Backing Up Your Phone — Why and How to Do It Right

Your phone holds irreplaceable photos, conversations, contacts, and app data. Drop it in water, lose it on a train, or have it stolen — and without a backup, all of it is gone in an instant. Set up automatic cloud backups so your phone backs itself up every night while charging. Most phones have this built in; you just need to enable it and make sure you have enough storage.

Check your backup settings once a month to make sure everything is actually being backed up — photos, contacts, messages, app data. Test it by checking what is in your cloud backup. A backup you have never verified is a backup you cannot trust. The peace of mind that comes from knowing your data is safe costs you nothing but five minutes of setup.