How to back-up mobile phones and smartphones

We rely on our mobile phones and smartphones for so much these days: using them as address books, photo albums, diaries and more. So it’s likely that if your mobile phone was ever lost or stolen, you’d be left without access to a lot of valuable and personal information.

Backing up your mobile phone or smartphone is the best way of protecting yourself against data loss. So don’t delay, back-up today.

Backing up the Apple iPhone

The iPhone is an extremely simple smartphone to back-up, because it does it for you.

Each time you connect your iPhone into your PC or Mac to “sync” the device, iTunes performs an automatic back-up of everything stored on it - from your web bookmarks and contacts to photos and videos.

A history of which apps you’ve bought is also backed-up by iTunes, though not the apps themselves. This means that should you need to reset your iPhone, for example, you would need to download each app again. You wouldn’t be charged twice for them, though.

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How to back-up an Android smartphone

Smartphones running Google’s Android operating system, such as the HTC Incredible S, back-up information on an app-by-app basis.

This means that while one email app may automatically save copies of your sent and received messages without you realising, another app may not.

The best way of ensuring that everything - contacts, photos, call history and more - on your Android smartphone is backed up is to download an app specifically designed to do so.

For example, MyBackup Pro, and many apps like it, will back-up your apps, photos, contacts, call history, browser bookmarks, calendar, text messages and more to “secure online servers”. The cost of doing so is included in the app’s one-off fee - £3.09, so there’s no monthly storage charge to pay.

Backing up mobile phone contacts

If you don’t yet own a smartphone then backing up contacts, text messages and pictures should be your primary concern.

The most common ways of backing up a standard mobile phone are:

1. PC software - even the most basic pay-as-you-go mobiles are now sold with software for backing up contacts, text messages and pictures by connecting the phone to your PC.

If you threw out or lost the supplied disk shortly after buying the phone then trying searching the “support” section of your phone manufacturer’s website, because the same software is normally available to download for free online.

2. Memory cards - if your phone has a slot for an SD or Micro SD memory card then some of your phone’s important information can be saved onto it.

This can then be transferred onto your PC and a copy of the information made. If your laptop or PC doesn’t have a slot for reading SD and Micro SD cards, special adapters can be bought cheaply online.

1. Sim card savers - simply slot your sim card into one of these stand-alone gadgets and it will save a copy of everything stored onto your sim.

The gadgets are available online from around £10, but the downside is that they usually don’t save anything more than your phone’s address book.

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