Things are very expensive and data loss is an event which only makes things more expensive. It’s easy to forget because of things like iCloud but you need to back up your files, at least one time somewhere. Your current way of storage is not always safe in terms of forever lasting as a backup solution. You might not even consider iCloud or other services as “backup” but as storage. Simply storing more of your files will lead you to run out of storage on your phone or other devices. You need to dump all of your things somewhere and Apple makes it easy in that sense, they might even constantly bug you to pay for a plan.
Anything can happen to these files and having a copy somewhere other than just one place is your best bet for keeping them safe. Many people follow the rules of making multiple backups like the common 3-2-1 but to everyone unsure of where to start, your best bet will be to follow my advice below and learn from it.
First, for convenience, get some backup service. We want to keep our first backup outside of your home. This is due to a variety of reasons. The biggest being in case of a disaster, namely fires or earthquakes which damage your physical electronics. Sure, your phone has something like iCloud but other devices around you might not have anything. Plus, as a I said, anything can happen to your files in there. We need more than one copy of your stuff.
Many companies can act as a backup service for your computer which sits there accepting new files and whatnot. This will cost a monthly sum of money but will act as a first line of defense. For example, Backblaze has an unlimited personal backup service which makes it very easy to automatically backup your entire computer for only $9/month or $99/year.
It works quite well, I just set it up by downloading their software then logging into my account and it got to work getting everything backed up. It installed a restore application as well, so I can browse my backup at any point. I even plugged in an solid state drive that I frequently dump data onto, which backed up just fine. It’s truly unlimited but the pricing is quite “high” if you factor in that B2 cloud storage, their object storage option, is actually cheaper under 1TB. The only real difference there is that there are some fees and there is no software doing it for you if you did use B2. Plus, you may have to pay for software to back up to B2 for you.
I actually quite like this solution with the personal backup software as it just does this one purpose and is a great way to get some piece of mind. It just quietly runs in the background, not even taking up any real computing resources on my laptop. To me, at least there is some backup of all the random files I have stored. Maybe one day, I will need them again. Of course, you may have much more important documents saved on your computer and in that case, it may be a life-saver one day. Try it out and see if you think it is valuable.
Of course you probably have a little more than that. It also costs money. This is where another option can be best. That is just to use cloud storage. Now, you may already be doing that but in this case, I mean to separate them out on different platforms. One platform like Dropbox stores some of your less important files that you have already backed up. While another stores the rest of the important stuff you need. It’s hard to always trust cloud storage companies, so you might want to look into choosing a private/secure by default kind of cloud storage.
Usually people will talk about Mega or some other very popular solution, even just using Google Drive, which do work but there are other options. You can use things like Proton Drive which comes with a Proton account, granting access to a software suite of useful utilities like a free VPN and password manager. Those are not really what we need here, we are just here to backup. What you can do is use Proton as the main way of storing documents you care about, then anything else you find important can be copied again into Dropbox or some other place.
A caveat is that you are going to need a Proton account and in general, a mail account from them as well. If you don’t want a new account with Proton, use something like Filen (referral link) who only offers cloud storage and you get a lot more for free compared to what Proton offers. The dashboard for Filen is very simple, just drop whatever you like into it and your files will be encrypted. If all you needed was cloud storage, Filen is there for you.
Of course, even though Proton and Filen are not badly priced, you should also look at having something with you physically. In case of something even worse happening to your files, this will be the best way to keep the stuff you care about for as long as you want with no monthly fees.
How? It’s easy, just use any external drive. Go onto Amazon or any store and you’ll see plenty of plug and play drives that work with any device. Some of the most well-known and best brands are SanDisk/Western Digital and Samsung. This will have a high initial cost but could save you one day. Simply plug it in with USB and you’ll be able to drop whatever you need into there. This will act as your last line of defense. After you’ve dropped your files on the drive, stick it in an emergency backpack or somewhere else, maybe even at a relative’s house.
That way if Backblaze is gone, your favorite storage provider is gone or any variety of the places I recommend are suddenly gone, you will always still have something physical you can just plug in. There isn’t only just some big event that could destroy everything but simple stuff like losing your devices, losing your email, having to delete accounts or deleting files by complete accident.
Plenty of people I know have accidentally wiped a computer with stuff they cared about. Anything can happen and that’s why backups exist. I hope this has made it simple in terms of understanding the importance of a backup and how to do it.