case you lose the digital copies of your photographs, you will still have the captured memory with you. You can always have them scanned so that you can have a digital copy to keep.
5. Save your photos on a CD/DVD.
Optical discs might not be new, but they can still be pretty useful. For one, optical discs cannot be corrupted by viruses. You can easily organize your photos and videos per occasion, person, or year by using one disc for each classification. However, making digital copies in other forms is advisable since optical discs might soon be out of the picture. The latest models of laptops do not even have optical disc readers with them.
There are other ways to keep copies of your photos and videos. These memories are priceless. You can never bring back those moments again. Take these precautions so that you will always have these treasured memories with you.
Meta title: Ways to Back Up Your Mobile Photos
Meta description: The only worse thing than losing a phone is losing all the photos stored in it. Follow these simple methods to preserve those precious memories.
