How To Back Up Photos And Videos On Android

A few blogs back we talked about applications that can help ease up the backing up process for your Android. You can read that post here. However, most of the application on the list catered mainly to the essentials category: contacts, text messaged and call logs. But who are we to say that your photos and other multimedia are any less important than the items above?

In this blog, we’ll take a look at a few ways to make sure your photos are safe and sound, even in the worst case scenario.

However, you will probably find the backup feature long before something bad happens, as it’s a great way to quickly free up some space on your device and keep taking pictures.

Most photo backup solutions involve keeping your multimedia on a cloud. It may be quite worrisome for certain users to keep their photo and video libraries online, but they can stored there safely and securely and will not be shared unless you specifically indicated the cloud to do so.

Google +

The most obvious option to back up your photos and videos is, no doubt, Google +. The process of enabling this backup is also a simple one.

First, install the Google + app on your smartphone. When you install the app you will be guided to set up the backup straight away and the prompts will guide you through the process. If you prefer to do that later, you can always come back to the option through Settings>Auto Backup.

One of the things to consider here is that when the photos are uploaded onto the cloud, they will be stored in “standard size” automatically. You can change that setting and enable full-resolution uploads, but that would affect your storage space on the cloud.

Dropbox

There is a lot of general debate circling around “Goolge + versus Dropbox” topic. We will not get into that here, as both cloud options have their strong and weak spots and have the right to be considered on equal grounds.

With Dropbox your photos will be automatically uploaded once they are taken and you will be able to access them anytime and from practically anywhere, as well as download directly from Dropbox onto your laptop or desktop. The process for setting it all up is once again simple and starts with installing a Dropbox app for Android and following the prompts from there.

A thing to watch out for is that Dropbox does have a storage space limit of 2GB – upwards of that you will have to use a paid service. So you may want to consider clearing your clod account regularly to avoid paying for excess.

BitTorrent Sync

BitTorrent Sync is one of the few non-cloud based backup solutions. So if you prefer to only share your files between devices rather than online servers – this would be the choice to make. BitTorrent Sync has no size limits and you will be able to sync photos, videos, docs and PDFs in any quantities you want across other devices.

The setup is straightforward. Just download the application for your Android phone and follow the instructions. You will be asked to go to “Backup”, tap the folder icon and open up your phone’s photo folder. You will be provided with a code, that you can email to yourself, as you will need to use it later. Turn to your desktop and install BitTorrent Sync software. Go to “Add a Sync Folder”. Remember that secret code you got earlier? You will need to enter it now. All that’s left to do is select a folder where you want your photos to go through “Browse”. From now on, whenever both of your devices are sharing the same Wi-Fi network, your multimedia will be backed up to the specified folder.

For more how to guides click here.