With the popularity of iPhones these days, many people are carrying around lots of music, videos and email in their pockets and purses. Since we are constantly told about the importance of backing up our data that we keep on our computers, many people are rightfully concerned about backing up their iPhones as well. Unlike a computer that stays on your desk, an iPhone will go almost everywhere with you and is inherently easier to damage or lose. The good news is that Apple designed the iPhone to not require you to think about backing up the phone in most cases. Whenever you connect your iPhone to your computer in order to sync music, photos and videos, anything on your iPhone is backed up on your computer. This means that it’s a good idea to synchronize your iPhone every once in a while. Luckily, most people already do this when adding more music to their phones. Based on how iTunes works, restoring a backup is easy: If your phone were to be lost, you could them buy a new one. When you connect that new phone to your computer, iTunes will update the phone to be identical to your old phone based on when you last synchronized it.

One situation where you may need to take extra care is if you normally sync your iPhone with a laptop computer that you also regularly carry with you. In this case, it’s common for you to be carrying phone and laptop with you which means that you don’t have a backup safely stored at home. Here, it’s a good idea to keep a backup of your laptop somewhere at home. This can mean writing a DVD every once in a while, or keeping a spare external hard drive at home that contains a mirror image of all your data. This means that if your phone AND your laptop are stolen, you can restore a new phone and a new laptop for your backup at home.