We all have problems with our phones and tablets from time to time, and though Apple makes it easy to use iCloud to backup stuff from your phone, it’s never really been clear exactly what gets backed up and what doesn’t.
Luckily you’ve got practically infinite storage in your college google account; and using the Google Drive iOS app, we can make sure that your photos and videos are backed up safely and securely to the cloud.
There’s an added bonus here – if you’re a student and you’re using your iPhone to capture footage for a project, it’s easy to use this workflow to get the footage from your phone, to the cloud, and thnen into Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere.
Find the Google Drive iOS app on the App Store. It’s free.
When it’s installed, open it up. You’ll see a welcome screen, tap once on “Sign In…” at the bottom left of the screen.
You’ll want to sign in with your college email address and password.
Once you’re signed in [make sure WiFi or 3/4G is on] the very first thing Google Drive will ask you is “Would you like me to automatically back up your photos and videos?”
We suggest choosing “Over WiFi only” and then tapping “Turn On”. You’re welcome to also use “mobile data” but keep in mind that WiFi is free, while 3/4G might not be – especially if you’re on a pay-as-you-go phone.
You’re nearly done!
Your iPhone or iPad will double check with you that you’re happy for Google Drive to access the photo and video content on your phone – tap on “OK”.
Once you’ve allowed this, you’ll find a “Google Photos” entry in your Google Drive – it’s just what google calls the folder that contains your mobile uploads.
Not all of your photos and videos will appear instantly – your device will upload them all in the background, as long as you’re connected to WiFi. You can safely pop your phone back into your pocket. It’s also important to know that what you’re doing is making a copy from your device to Google Drive – you can delete an item on either side, and it will remain on the other [unlike with iCloud]. You can use this to your advantage – if you need to make space on your iPhone or iPad, upload it all to Google Drive, and remove the local copies on your device!
You can now get to your photos and videos at any time by opening a web browser on any computer and going to drive.google.com, and you’re free to download them again onto whatever platform you like, a home computer, or a college computer to be used in a project!
Come and find us on the first floor of the Mountbatten building if you’d like to ask any questions or have any problems.