Get photographs and documents off the tablet

Move pictures and files off a tablet so they exist somewhere else too.

Tablets are wonderful at holding things and quietly bad at letting go of them. That is worth fixing on purpose.

There are three honest ways off a tablet, and they suit different jobs. Knowing which is which saves a lot of frustration.

One caution about cloud backup. Copying photos to an account is not the same as keeping them on the tablet forever. If you delete a picture on the tablet, it usually disappears from the account too. The two are mirrors of each other, not a shelf and a copy of the shelf.

That is why a yearly copy onto a computer or an external drive is worth the afternoon. Two different kinds of storage fail for two different reasons, and rarely on the same day.

Key points

Backup mirrors the tablet, it does not archive it.
Mail suits a handful of files, not thousands.
A cable suits the big yearly copy.
Two places, or it is not really saved.
Do the yearly copy before you delete anything.

What to remember

Backup runs quietly forever, and sharing handles the one off things.
Before deleting to free room, make a real copy somewhere the tablet does not control.
One afternoon with a cable gives you a copy no company and no account can take away.

Try this

This afternoon, turn on automatic photo backup, then pick your ten most precious pictures and mail them to yourself as a second, independent copy.

Practice: Get photographs and documents off the tablet. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.