your phone number is The guardian of your digital life. It has videos of your child’s first words, heart-warming messages from your significant other that will always cheer you up, and the latest saves from your favorite mobile games. You put in the time to get it the way you wanted it, and there are irreplaceable memories on board. Taking a few minutes to back up is a small price to pay to ensure you don’t lose everything.
We’ll show you how to back up your Android phone in several ways, so choose the one that interests you. We have separate guides on how to back up your iPhone and how to back up your computer.
Update March 2024: We verified all steps, updated Samsung’s backup steps, and added screenshots to illustrate.
Table of contents
Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for only $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, Complete Gear coverage plus subscriber-only newsletter. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
Back up to Google
The simplest and easiest backup option is Google’s cloud service, which is built into Android.
Android by Simon Hill
- go set up, Googleand select backup.
- You can check how much storage is available for the Google account you’re signed in to listed at the top.
- Below that, you may see an option that says Back up to Google Drive There is a switch next to it. (If you have Google One installed, it may say Backup via Google One.) Make sure it is turned on.
- There is one Back up now button below. click it. Keep in mind that if you haven’t backed up before, it may take several hours for the backup to complete. It’s best to leave your phone plugged into a charger and connected to Wi-Fi overnight.
- The bottom section shows the details of the backup.tap Photos and videos and make sure backup Opened. You can also do this from the menu in the Google Photos app.
- at the bottom Backup details section, you can click Google account data (Also available via set up > Account > [Your Google Account] > Account synchronization). Here you can choose what to sync with your Google Account. The list of switches shown here varies depending on the apps and services you use.
Manage backups and additional storage
Google by Simon Hill
You can find your backup in the Google Drive app by clicking on the menu in the upper left corner and selecting backup.
It can be a challenge to keep Google Drive’s 15 GB of free storage, so you might consider signing up for the Google One plan. You can get 100 GB for $2 per month or $20 per year, 200 GB for $3 per month or $30 per year, and 2 TB for $10 per month or $100 per year. Once you subscribe, you’ll see more storage options, starting with 5 TB ($25 per month) or $250 per year ($250 per year) all the way up to 30 TB ($150 per month). You can share this storage with up to six family members.
The Google One app gives you more insight and control over your backups, available at storage The tabs listed below Device backup.
You probably don’t want to pay for the extra space, so before we get to alternative backup services, let’s look at how to back up files directly to your computer.
Back up to your Windows PC
Google by Simon Hill
Backing up files on your Android phone on Windows PC is very easy. That’s it: