Nowadays many of us have phones or tablets with cameras in them. We happily snap away taking pictures and probably give no regard to where they are stored and whether they are safe. If you have received a nice new tablet or phone for Christmas and want to make sure you keep hold of your pictures then this month’s article is for you.
Most people, in my experience, have a computer as well as their tablet or phone, one of the ways in which you can ensure that you keep your pictures safe is to regularly copy them over to your computer or laptop and then make sure that they are backed up using whatever normal backup system you use. If you want more information about backups then have a look on our website and do a search for “backup” and you’ll find loads of helpful articles on the subject.
If you’re not familiar with syncronising your tablet or phone with your computer then just the idea of doing it probably send shivers down your spine, well worry no more as, I have a nice easy solution for you to automatically copy any pictures you take “out and about” onto your computer when you get home. Once set up you won’t even have to do anything, as it’s all fully automatic.
In order to set up automatic syncronisation of your photos you need to register for a service called DropBox. Visit the link https://db.tt/ac1zH3lK (just type it into the address bar of your web browser on your computer – the bit at the top that shows the website addresses) and you will receive your own personal invite to dropbox. Just enter the relelvant information to receive your free account with 2Gb of storage and you will have an option to download a small piece of software that will prepare your computer, that’s the first bit done. Now power up your tablet or phone and go to your app store (this will either be the Google Play Store or Apple App Store) and search for the DropBox app. Once you have downloaded and installed it you can log in using the same credentials as you used on your main computer. After you have logged in on your tablet or phone you will see an option to turn on “camera uploads”, this is the option that you want to select – then you’re done!
Any pictures that you take with your tablet or phone will automatically be uploaded to your DropBox account and then (again automatically) to your computer as soon as your tablet or phone is connected to your home wifi connection. You won’t have to do anything, it’s all automatic – why not try it?