The subject matter at EOD is primarily financial. But deeper than that, it’s about living the best life you can with the resources you have. One of those resources is time. Being wise with your money and your time will go along way towards getting the very most out of life.
It’s been years since my wife upgraded her phone. Picking out a new phone, activating and paying for it took only a few minutes. Then came the part where my wife expected the employee helping us to link the two phones together and transfer the data from her old phone to the new one.
Except, they don’t do that any more. Instead, the employee looked at my wife and said, “You’ve backed up your phone recently to iCloud, right?” My wife looked at the gentlemen with a blank stare. This was the very moment when I knew the process which had up until this point been very streamlined and quick was about to change.
The employee stated it might take 90 minutes or longer to back up her phone to the iCloud. Instead of hanging around Best Buy for a couple of hours, we had them explain how to complete the phone setup, and went home. Connected to our home Wi-Fi, the backup of my wife’s phone completed over 6 hours later.
Save Before You Buy
If you’re thinking of upgrading your phone in the near future, have things on your phone (pictures, aps, contacts, etc.) you want to keep, I highly suggest you backup your phone before going into a phone retailer.
Apple iPhone
If you have an iPhone, follow these steps:
- From the home screen, tap “Setting”
- Tap your name
- Tap “iCloud”
- Tap “iCloud Backup”
If you have enabled iCloud backup, it will tell you the last time there was a successful backup performed. If it’s recent, you’re good to go. If you don’t have iCloud backup enabled, or the last backup is old (not having enough iCloud storage is a common reason backups fail), you will want to tap “Backup Now.”
Samsung Android
- From Settings, tap “Accounts and backup”
- Tap “Samsung Cloud”
Under the “Backup and Restore” heading will be displayed the last time your phone was backed up. If the back up is old or if it’s never been backed up, tap the option to backup your phone.
Note: The basic cloud plan for both types of phones will not be enough for a phone backup. You’ll have to increase your plan (even if it’s just temporarily) to successfully backup your phone.
Once your phone has successfully been backed up, you are ready to go into a phone retailer and pick out a new phone. Your new phone will be installed from your cloud backup, but because download speeds are much faster than upload speeds, the installation will only take a few minutes.
I was able to complete my wife’s phone setup the next morning, but admittedly I’m comfortable enough with technology to move SIM cards, restore backups, etc. If you want to ensure you walk out of your phone retailer with your new phone installed, setup, and ready to use, make sure you have a phone backup already completed beforehand. It will literally save you hours and a big headache.
How about you, EOD Nation, have you upgraded your phone lately? Did you back up your phone first?
