Are All Your iPhone Photos Safely Backed Up? Really, Really Backed Up.
Are your iPhone photos disaster proofed?
Photo by Gyorgy Bakos on Unsplash
As a lover of photos in general, and the caretaker of my own family picture library, it tears me apart whenever I hear someone caught in that terrible place. That one where their iPhone is crushedsoakedloststolendeadgone and it's the only place their honeymoonnewbornlatefatheroldfriend's photos exist.
It shows up all too often on Facebook forums these days. I saw it again last week where someone’s iPhone was crushed and the screen unusable. Of course all the repair shops are closed even if you could go out.
“PLEASE HELP I HAVE THOUSANDS OF PHOTOS AND IMPORTANT MEMORIES, NEVER BACKED UP BEFORE.”
Like that.
All this seems especially important right now, stuck in quarantine, distanced from the life and loved ones we knew just a few weeks ago. A packed flight to the coast suddenly seems pretty good, upset children and all. Awkward group photos and best bud selfies. A restaurant meal. Sports events. A Caribbean cruise. Big weddings. Who knows when that will be the stuff of face-to-face conversation again?
So it's uncertain when we will be able to replace those photos with new ones. Which makes the ones we have even more valuable than they were 2 months ago.
It makes this the perfect time to make sure your iPhone is backed up and your photos are safe.
On your iPhone choose Settings > Name/Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud Backup and make sure it is On. "Last successful backup" should be within the last 48 hours. If not, choose "Back Up Now."
In Settings > Photos, iCloud Photos should be On. You can choose Optimize or Original depending on how much storage you have on your iPhone. Either one will post the photos you take to iCloud Photo Library so they are in a second place.
Log onto your account at iCloud.com and verify that you have about the same number of photos/videos on iCloud as are on your iPhone. That shows the upload/syncing from your iPhone is working correctly.
Do the same thing on your Mac in Photos to be sure that it is syncing everything with iCloud. Numbers should be the same. On the PC you can download iCloud for Windows to sync with the cloud.
Okay. That's a lot. I know. But I REALLY hate to see people suffer through photo loss for no good reason. Especially when Apple builds it right into the system. I don't care if you think cloud syncing is dangerous, un-American, or fattening. It doesn't matter that you "don't care" if you lose your photos, because you will. And if you truly, truly don't, then your motherspousegrownchildfriendfishingbuddy will care, guaranteed. Go ahead and ride your motorcycle without a helmet but practice Safe Photo.
Seriously, you don't have to use the Apple system, it's just easy and built into the devices. You can do manual backups to any computer, use Amazon, Dropbox or Google (if you must), but just be sure you have your photos backed up somehow, somewhere in addition to your iPhone so I won't have to suffer through more posts about lost pictures.
Thank you.
Go do that.
Stay safe. You and your photos.