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Phone backup: what it is, why you need it and how to set it up in 10 minutes

If your phone breaks or gets stolen, photos and contacts are gone for good. Unless you have a backup. Here's how to turn it on for Android and iPhone, once and for all.

Andrea Bissi · · 3 min read

Cyber for Humans
Level
beginner
Time
10 minutes (plus the first upload)
What you need
Your phone, connected to your home Wi-Fi

Your phone holds the photos of your kids, everyone’s numbers, the WhatsApp chats with the people you love. If it falls in the water, if it’s stolen, or if it simply stops turning on, all of that goes away. A backup is the safety copy that lets you get everything back on a new phone, just as it was. It takes ten minutes to turn on. After that it carries on by itself and you don’t have to think about it again.

In plain words

Backup: a copy of the things on your phone that matter, saved "in the cloud". It is not an exact clone of the device: some things are copied by the backup, others are kept in step separately by individual apps, and a few can be left out altogether. Further down we look at how to check what is included. Cloud: Google's or Apple's computers, in a guarded building, where the copy stays safe even if your phone is destroyed. Getting in needs your account, but be aware: the copy is not unreadable to the company, which in some cases can be obliged to hand it to the authorities. On iPhone it only becomes unreadable if you turn on Advanced Data Protection in the iCloud settings.

On Android (Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola and all the others)

  1. Open Settings (the gear icon).
  2. Tap Google, then Backup. On some phones the path is Settings > System > Backup. If you can't find it, use the search magnifier at the top of Settings and type "backup".
  3. Turn on the Backup by Google One switch (or "Back up to Google Drive").
  4. Tap Back up now. The first time can take up to an hour, so leave the phone charging and connected to Wi-Fi.
  5. Open the Google Photos app, tap your picture at the top right, then Photos settings > Backup and turn on the switch. Your photos are saved separately this way, and you can also find them from a computer at photos.google.com.

On iPhone

  1. Open Settings and tap your name at the top of the screen.
  2. Tap iCloud, then iCloud Backup.
  3. Turn on the Back Up This iPhone switch, then tap Back Up Now.
  4. Go back, tap Photos and turn on Sync this iPhone: your photos go to iCloud.
Don't worry:

As a rule the backup starts on its own when the phone is on Wi-Fi, charging and with the screen off, so it does not eat your mobile data and you need remember nothing. Be aware, though, that this is only the default behaviour. The backup settings include an option to use mobile data as well, and if someone has switched it on, your data gets used. If you are unsure, that is the first thing to look at.

“Not enough storage”: what it means

Google gives you 15 GB for free, Apple 5 GB. If you have lots of photos, after a while a warning appears that storage is full and the backup stops.

At that point you can do one of two things. Pay for a little more storage, where the smallest tier costs one or two euros a month and can be cancelled whenever you like. Or free up space following the dedicated guide. The tiers are not the same at the two companies (Google starts at 100 GB, Apple at 50 GB) and prices change, so check them on the official pages. For most people I would pay, because one or two euros a month is a small thing next to ending up without the photos.

What about WhatsApp?

Chats have their own separate backup. In WhatsApp tap the three dots at the top right (on iPhone: Settings at the bottom), then Chats > Chat backup and choose “Daily”. On iPhone the backup goes to iCloud, on Android to Google Drive.

How to know it’s working

Go back to the backup page a day later. Under the heading you’ll see “Last backup: today at …”. If that’s there, you’re fine.

Check it once a month, maybe on the day you pay the bills.

Sources

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