How to back up your Android phone Data

Phones are getting better at automatically backing up data, but unfortunately there’s always the possibility that you’ll lose your phone or drop it in water and lose everything. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to back up that data, ensuring that even if something does happen to your phone, you won’t lose all those embarrassing photos of your kids you were going to show at their 21st birthday.
Whether it be through Google, a third-party app, or your computer, here’s how to properly back up all your phone’s data.

• The best Android backup apps
• How to back up your SMS, MMS and call logs automatically

With Google

Backing up most of your data is actually pretty easy with Google, and it has gotten far easier over the past few years. Unfortunately there isn’t yet a one-stop backup method for Android phones through Google, but there are ways to back up different types of data. Keep in mind, however, that these options don’t cover things like SMS, though we do have an entire article to help you out with that. Here’s how to back up your data with Google.
Photos and videos

If you’re not already using Google Photos, you should be. The service automatically backs up every photo and video you take to the cloud, so you’ll never have to manually back up your media ever again. Once it’s installed, you’ll need to make sure Photos is set to automatically back up your files. Here’s how to do that:

• Open the Google Photos app
• In the menu, head to Settings
• Tap ‘Back up & sync’
• Make sure the switch is turned on                                                                                                   The best part about Google Photos? You can upload as many files as you’d like for free. Photos and videos will have a maximum upload quality of 1080p for the free storage option, which should be good enough for most people. If you’d like to keep the original quality of your photos, you can, but it will count against your Google Drive storage. Here’s how to check your Google Photos upload quality:
• Open the Google Photos app
• In the menu, head to Settings
• Tap ‘Back up & sync’
• Tap ‘Upload size’
• Choose the option you’d like

Of course, you probably have more than just photos and videos on your phone. Here are a few ways you can back up the other files:
Other files

Google Drive lets you store your other files in the cloud, which means they’ll be accessible from any connected device. To manually upload folders and files, follow these instructions:

• Download the Google Drive app, if you don’t have it already
• In the app, press on the ‘+’ button
• Press ‘Upload’
• Select the file(s) you’d like to back up
• That’s it!

Settings and apps
To back up your phone’s settings and apps, you’ll want to use Android Backup Service. This service essentially backs up the apps you use and the settings that you have selected in most Google apps, making it easy to restore those settings on a new phone. For a complete list of what gets backed up with Android Backup Service, head here. Otherwise, follow the instructions below to activate it:

• Open your smartphone’s Settings app
• Tap on ‘Backup & reset’
• Press ‘Backup account,’ and add your account, if it’s not there already

And that’s it! Your device should be pretty much all backed up now. Unless, of course, you want to use a third party service instead of Google’s own.