Getting backups running takes one focused day, a few settings in the first week, and small habits after that. This timeline walks through each stage so files survive a crash, a hack, or a lost phone.
A new computer or phone usually arrives with good intentions about backups, and those intentions tend to fade once the device is in daily use. The FTC’s consumer advice is direct on the point: back up your files once a week, because a crash, a hack, or a virus can take photos, financial records, and documents with it. The timeline below turns that advice into a routine a household can keep, from the first day with the device to a yearly checkup.
Before You Start: Decide What Actually Needs Backing Up
The FTC’s guidance on getting rid of a computer opens with the same question that starts a good backup plan: what important information do you want to save? Photos, videos, and documents are the usual answers, and estimating how much space they take helps you choose a solution. Sort the folders on the new device by size so the decision rests on numbers rather than guesses. Count the phone as well; the FTC recommends backing up phone data, not just the computer.
One distinction saves headaches later. Many cloud plans are file-sync services, which mirror your actions: remove a document on your computer and the same removal happens to the copy stored online. Sync is convenient, but it is not a backup. A backup keeps a second copy that survives a mistake made to the first, and one copy of a file does not qualify.
Day One: Make the First Full Backup
Start with everything, then trim. On a Windows PC, the built-in Windows Backup asks you to sign in with a Microsoft account; a free account comes with 5 GB of OneDrive storage, and toggles let you include your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Music folders. On a Mac, Time Machine copies files and folders to an external drive. The FTC lists the other routes: an external hard drive, a USB flash drive, DVDs or CDs, or cloud storage. It also notes that cloud providers use encryption, which scrambles information to hide the contents of a file, and that an external hard drive offers more capacity and faster transfers than a flash drive.
When the first backup finishes, disconnect the external drive until the next session. The FTC recommends this; the point of the copy is that it survives whatever happens to the machine.
Worth doing
Before you move anything, turn on multi-factor authentication in the backup account. The FTC notes that it makes it harder for scammers to log in even if they have your username and password.
The First Week: Turn On Automatic Backups
Manual backups depend on memory, and memory is the first thing to fail. The FTC’s advice is to back up at least once a week, which is realistic only if it happens on its own. Software that runs an external drive often lets you schedule automatic backups, and cloud backup services copy files in the background without any action from you.
Pick a time when the computer is usually on and idle, give the first scheduled run time to finish, and confirm it ran. Set the phone to back up on its own schedule as well. If a setting is unclear, the operating system’s help pages walk through it step by step.
The First Month: Test That You Can Restore a File
A backup you have never restored is a claim, not a plan. Pick an unimportant file, move the original to a different folder or delete it, and restore a copy from the backup. If the service offers web access, try restoring on a second device. The exercise takes minutes and tells you whether the whole setup works.
Testing matters more than it sounds. Backup vendors point to human error, from accidental deletions to coffee spills, as the leading cause of data loss. The failures worth catching are the quiet ones: a folder toggled off, a drive that filled up, a login problem on the backup account. If the restore fails, a month in is the right time to fix it, before anything important has piled up.
Every Few Months: Check Storage Space and Prune
Free tiers fill faster than people expect, and photo and video libraries are the reason. Open the storage manager on the service, note the total and the trend since your last check, and prune before paying for more. Duplicates, burst photos where only one frame matters, and old downloads are the usual targets. If the plan is genuinely too small, compare tiers against measured usage; our guide to how much cloud storage you actually need walks through the math.
Watch for quiet growth from device backups too. Each new phone or tablet can add another backup instead of replacing the old one, and backups of devices you no longer own can sit in an account for years.
Once a Year: Review Devices, Recovery Info, and Costs
Set a yearly appointment and work through three lists. Devices: remove anything you no longer own and confirm the new ones are backing up. Recovery: check that the email and phone number on the backup account still work, and that the multi-factor method does too, because a locked account is as bad as a lost drive. Costs: check what the plan charges now and whether current usage still justifies the tier.
The review is also the moment when a device leaves the house. The FTC’s disposal guidance puts backing up as step one and erasing the drive as step two, so confirm the backup restored before you wipe anything. Our guide to wiping smart devices before selling covers the full sequence.
Once the routine is running, the remaining work is small: a restore test now and then, a storage check every few months, a yearly review. Old accounts sometimes hold copies of files you assumed lived in one place, so it is worth cleaning up old online accounts before they leak as part of the same review. And if a paid plan no longer fits your household, our guide to canceling online subscriptions explains what the law requires when you end one.
The essentials
- The FTC advises backing up the files on your computer, and your phone, at least once a week, which is realistic only if backups run automatically.
- A free Microsoft account includes 5 GB of OneDrive storage, and Windows Backup can include your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos, and Music folders.
- File-sync plans are not the same as backups, because deleting a file on your device deletes the cloud copy too.
- Test that you can restore a file in the first month, and disconnect external backup drives between uses, as the FTC recommends.
- Once a year, review the device list, recovery contact info, and plan costs, and always back up before wiping a device you are getting rid of.
Reader questions
How often should a household back up its files?
The FTC recommends backing up the files on your computer at least once a week, and backing up phone data too. Automatic scheduling is what makes that frequency achievable.
Is cloud storage the same thing as a cloud backup?
Not quite. Storage keeps files accessible, while backup keeps separate copies. Many consumer plans are sync services: whatever you delete on one device gets deleted everywhere, including the stored copy.
How much cloud storage do we actually need?
It depends mostly on your photo and video libraries, which grow far faster than documents. Check the storage pages on your devices and the provider’s storage manager, then match a plan to real usage.
What should we do before getting rid of an old computer?
Back up the files you want to keep, confirm the backup restores, and then erase the hard drive with the built-in reset tool. The FTC’s disposal guidance follows that order.
We describe how services generally work; features, settings and terms change often, and they differ between companies. This is general information, not legal advice. Check the provider’s current policies and official sources such as FTC.gov.