Data backup for your iPhone: Yes, You’ll need backup for that too

While each of us is increasingly juggling with multiple devices, smartphones are usually the next most important devices we use after laptops. It’s interesting to see just how much we got used to our smartphones. Smartphonatics – the ubiquitous breed of smartphone users – is a term the Time Magazine uses to describe the changing face of computing.

In a feature article on Time about Smartphonatics, Dan Kadlec points to research to show that over half of the American Population is now on smartphones. Further, according to a study that Dan refers to, a quarter of all global smartphone users are Smartphonatics.

Clearly, lot of data is stored on smartphones. If you are an iPhone user, you are pretty much up there in the ranks of Smartphonatics. If that’s the case, then it’s not just the data on your laptop or computer that needs backing up; you’ll have to find a way to backup your data on your iPhone too. What are your options? Are there any of the popular cloud backup solutions that you can use? Yes, there are (remember, there’s an app for that too):

iCloud

A Cloud backup solution from Apple, the iCloud, has been built from ground up to support Apple devices for storage respective user data on the cloud, automatically. While connected with your multiple devices, everything syncs (depending on your settings) to the cloud – be it contacts, documents, videos, photos, calendar, and notes. As an iPhone user myself, I realize that I don’t need to keep iCloud on all the time. Just like I do weekly backups (using Time Machine and other options), I do a weekly or a fortnightly back up of all the data on my iPhone using iCloud.

Note: Keeping your iCloud on and syncing every time drains your iPhone battery mercilessly. 

iTunes

The iTunes for iPhone does a lot more than just store and play music. It also lets you backup data across your devices: be it your Mac, iPhone or iPad. iTunes backup also makes more sense to backup your media files (much more than iCloud). The Apple community has well-documented tutorials on how to backup your iOS device.

Here’s the link from the Apple Support forum that explains how to backup your iPhone, iPad, iTouch, or even the Mac.

Dropbox for iPhone

Everyone’s favorite Dropbox has an application on the Apple App Store that lets you sync documents, photos or pretty much anything else on your iPhone straight to a folder on your Dropbox account. Wherever you are, and while on the go, you can push your data to your dropbox account. Of course, jut as with your main Dropbox account, you can share your documents, upload videos, and access your documents ( even when you are offline).

Google Drive for iPhone

We’ve done a few posts on Google Drive and Mauricio explains a lot about Google Drive in his earlier post. Good news is that Google Drive also has an app exclusively for the iPhone (available through App Store). As it is with most Google Products, syncing your data with Google Drive is seamless and quick. It makes for a great case for complete suite of services with this app on the shelf. I haven’t tried it yet but it does look promising at the outset.

PKG Backup 

Lifehacker swears by this application (I haven’t used it myself). According to Lifehacker, this application is by far the best backup application for iPhone so far.

Apparently, it’s a bit of a hard work to get this working for you, as it requires a jailbreak. Lifehacker.org also has a guide for you to follow through. I find this avoidable since you can backup securely and easily through the above-mentioned options.

That’s just me. Have you come across any dedicated apps for iPhone backup? Please do let us know about them here in the comments.