Your photos and videos are probable to be some of the most precious files you have on your smartphone . Even if you ’ve got young picture and TV take with the tv camera synced to the cloud though , what about the pictures your family commit you over WhatsApp ? Or the Instagram Stories you post ? Here ’s how to ensure every photo and video on your devices is getting backed up .

The basics of photo and video backups

You ’re frustrate for choice when it get to services that will take every picture and video you snap with your phone , and sync them to the swarm and your other equipment . They all do more or less the same chore , though the details and pricing differ .

Dropbox ( Android / iOS ) was doing this job beautifully before it was trendy , and is still among the best choice out there — the only downside being you only get 2 GB of computer memory place for free , so you ’ll probably have to upgrade to 1 TB for $ 10 per month .

Google Photos ( Android / iOS ) is arguably the sound option right now , not least because it offers an limitless amount of storage if you do n’t mind your photos getting resized to a maximum of 16 megapixels , and your videos downgraded to 1080p . If you want to store all your Indian file at their original resolution , you get 15 GB of storage for free ( across all Google services ) , with upgrade prices lead off from $ 2 a calendar month for 100 GB of space .

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After an unsteady start , Apple ’s iCloud Photo Library ( progress into iOS ) is now a dead becoming choice too : It just does n’t work out particularly well with Windows , wo n’t work at all with Android , and is moderately introductory on the World Wide Web too . You get 5 GB for spare and then have to give from $ 1 a calendar month for 50 GB of cloud storage .

All these apps are dim-witted to arrange up , and once configure , will send all your photograph and television to the cloud for you ( and download them on your laptop computer , if you want ) . If your phone cast off in the ocean , you ’ve still got all your treasured store left .

There are yet more options of course — OneDrive ( Android / iOS ) , Amazon Drive ( Android / iOS ) , Flickr ( Android / iOS ) , and so on and so on . It is n’t too of import which one you choose for , as long as you ’ve got at least one desirable app in place , and know how to get it backing up everything on your machine .

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Backing up other photos and videos

To go beyond the BASIC — that is , beyond the photos and video you snap that go direct to your phone gallery — you need to dig a lilliputian bass into app configurations to get everything . We ’re mouth about edited images you might post to social media , say , or photos that might get send in a conversation in a messenger app .

Google Photos handles this best on Android : From the app menu , prefer preferences , then Back up & sync , then Back up gimmick folders . You ’ll see you may get Google Photos to cover every folder from every app you expend , from Hangouts to Instagram ( the app also prompts you to back up folders when it detect new ones ) .

Io does n’t give apps this level of file system control though , which means Google Photos for iOS does n’t work in the same room — you require to either configure each app separately ( see the section below ) to get it to forge with Google Photos forthwith , or to make unnecessary images and video to the Camera Roll , from where they ’ll then get sent to Google Photos .

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It ’s a similar storey with Dropbox on iOS : You need to get apps to save images to the Camera Roll , then to Dropbox . Dropbox for Android can back up specific folders besides your camera gallery , but you call for third - party apps to make it work — Dropsync forAndroidis one of the expert single , for case , as is FolderSync forAndroid(which turn with a bunch of other cloud service in add-on to Dropbox ) .

If iCloud Photo Library is your backup service of alternative on the iPhone , you need to do everything via the Camera Roll . Many apps will include a setting to bring through picture and telecasting you get to the phone , of which more in a moment , but iCloud Photo Library itself focuses on just the medium inside Apple ’s own Photos app .

While it would be skillful to have a exclusive toggle switch to back up all the photograph and telecasting from your phone at once , the only app that really comes close is Google Photos — and then only on Android with its folder excerption . If you do n’t use this method , then you ’ll have to go through all your apps one by one .

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Settings for other apps

In most cases , if you want photos and video from your apps save to the cloud , you need to save them to the main photo and TV gallery or your iPhone or Android phone . Fortunately , most apps let you do this without too much trouble .

Take Instagram forAndroidandiOS , for model : Tap the Profile button ( bottom right ) , then the Menu button ( top right hand ) , then options . Select Original photos to discover the alternative store your Instagram snatch up to your telephone set ’s gallery , and Story controls to redeem photos and video post to your story too ( you also get an individual Save push every clip you post something to your story ) .

Snapchat forAndroidandiOSworks in a similar way . Tap your avatar ( top depart on the camera silver screen ) , then options ( the cog ikon , top right ) , then Memories — check that Memories & Camera Roll is take on the Save Button menu , and every time you tap the Save button before posting , a written matter is preserve to your gimmick ( and then to your machine-accessible swarm services ) as well as to Snapchat ’s own Memories library .

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You may well get a raft of photo and videos sent to WhatsApp forAndroidandiOS , if you ’re in one or more group New World chat , and in this case everything that comes in is automatically keep to your phone ’s gallery — no further activeness required . If you want to hide WhatsApp media from your gallery , by the way , tap the Menu button ( top right ) , then configurations and Old World chat , and untick the Show media in gallery box .

In Facebook Messenger foriOS , intercept your incarnation ( top left ) , then Photos , telecasting & emoji , and grow the Save to Camera Roll switch to On . Anything that issue forth in or that you share yourself should then look in the main Photos app too , and can be backed up to your cloud computer memory platform of choice .

Over in the Facebook MessengerAndroidapp , however you need to choose Photos & Media from the leaning of options . strangely , Facebook seems to have take the option to save incoming pictures ( it was there late ) , but you’re able to bend the Save on Capture toggle switch to On to at least bring through anything you divvy up . For everything else , you could save photos and television one by one , or point Google Photos or Dropbox to the Messenger leaflet as explained above .

Photo: Jae C. Hong

As for Apple ’s default Messages app , share photos and videos in thread are now mechanically saved to the Camera Roll with the unveiling of iOS 12 . Previously , you needed to save them one by one via the Share button , but that ’s no longer necessary .

No such fate on theAndroid Messagesapp , at least not yet : You still need to open single photos and videos that have arrived from your tangency , then tap the rather quaint Save button ( top right ) , which will then save the images and clips to your photo art gallery where they can be backed up .

That breed the chief option , but rinse and repeat for any other apps you might have installed on your earpiece : Just check that that photos and videos are n’t already being mechanically shared to the main gallery app on your twist , otherwise you ’re going to end up with a lot of duplicates .

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