Everyday life online
Back up your photos
What you will be able to do In 6 minutes, you'll know how to turn on automatic photo backup, and check that it's really protecting them.
Backing up your photos means keeping a copy somewhere other than the one phone that took them. A lost, broken, or stolen device can wipe out years of memories in an instant, if no copy exists anywhere else. The good news is that the copy can happen on its own, online, as soon as the phone finds a wireless network: that's automatic backup. But a single copy is never quite enough: the rule that truly protects is several copies, on several different media. We're going to turn on a backup, understand this rule, then check it, together, on a screen we designed. Nothing here is real: no photo is actually copied.
Simulated screen
I practice
This screen was drawn by us. Nothing is sent, nothing is installed, and no real brand is shown.
The situationYour phone fell, the screen went black, and for a moment, you thought you'd lost every photo of your grandchildren.
The interactive exercise needs JavaScript. The written step by step, just below, says exactly the same thing.
The written step by step
The same steps, in words, to read or print. This sheet works even without the exercise.
Turn on backup
Your turn Automatic backup is switched off. Tap what turns it on.
You tap "Automatic photo backup": it switches from off to on, and the online copy starts as soon as possible.
One copy isn't enough
Your turn Tap the right answer.
An online copy, plus a copy on a computer or a drive: two different places are always better than just one, however reliable it seems.
Copy to a computer
Your turn Tap the right way to copy your photos to the computer.
You open the phone's photo folder, and drag it into a dated folder on the computer: the copy keeps its quality, and is easy to find later.
The external drive, unplugged
Your turn Tap the right move, once the copy is done.
Once the copy is done, you unplug the drive and put it away in a drawer: far from the computer, it escapes its failures as well as its mishandling.
Check it for real
Your turn Tap the right way to make sure the backup really works.
Once a quarter, you open the online backup, find a photo from long ago, and open it: if it displays properly, the backup really works.
The sheet to keep
- Turning on automatic backup copies every new photo online, without thinking about it, as soon as a wireless network is available.
- A single copy, even online, stays fragile: the rule that truly protects is several copies, on at least two different media, one of them away from home.
- Copying to a computer, into a dated folder, keeps the original quality and is easy to find years later.
- An external drive used for a copy gets unplugged and put away after use: always plugged in, it shares the same risks as the computer.
- You check a backup by really opening an old photo, not just by watching a number that goes up.
- Regularly checking that the copy works is enough to rest easy.
The reflexes in this skill
I make a copy of what matters
Photos, documents, contacts: anything that exists in only one place can disappear along with the device. A copy somewhere else turns a breakdown into a minor inconvenience.
I stop before I click
Urgency is the sign of a trap. A message that counts down the hours is trying to stop you from thinking. Putting your phone down for two minutes costs nothing, and it is almost always enough.
Two questions to check
Nothing is graded, and nothing is saved anywhere except in your own browser.
Your photos copy themselves online automatically as soon as a wireless network is there. Is that enough to say they're truly protected?
See the answer
No, you need at least a second copy, on another medium
The rule that truly protects is the one about multiple copies: several copies of each important photo, on at least two different media, one of them away from home. A single copy, even online, stays fragile.
How do you check that a photo backup really works?
See the answer
By opening a specific, older photo, to confirm it displays properly
A number going up guarantees nothing: some files can be incomplete. Opening an old photo and seeing it display is the only real proof the backup works.
I've done it
Check this box once you can do this skill on your own.
Your progress stays in your own browser.