Backing up photos on your phone can be simple

Scroll through the photo gallery on your phone. I bet you have hundreds or even thousands of photos. Those are all precious memories you can’t replace if they’re lost.

Ever struggle to find a specific picture in your collection?

I know you want to use Photoshop to edit your photos, but it’s expensive. You can get pretty much the same functions in free programs.

Once you get your photos cleaned up, there are plenty of ways you can back up your photos so they’re safe – no matter what happens to your device. The method is up to you. Just don’t wait till it’s too late.

Back up your photos to the cloud

Both Android and iOS let you back up your photos to the cloud for safekeeping. It’s easy, and you don’t have to install extra software to do it.

On an iPhone:

• Open Settings on your device and tap your name at the top.

• Tap iCloud, then tap Photos.

• Turn on iCloud Photos to start saving your photos to the cloud.

The process may take some time to complete. Once it’s finished, any photos you take will be automatically saved to the cloud. You can also view them on your desktop by signing into iCloud. com with your Apple ID.

On Android:

• Open the Google Photos app and sign in if you need to.

• On the top right, tap your account photo or initial.

• Select Photos settings, followed by Back up & sync.

• Toggle Back up & sync on.

Once your backup is done, future photos you take will be automatically saved to the cloud. You can view, edit and sort them inside the Google Photos app and see them from your desktop at Google. com/ photos.

Note: iCloud and Google Photos come with a limited amount of free storage. More will cost you 99 cents to $ 1.99 per month.

Good news if you have an Amazon Prime account: Amazon Photos offers free unlimited, full- resolution photo storage, plus 5 GB of video storage for Prime members.

Investing in a secure backup service is smart if you’re worried about your photos getting into the wrong hands. My pick is IDrive, a sponsor of my national radio show. For a few bucks a month, you can upload all your files to one account that has much more protection.

Just say no to USB thumb drives

It might seem tempting to store all your photos on a USB thumb drive. If you do, you end up trading security for convenience.

USB thumb drives are small and lightweight, and easy to lose. Plus, cheap drives don’t usually have encryption or password protection.

More expensive drives like the USBpowered PhotoStick are explicitly marketed for photo backups. For the most part, it’s just a 128GB flash drive. It’s lightweight and easy to lose and doesn’t offer any security.

The big selling point is its onboard software that shows you how to move your photos. But Amazon reviewers are mixed.

If you need your photos nearby, go with a secure external drive

If you want to store your photos physically, a secure external drive is a smarter choice. These devices tend to have higher storage capacity and faster speeds than thumb drives.

The external hard drive from Seagate gives you reliable performance and speed for its size. The hard drive has 2TB of storage, which means you can fit up to 500,000 photos.

The external drive from LaCie comes with a cushioned exterior. If you’re worried about breaking your hard drive and losing your photos, this rugged 2TB device is a perfect choice.

If you’re looking for something a bit more secure, Apricon’s hard drive features a 10- digit keypad that protects the contents from being read. You can only get in if you know the code – which means your files are safe if the hard drive is lost or stolen. How cool is that?

Now that you know how easy it is to get your photos off your phone, you have no excuse. Take some time to protect all your memories. Otherwise, you could be out of luck the next time your phone breaks.