How to Prevent Data Loss on Your Smartphone

With smartphones becoming increasingly viable as mediums through which we share, grow and store our lives, the integrity of the data they hold is more valuable than ever. Many power users, professionals and hobbyists find it easier to keep their media and work files on their smartphones as storage sizes increase and prices decrease.
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Ensure the data on your smartphone isn’t lost.

But it’s easy to forget just how fragile our smartphones are. Most modern flagships are made with “premium” materials such as glass and aluminum that, while easy on the eyes, are not particularly strong. Luckily there are a variety of ways you can ensure the data on your smartphone isn’t lost and most methods are cheap or even cost-free.
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Starting with the Outside
Slim cases may look better, but the best they’ll do is protect your phone from scratches. A larger case such as those made by UAG are thick and rubberized to prevent impact damage from drops.

If you can’t stomach the admittedly high price tags these cases usually come with, consider a practical wallet case. These can be found on eBay for less than $10 and give the added benefit of storing cards while having numerous thick layers to prevent your phone from drops.

A decent tempered glass screen protector is a must. This will prevent the catastrophic and potentially expensive issue of your screen cracking to the point where whatever is on it isn’t visible, rendering the entire phone useless.

Copy Files to Removable Media
Most Android devices are fitted with a slot to accommodate for microSD cards These tiny storage devices are relatively cheap to pick up and come in sizes ranging from 2GB to 512GB. Be sure to pick up a class 10 or above chip as the last device you want to be sitting and waiting for files to finish transferring on is your phone.

Once you’ve stuck a microSD card in, simply download a file browser app such as FX File Explorer and find all your media. Use the cut or copy option to move the data onto your microSD card and remove it for extra safety if necessary. For iPhone users, there are lightning to USB adapters available which allow you to connect your device to a flash drive to transfer data.

Prevent Theft
What’s worse than losing your data? Losing it to a thief who could blackmail you or compromise your privacy. Luckily both Google and Apple have provided great solutions to this problem for all their devices in the form of account protection. If you have an Apple device, enable iCloud and Find My iPhone and you’ll be able to disable your device no matter where it is.

Google also makes this easy by allowing you to sign in to your Google account settings and control your devices from there. If your phone has been stolen, there are numerous options such as a sniffer for mobile phones or disabling the IMEI.

Add some extra steps such as password protection or cloud backups and you can rest easy knowing that your data is safe no matter what occurs.