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Keep your contacts and photos safe

Make a safe copy of your photos and contacts before you change phones.

A backup is a safe copy of your things kept online. If anything goes wrong, nothing is lost.

On an iPhone

  1. Back up everything: open Settings, tap your name at the top, then iCloud › iCloud Backup. Make sure Back Up This iPhone is on, then tap Back Up Now.
  2. Photos: in Settings › your name › iCloud › Photos, turn on Sync this iPhone.
  3. Contacts: in Settings › your name › iCloud, make sure Contacts is turned on.
  4. Apple gives you 5GB free. If it says you're out of space, Apple may offer extra free storage for a short time when you get a new iPhone, so check before paying for more.

On an Android phone

  1. Back up everything: open Settings, search for Backup, make sure backup by Google is on and tap Back up now.
  2. Photos: open the Google Photos app, tap your picture in the top corner, then Photos settings › Backup and turn it on.
  3. Contacts: contacts saved to your Google Account are kept safe automatically. In the Contacts app, check new contacts are saved to your Google Account, not the phone or SIM card.
  4. Google gives you 15GB free, shared with Gmail.

A simple extra

  1. Write your most important phone numbers on paper and keep it somewhere safe. It's handy if your phone is ever lost.

Watch how it's done

Official videos from Apple Support, Google Help. The video only loads from YouTube when you press play.

Pressing play loads YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode. YouTube may then store data on your device. Watch on YouTube instead.
Pressing play loads YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode. YouTube may then store data on your device. Watch on YouTube instead.

Official help pages

More guides

iPhone to iPhoneAndroid to iPhoneiPhone to AndroidSamsung to SamsungGoogle Pixel or other AndroidNew HONOR phoneNew OPPO phoneNew OnePlus phoneNew Xiaomi, Redmi or POCO phoneNew Motorola phoneMoving your WhatsApp chatsBefore you trade in, sell or give away

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These guides are written by Norfolk Fibre Watch in plain English. The videos and links come straight from Apple, Google, Samsung and WhatsApp. We don't earn anything from this section. Menus can change after phone updates, so if your screen looks different, follow the official guide linked on each page.