Hands up who worries about the zillions of photos stored on your phone that you’ve never had time to do anything about?

Or the precious newborn and birthday videos you’ve somehow never got around to downloading?

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The truth is digital memories are some of the most treasured possessions we have, and if you’ve ever lost any you’ll know that losing them can be truly devastating.

But what with the general pace of life and juggling work with kids and family life it can be easy to put off doing anything about downloading or saving photos and videos, even though it really isn’t that difficult or time consuming!

With a newborn in the house again I’m determined to start routinely backing up our photos and videos instead of leaving it for years and years, and in this collaborative post you’ll find 5 easy ways!

5 easy ways to back up digital memories

1. Print them off

If you store pictures of your family on your computer then a quick way to save them for the future is to print them off. Many people in the era of the smartphone have a habit of keeping all of their family photos on their phones because they forget to do anything with them. How many times have you heard that someone has lost hundreds of photos because they lost their phone or broke it? Make the photos physical. They’ll have more sentimental value if you can hold them in your hands.

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2. Store them in a cloud

A cloud is the online digital storage that you usually have access to with a multitude of different digital devices. Have a google account? Add them to your Gdrive. Got an iPhone? Apple cloud is your new best friend. Again, so many people lose their photos because they lose their phones. Considering how easy it is to upload them to any kind of storage there’s no reason to lose them. If you don’t have either of these you could consider a cheap VPS (a virtual private server). These give you plenty of options online for your storage. They take time to wrap your head around, but they’re worth it for the more technically minded.

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3. Keep a physical back up

Don’t just hold your memories on a single computer. Consider making a back up on a dedicated hard drive and store it securely. Once you have made your back up then you can consider storing them off-site and away from the home. Should the worst happen to your household then they are safely away from harm. The good thing about a hard drive is that you can also store important documents and information on there as well.

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4. Send them by email

An out-of-the-box thought is creating an email that is solely for sending images to other email addresses. This can be used not only as a form of back up but as a unique present for someone when they reach a certain age. Send baby photos to your kids and give them the password to the email when they turn 18. It’s a simple and easy way to make a present and a great way to know that the photos are safe.

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5. Keep back ups in more than one place

Keep constant back ups in multiple places to keep your videos, photos and documents as safe as they can possibly be. Because it’s better to be safe than sorry!

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This is a collaborative post.

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