BACKUP YOUR DATA
I worked as a consultant in the tech industry for almost a decade, so I’ve seen my share of horror stories. The worst was always when one of my clients deleted something or their technology crapped out. All or most of their important documents, photos, videos, and everything else they loved in their digital world were gone.
Second, only to remembering your passwords, the most important thing you can do is backup your data.
- For iPhone and iPad users, it’s easy. Get an iCloud account and set your device to “Backup to iCloud.” Go ahead and sync your contacts and calendars to iCloud while you’re at it.
- For Android phones, let it backup your device to your Google Account.
- For Mac users, you just need an external hard drive. Here’s a good one on Amazon. Once you connect it to your Mac, it’ll ask “Would you like to use this to backup your computer?” You accept and then wait for it to complete the backup.
- For PC users, it also uses an external hard drive but you setup your backup in Control Panel with File History or Windows Backup.
- I’m always asked about backing up computers to “the cloud.” Don’t get too excited. While it’s possible to do this and will someday be the norm for all devices, it’s still not very easy (or cheap) and you’re much more likely to run into issues. Plus, it slows things down every time your computer updates the backup. Try watching Netflix while your computer dumps all of its contents onto Dropbox or Carbonite. You’ll see what I mean.
This article isn’t written to teach you HOW to backup your devices. It’s to illustrate how fragile our digital lives actually are and how easy it can be to keep them safe.
We have this idea in our head that technology is somehow perfect because it’s made by big shiny companies with lots of money. When your device is that expensive, it must be totally problem-free, right? Well, cars are way more expensive and still have plenty of issues.
Yes, you should trust your technology but not without a strong backup plan that you can consistently check to make sure it’s working. I’ve had so many clients tell me, “Oh yeah, I’m all backed up.” After I check anyway and see that their last completed backup was almost a year old, they’re shocked to hear that nothing that’s happened in the past 12 months has been backed up.
The habitual element here used to be to manually backup your devices. Now, it’s just to check that your backups are up to date. Set reminders for once a week or once a month.
Ask yourself: How would I feel if all my photos were just gone? Right now, just poof, goodbye. Shitty, right? Now ask: If there was something I could do to prevent that, would I? Absolutely. Then why aren’t you? It’s really not that hard. Make sure the digital things you care about are safe and secure.
If you’re one of those people who currently doesn’t have a backup plan, consider this your call-to-action. Everything you digitally own could disappear any second. I’ve had clients drive to the store to pick up a hard drive and when they got home, their computer was toast. Don’t wait. It’s not worth it.
