If you have never experience the ‘Oh…sh…” moment of device ownership, it pays to stick to the Scouts motto of Be Prepared and backup your devices.

With World Backup Day coming up on Sunday, March 31st,  Vodafone has reported more than 22,000 device accidents were reported by Australians, leading to smashed phones and lost memories. 

We use our phones a lot, from taking and sharing photos and videos to messaging with our friends, family and work and there’s a lot to lose if something goes wrong. Vodafone says they saw their customers send more than 206.6 million multimedia media messages (MMS), and given we’re now consuming 26% more data year-on-year, and Vodafone says that 55% of their customers are upgrading to phones with more storage when trading in their old devices, it’s clear that Australians aren’t slowing down when it comes to capturing memories.

I’ve been backing up my devices for a while, but from a small survey sample around me – some people have never backed up their phones at all, which means they could lose them all. To help avoid losing any of these precious memories, Vodafone has outlined five top tips for ensuring you don’t lose precious memories..

  • Decide what and how much to back up: Choose the most important things to back up that you cannot live without e.g., those cute pics from pres or the video of your nephew walking for the first time, or you may choose to back up your entire phone.
  • Use the cloud for automatic backups: Trust that your phone knows best and turn on automatic updates to ensure your backups are as up to date as possible.
  • Back up regularly: It is important to back up regularly to ensure you’re keeping an up-to-date copy of your data. Whether daily, weekly or monthly, find a schedule that works for you and how important your data is and how often it changes.
  • Back up after big events: Don’t risk losing three hours’ worth of videos from Taylor Swift’s Era’s tour, back up immediately after the event to ensure you can keep enjoying those priceless videos for years to come.
  • Get an added layer of protection: Paired with a strong backup plan, you’ll no longer have to worry when you lose or damage your phone with Vodafone’s opt in services:
    • Vodafone Device Care: Gives customers an affordable way to fix broken screens, exchange busted devices or replace lost devices without having to give a reason or fork out crazy replacement costs.
    • Vodafone’s Trade-In-Services: Gives customers the ability to trade-in their old eligible devices in exchange for credit towards a new or upgraded model.

For owners of iOS devices, you can backup your devices to iCloud, while Android users can backup their devices to Google One – or you can check out the host of other third party services out there eager to offer backup options for a price. It’s a timely reminder, so how do you backup your device?