Don’t Lose the Photos: A Simple Guide to Backing Up Your Phone
A while back a friend of mine dropped her phone and bought a new one to replace it … but ended up losing all her precious photos, especially the ones with her kids!
That’s the thing about phones — we treat them like a filing cabinet for our whole life, but they’re a filing cabinet that can be dropped, drowned, lost, stolen, or just die of old age.
When that happens, whatever’s stored on the phone goes with it. But most of the time we have the option to backup our photos.
A “backup” just means keeping a second copy somewhere safe, so if the original disappears, you haven’t actually lost anything. These days that “somewhere safe” is usually the cloud — which just means a secure storage service usually run by Apple or Google, sitting on the internet rather than in your pocket. Once it’s switched on, your phone quietly sends a copy of every new photo there in the background, automatically, without you having to think about it again.
A word of warning for our patchy signal: the first backup can be big — years of photos all at once — so do it at home on your WiFi, ideally overnight, rather than out and about on mobile data. After that first big copy, it only needs to back up new photos as you take them, which is quick and barely noticeable.
On an iPhone
- Open Settings, tap your name at the top
- Tap iCloud, then Photos
- Turn on Sync this iPhone (or iCloud Photos)
- Leave it connected to WiFi and let it run — you’ll see a progress bar while it catches up
On an Android phone
- Open the Google Photos app
- Tap your profile picture (top right), then Photos settings
- Tap Backup, and turn it on
- Again, let it sit on WiFi until it’s caught up
You’ll know it’s worked because under those same settings it’ll say something like “Backup complete”, and there’ll be a little cloud icon showing on your recent photos.
One more thing worth knowing: your backup is private to your account, protected by your password (and your two-factor login, if you set that up after last issue’s article).
Tip of the Month: What’s Actually Filling Up Your Phone?
If your phone keeps telling you storage is full, here’s how to find out what’s actually eating the space — and what’s safe to clear out.
On an iPhone: Settings → General → iPhone Storage. You’ll see a bar showing what’s using space (Photos, Apps, Messages, etc.) and a list of apps sorted from biggest to smallest.
On an Android phone: Settings → Storage. Tap it for a breakdown by category.
The usual culprits:
- WhatsApp/Messenger media — every photo and voice message anyone’s ever sent you, saved automatically. Go into the app’s own storage settings and clear the cache — the conversations stay, just the clutter goes.
- Apps you don’t use anymore — that one you downloaded for a wedding RSVP three years ago. Delete it; you can always reinstall it if needed.
- Duplicate or near-identical photos — screenshots, the five almost-identical shots of the same sunset. Once you’ve backed up your photos, it’s safe to delete the ones you don’t need.
A quick five-minute clear-out once a season keeps things running smoothly.
— Yvonne Lee