Even if you’re not the photographer in your family (we all have one, don’t we?) you probably still take photos with your smartphone, at least occasionally.
Windows Phone offers simple ways to backup your photos (and any other image you save onto your phone) to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service so you’l never lose them, even if your phone gets stolen, malfunctions or another “natural” disaster occurs.
Manual backup
For those who like to do most things themselves, you should know your WP smartphone lets you easily backup photos to OneDrive manually. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Open up Photos, find the photo(s) you want to back up then select them.
2. From the control bar at the bottom of the screen tap on the share icon and from the list of options choose OneDrive.
3. The OneDrive app will launch automatically. Select the folder you want to store your photos in and then tap on add.
Automated backup
This is the easiest way to know your photos get backed up no matter what – there’s always a chance you’ll forget to do it manually, at some point. Enabling this option is pretty straightforward:
1. Open your Photos app and choose Settings from the control bar at the bottom of your screen.
2. Tap on the OneDrive option (under Auto Upload).
3. To enable this feature you can set it to automatically upload images at good quality or at best quality. If for example you’re using your data connection while auto upload at good quality is selected, your phone may use it to back up your photos – not the best idea if you’re on a limited data plan. This is why I strongly suggest you choose the second option – best quality. This one only works on WiFi.
Note: You can get to these options via your phone’s Settings -> Backup -> Photos+videos. From your phone’s backup settings you’ll also be able to automate backup for your installed apps, system settings and text messages.
Bonus tip: By default, OneDrive offers 15 GB of free storage. If you enable the autoupload option for your photos you’ll get another extra 15 GB. This one is not just for Windows Phone users. You can also have an Android or iOS phone – it doesn’t matter as long as you’re using the OneDrive app and have auto upload for photos on – you’ll get the bonus.
The offer is limited (no time specified), at least that’s what it says on the OneDrive website so take it while you still can.
Are you using OneDrive on your smartphone to backup your photos and what else are you using it for? Maybe you found another service that would make a better choice. Let us know your opinion in the comments section below!
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