Backing up your iPhone photos

Your Apple iPhone is not only your news source, mobile calendar, game machine, messaging device, alarm clock and phone, but also your primary camera.

Follow these steps to back up your photos and preserve those precious moments.

MANUAL TRANSFER TO YOUR COMPUTER

If you regularly sync your iPhone with iTunes on your computer, then your photos are being backed up as well.

Otherwise, you can transfer all your photos on your iPhone manually to your computer, then copy them a DVD.

You could also copy them to a USB flash drive or external hard drive for safe storage.

Mac

Go to Applications and start Image Capture. Next, connect the iPhone to the Mac. The iPhone will show up in Devices in Image Capture.

Select All and import the pictures to an existing folder or to a new folder.

PC

Connect the iPhone to the Windows machine. The iPhone will show up as a storage device. A prompt will offer you a few options. Choose "Open device to view files". You will find the photos under the DCIM folder. Drag this folder to your PC's desktop or to a new folder.

» Next: Backup to the cloud

UPLOAD TO CLOUD STORAGE SERVICES, SUCH AS DROPBOX OR FLICKR

You can upload the photos to cloud storage services, such as Dropbox and Flickr.

Dropbox

When you take photos with your iPhone, Dropbox can automatically upload them for backup.

First, download the Dropbox app and create an account, or log in to an existing account.

Launch the app, go to Settings, then Camera Upload. Switch the slider to green.

You can use cellular data to upload pictures, but it is better to use Wi-Fi unless you have an unlimited data plan.

Dropbox is convenient for storing all your documents and photos. Everyone gets 2GB of free storage for a start.

You can earn up to 16GB of free space by inviting friends to sign up for Dropbox. Alternatively, you could pay US$99 (S$124) a year for 100GB of storage.

Flickr

Flickr offers free cloud storage of up to 1TB. However, it stores only photos.

Again, you will need to download the Flickr app. Create an account or log in if you already have one.

You must select and upload photos manually for backup. Tap the camera icon at the bottom of the screen, go to Camera Roll, select photos, then tap Next and upload the photos.

You can set all the uploaded photos to Private, so no one else can view them.

ONE MORE THING: DELETE YOUR APPS 

If you want to keep your photos on your iPhone, make space for them by deleting games or apps which are rarely used.

Some apps can take up 1GB of space. To identify the space hoggers, on iOS 7, go to Settings, then General, then Usage. Under Storage, you will see the amount of space which each app takes up.

To remove an app you do not want, tap on it and, in the window which pops up, a Delete App option will appear. Tap to delete.

Repeat until you are satisfied that you have enough space for your photos.

trevtan@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 25, 2014.
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