How do I back up my photos and video to my computer?
You have all these awesome photos and video on your phone, but what happens when you decide to buy a new phone or your storage becomes too full to take any more? Back it all up to your computer or the cloud!
There are a couple incredibly easy-to-use apps that let you store your photos and videos in the cloud or download them to keep forever.
How to back up your photos and videos to the cloud or your computer using Google Photos
How to back up photos and video to the cloud or your computer using Dropbox
How to back up your photos and videos to the cloud or your computer using Google Photos
Google Photos now comes standard on many an Android phone and it's a great way to store photos on your phone or to seamlessly upload them to Google Drive. If you don't have it, it's a free download in the Google Play Store.
Once it's downloaded, you just have to allow Google Photos access to your photo and video library, tap Backup and Sync and all of the photos and video on your phone will appear for you back up, share, and even edit!
How to back up your photos and video to the cloud using Google Photos
Launch Google Photos from your home screen or from the app drawer.
Tap the photo you'd like to upload to Google Drive or tap and hold a photo and select multiple photos to upload.
Tap the share button at the top of the screen. It's a right-facing 'V' with dots on each point.
Tap Save to Drive.
Tap Account to choose which Google account's Google Drive you want to save to.
Tap Folder to select the folder within that Google Drive that you'd like to save to.
Tap the folder you'd like to save to and tap Select Folder in the bottom righthand corner of your screen.
Tap Save in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
Your photos will then be uploaded to that location in your Google Drive and you'll receive a notification when it's complete.
Google Drive gives you 15GB of storage for free, so depending on the size of the photos and video you're saving, you'll likely be able to save thousands of photos and hundreds of videos.
How to back up your photos and videos to your computer using Google Drive
Once you've saved your photos to Google Drive via Google Photos, you can download them to just about any device with an internet connection. Here's how to save them to your computer.
Launch your web browser on your computer.
Navigate to your Google Drive.
Click the folder or photo in the list that you'd like to download.
Click the more button on the upper right of your screen. It looks like three vertical dots.
Click Download.
The photo(s) or video will now save to the downloads folder on your computer. You can do this with as many items as your computer's hard drive will hold. It may then be a good idea to transfer them to an external hard drive for safekeeping.
How to back up photos and video to the cloud or your computer using Dropbox
Dropbox is a free app that gives you up to 2GB of online storage for free. You can't go wrong with double-free! All you need to do is create an account, download the app on your phone and on your computer, and you're ready to start backing up your photos and video to both the cloud and your computer.
How to back up photos and video to the cloud using Dropbox
You'll first need to sign up for and create an account with Dropbox on your computer.
Launch your web browser on your computer.
Navigate to Dropbox.com.
Click create an account.
Enter your first name, last name, and email address into the fields. You can also choose to Sign up with Google.
Click the checkbox to agree to the terms and conditions.
Click Create an account.
Click the Free Download button to install Dropbox on your computer.
Next, you'll want to install and set up Dropbox on your Android phone if it isn't already. Then you can upload photos and video until your folder is full! Here's how:
Download the Dropbox app from the Google Play Store.
Launch Dropbox from your home screen or the app drawer.
Tap Sign in.
Enter your email address and password.
Tap Sign in.
Tap the add button. It's the plus sign in the blue circle.
Tap Upload photos or videos.
Tap the photo(s) and video you'd like to upload to Dropbox.
Tap Upload in the bottom righthand corner of your screen.
Your photos and video will now be uploaded to your Dropbox folder, which you can access from just about any device with an internet connection.
How to backup photos and video to your computer using Dropbox
Launch the Dropbox app on your computer or visit dropbox.com.
Sign in if you're not signed in automatically.
Click the photo or video you'd like to download to your computer.
Click Download in the top righthand corner of your screen.
The photo(s) and video will now appear in your downloads folder on your computer. Now they're yours to do with as you like! If you'd really like to save them, it's probably a good idea to back them up again to an external hard drive.
If you're using the Dropbox app on your computer, you can just open the file and save it like you would any other document.