World Backup Day is Almost Here! 4 Ways to Automatically Backup Your Devices
Saturday, March 31st, is World Backup Day. The purpose of this day is to remind you of how important it is to back up your data on your computers, smartphones and tablets. Computers and devices fail all of the time and your data is more valuable than your device! Just think how you would feel if you lost the $1,000 in music and movies you have on your device, and the digital video of your wedding, your little boy or girl's first step. You can get a new computer or phone, but try replacing those important files: You can't! So what do you do? How do you make sure you never lose the information that is important to you? You back them up! Having a backup strategy means that you setup processes that will automatically backup your data. Want to get started? Here are 4 Apps you can use that will automatically backup your devices.
1. Carbonite. One of the best backup programs on the planet. Starting at $59 a year, you get unlimited storage for your Windows and Macintosh computer. Once installed, Carbonite runs quietly in the background to backup your files to the Carbonite servers. The best part,it's automatic and doesn't interfere with your normal computer use.
2.Google Backup and Sync. Google offers a free solution that allows you to backup, upload and store files from any folder on your computer, camera, and SD cards in the cloud. The best part you can access your information from any phone, tablet, or computer using Google Drive, and your photos and videos in Google Photos. Information updated to Google Drive is limited to 15 Gigabytes, with an option to buy more. You get unlimited free storage of your Photos and videos to Google Photos.
3. Use iCloud and Google Drive To Backup Tablets and Phones. Backing up an iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad s fairly easy. iPhone users need to enable iCloud Backup on their devices to get automatic backup. You only get 5 Gigabytes of free online storage with iCloud. If you get messages saying your iCloud storage is full, just pay for the extra storage. You wont' regret it. Android devices can take advantage of Google sync, a service that is built into all Android phones and tablets. Google Sync allows you to back up your Apps, Calendar, Chrome, Contacts, Docs and pretty much anything on your phone. Both iCloud Backup and Google Sync have to be enabled. On both devices, just go to settings and turn on backup If you ever have an issue with your android and apple device, you can restore the contents from your backup rather than losing it.
4. TimeMachine and Windows File History Are Great Backup Tools. If you prefer to keep your information locally on an external hard drive rather than storing it on the cloud, Macintosh users can turn on TimeMachine which automatically backs up your information every hour and Windows users can turn on File History which uses the same hourly schedule to automatically backup files. Any external hard drive will work with both of these programs, but I recommend Western Digital drives for dependable storage.
Never rely on cloud storage such as Microsoft One Drive or Dropbox as backup options. These options only give you the convenience of being able to access your files anywhere, not automatically backing up your data. NEVER rely on manually backing up your data, because it will never get done. Over the years, I've seen too many people lose precious information because they intended to backup their devices, but never got around to it.
Regardless of what type of device you have, it is very important to save your data to other locations. Tablets and phones get lost, damaged or stolen all the time, and all computers are susceptible to failure. This World Backup Day, take the time to setup an automatic backup solution. Having a backup is a great way to insure that even if the physical device gets lost, the data will still be available elsewhere!