You might have heard that backing up your knowledge with a cloud storage supplier isn’t ok. After all, can you actually belief providers like Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google One together with your valuable paperwork and images?
You might recall, as an example, the time that Google Drive briefly wiped out six months of backups for some customers. Then there was the time a software program developer obliterated his entire iCloud library by accident, solely to be saved by Apple after tech bloggers took notice. Similar horror stories abound from of us who belief all their knowledge to a single cloud storage supplier.
For these causes, techies usually advocate protecting a number of copies of 1’s knowledge—together with an offline copy if doable—however this recommendation has one huge drawback: Once you’ve saved plenty of images, movies, and different knowledge to the cloud, your pc won’t have sufficient free space for storing to sync all of it again down. That in flip makes it more durable to create common copies on an external drive or cloud backup service.
So let’s handle this concern with a number of methods to again up your knowledge from cloud storage, both to an exterior drive or one other cloud storage supplier.
This column first appeared in Jared’s Advisorator newsletter. Sign up to get extra tech suggestions each Tuesday.
Automatic Google Photos backups
Jared Newman / Foundry
Credit the place due: Google Photos makes it straightforward to obtain a duplicate of all of your footage and movies. It may also again them up on to different cloud storage providers on a routine foundation. Here’s how:
- Head to the Google Photos settings page.
- Click the drop-down arrow subsequent to “Export your data.”
- Click the button that claims “Backup.”
- On the following web page, click on “All photo albums included” to decide on which albums your need to again up, or simply click on “Next Step” to avoid wasting all of them. (If you don’t see the album selector, you might want to attend a minute or reload the web page.)
- Use the “Transfer to” dropdown to decide on methods to get your information. You can ship information on to Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Box, or get a obtain hyperlink for saving to your pc.
- Choose to export simply as soon as, or each two months for a 12 months, then hit “Create Export.”
This course of can take some time when you have plenty of images and movies, however you’ll get an electronic mail when it’s achieved.
Further studying: PCWorld’s picks for best online backup services 2024
Download your iCloud Photos and Drive information
Jared Newman / Foundry
Because of how Apple manages storage for iCloud customers, figuring out the place your images are could be tough. On iOS, it presents an “Optimize Storage” setting, which, if enabled, replaces images on the system with low-quality variations when storage runs low whereas protecting full-resolution copies in iCloud. It does the identical on MacOS when iCloud’s “Optimize Mac Storage” setting is enabled.
If you’re an iCloud consumer and have enabled these settings, your knowledge gained’t be saved in full in your gadgets, which suggests you can’t merely copy it all to an external drive for safe keeping. By distinction, turning off optimized storage on a Mac can rapidly refill the pc’s restricted built-in space for storing.
The workaround is to periodically obtain a duplicate of every little thing straight from Apple for secure protecting. You’ll want to do that on a pc, the place it can save you the information to an exterior exhausting drive.
For iCloud Photos:
- Head to the iCloud Photos website.
- From the Library part, click on on a single picture, then hit Cmd+A (or Ctrl+A in Windows).
- Click the obtain icon (the cloud with an arrow pointing down).
- When prompted, select the place to retailer your images, which will probably be saved in a ZIP file.
For iCloud Drive information:
- Sign into Apple’s Data and Privacy portal.
- Select “Request a copy of your data >”
- Scroll to the underside and test the field for “iCloud Drive files and documents.”
- Click “Continue,” select a file dimension (I recommend 25GB), then hit “Complete request.”
Note that for iCloud Drive, you will have to attend as much as seven days to get your information. You may also request a duplicate of your iCloud Photos by this technique, however the identical ready interval applies.
Copy iCloud Photos to Google Photos
Jared Newman / IDG
For an easier option to backup your iCloud Photos library—albeit one which requires extra cloud storage—you may copy every little thing to Google Photos as a substitute:
- Sign into Apple’s Data and Privacy portal.
- Select “Request to transfer a copy of your data ›”
- Use the “Select destination” dropdown and choose “Google Photos.”
- Check the Photos and Videos bins, click on Continue, then click on Continue once more.
- Sign into your Google account, then click on “Confirm Transfers.”
Apple says this may take between three and 7 days, and also you’ll get an electronic mail when it’s achieved.
Send cloud information on to an exterior drive
Jared Newman
I’ve saved my favourite resolution for final: With a free program referred to as Air Explorer, you may obtain information in bulk on to an exterior drive from a variety of cloud storage providers, together with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. You may also copy information to a different cloud storage supplier or backup service.
Compared to the options above, Air Explorer has extra of a studying curve, but it surely’s additionally extra highly effective and versatile. Here’s methods to set it up:
- Download the app for Windows or MacOS.
- At launch, you’ll be prompted to attach a cloud storage service. Use the “Accounts” tab so as to add extra providers if you happen to’d like.
- In the “Explore” tab, choose your cloud storage service on the left facet, and your storage vacation spot (similar to an exterior drive) on the fitting.
Jared Newman / Foundry
- On the left facet, choose the cloud storage folder you need to again up, or simply go away your entire drive chosen to again up every little thing.
- On the fitting facet, navigate to the folder the place you need to save your backup, then click on on it.
- Click the “Synchronize” button and choose “Current Folders.”
At this level, you’ve gotten a couple of choices for methods to create the backup. I recommend selecting “Update” as a substitute of the default “Mirror,” because the latter will delete any information in your exterior drive folder in the event that they’re not already saved within the cloud.
Jared Newman / Foundry
Next:
- Click “OK.”
- On the following display screen, click on “Compare.”
- Click “Start the synchronization automatically when the comparison finishes,” or simply look ahead to the comparability to complete and click on “Start” by yourself.
Jared Newman / Foundry
At this level, you’ll see a progress indicator for all of your information. If all goes to plan, you’ll have a neighborhood copy of all of the information out of your cloud storage.
Unfortunately, the free model of Air Explorer doesn’t assist computerized backups, so that you’ll have to recollect to periodically make backups by yourself. If you need to schedule backups to run mechanically, Air Explorer’s “Pro” model is a $42 one-time purchase.
A be aware about NAS
If you’re utilizing a Network-Attached Storage system, it might additionally be capable of make native copies of your cloud information. Synology, as an example, offers a Cloud Sync app for its NAS gadgets, whereas QNAP presents an identical Cloud Drive Sync instrument in its personal app retailer. I haven’t used these myself, however they need to be just like utilizing Air Explorer with an exterior drive.
This would possibly seem to be so much to take care of, however by making additional copies of your knowledge—and your valuable images specifically—you’ll acquire additional peace of thoughts that some technical snafu gained’t wipe out your digital life.
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