iSync for iCloud

First thing's first, let's talk about photos. They say the best camera is the one you have in your pocket, and for a lot of folks, this results in your phone being used to take pictures of just about everything. From selfies to family portraits, chances are these are all captured and stored on your phone. With so many special moments living on your phone, it's important to keep them backed up to the cloud so that they aren't lost forever. For this, we recommend Google Photos. Google Photos is 100% free to use and offers unlimited cloud backups of photos and videos. Once you download and install the app from the Play Store, getting it set up takes just a couple of taps. Open  Google Photos . Sign in to your  Google account . Choose your  desired quality settings . Wait for your photos to sync. With that done, Google Photos will take all of the pictures and videos on your phone and save them in the cloud on your Google account. If you have a lot of image...

Okay, so you've got your pictures backed up, but what about all of your other files? That's where Google Drive and Dropbox come into play. Both of these are cloud storage apps, allowing you to keep all of your word documents, presentations, PDFs, and other file types safe and secure off of your phone's local storage. Getting started with either app is quite simple. For Google Drive: Open  Google Drive  on your phone. Tap the  + icon  in the bottom-right corner. Tap  Upload . Select the files you want to upload. All Google Drive users get 15GB of free storage to use right out of the gate, but if you need more, you'll need to pay a monthly fee. Extra Drive storage is sold through Google One, with plans starting at $1.99/month for 100GB. There are a bunch of tiers offered, including 200GB, 2TB, 10TB, 20TB, and even 30TB. If you don't want to use Google Drive for whatever reason, we also recommend using Dropbox. After downloading Dropbox ...

If you use a messaging app like Facebook Messenger or Telegram, accessing your messages on your new phone is as easy as logging into your account. However, if you still rely on good old-fashioned SMS text messaging, things are a bit more complicated. You'll need to download an SMS backup app from the Play Store to save a backup of all your texts, and then on your new phone, download that backup so all of your conversations are restored. There are a few apps you can download to do this, but the one we recommend the most is SMS Backup & Restore by SunTech Pty Ltd. It's a free download on the Play Store, and getting set up with it is pretty straightforward. Open  SMS Backup & Restore  on your phone. Tap  Get Started . Tap  Set Up A Backup . From here, you can backup not just text messages, but any phone call history you have, too

On a related note, something else you'll want to make sure is backed up is all of your contacts. For this, we recommend using Google Contacts. Devices like the Pixel 3a and Nokia 7.1 come with Google Contacts pre-installed, but if you have a phone from OnePlus, Samsung, or LG, chances are you're using a contacts app made by that manufacturer. If you're already using Google Contacts on your current phone, you can download the app on your new phone, log into your Google account, and all of your contacts will be synced automatically. If you need to dig a bit deeper, Google Contacts also offers tools for importing, exporting, and restoring contact files. Open  Google Contacts  on your phone. Tap the  menu button  at the top-left. Tap  Settings . Tap contacts. Here, you can import a .vcf file, export contacts from a Google account, and restore contacts you've saved to your account.

Moving right along, you'll also want to make sure all of your applications are backed up. Backing up apps used to be a pain in the butt, but these days, Google keeps an automatic backup for you on your account. As such, downloading your apps and all of their data is as easy as diving into the settings on your existing phone, making sure the toggle is turned on, and selecting the backup option when you get your new device. On your current phone, doing so is as easy as follows: Open the  Settings  on your phone. Tap  System . Tap  Backup . On this page, you can turn automatic backups on/off, manually initiate a backup, and see when the last time backups were made for app data, device settings, and much more.

Finally, if you're moving over to a Samsung phone, the Samsung Smart Switch app is worth checking out. This involves downloading Smart Switch on your old and new phone, making a connection between the two either wirelessly or with a USB cable, and transferring all of your data in one clean sweep. Smart Switch can be used to transfer just about everything, including: Call history  Contacts Calendar data Text messages Images, media, and other files Getting started with Smart Switch on your old phone is pretty simple. After downloading the app from the Play Store, follow the following on-screen prompts. Open  Smart Switch  on your old phone. Tap  Agree . Tap  Allow . Tap  Let's Go Tap  Cable  or  Wireless  depending on which method you want to use.