How to Back Up Your Text Messages, Email, Calendars, and More

Worried that a lost or broken phone means losing all of your text messages and all of the important conversations you've had with clients? You're not alone. An RE Technology reader recently wrote to us in search of an easy way to archive her text messages and prevent disaster from happening.

Rather than rattle off the few methods that we're aware of, we turned to Tech Helpline for some expert advice. Since they're a REALTOR®-owned company that offers tech support to hundreds of agents and brokers every day, they're uniquely suited to knowing just what real estate professionals need (read: easy and painless solutions).

We spoke with Richard Gordon, Technical Analyst Lead at Tech Helpline. Not only did he walk us through archiving text messages, he showed us how to save contacts, emails, and calendar events from all of your devices! Fortunately, for iPhone users, it's as simple as syncing your phone to iCloud. For Android users, syncing your contacts and emails is a snap, but your calendar and text messages will require third-party apps.

Back Up 101 for iPhone Users

"Syncing your devices through your iCloud account is as simple as following a few steps," says Gordon. The first step is the simplest: make sure you are signed into the same iCloud account on each device.

If you use a Mac computer, go to System Preferences from the black Apple menu in the top left corner. Then, select the iCloud option and make sure you are signed into the correct account. Next, check the boxes next to anything you want backed-up by synching to iCloud.

From an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings, then select iCloud to sign-in and also to choose which options you want to sync. To make sure your calendar will sync properly to all of your devices, make sure the default calendar is set to your iCloud Calendar. To check this, go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option in Settings.

If you're an iPhone user with a Windows computer, you first need to install the iCloud control panel for Windows from the Apple website. Once installed, just sign into the same account you use for your phone and select your desired sync options. To sync mail, contacts, or your calendar, you need to have a mail application such as Microsoft Outlook installed. You must also have the mail application closed while you are signing in and syncing for the first time. After these steps are followed, you will have a two-way sync to and from each of your devices. Best of all? No matter what happens to any of your devices, all of your data will be safe in the cloud.

Syncing with Google

"Google is actually one of the easiest services to sync, but it has some limitations compared to iCloud," says Gordon. Your first step is adding your Google account to each device and selecting what to sync.

On a Mac computer, go to System Preferences from the black Apple menu in the top left corner and select Internet Accounts. Next, click the "+" symbol on the bottom left, then choose the Google option. Once you sign into your Google Account, choose which options you want to sync.

On an Android phone or tablet, go to Settings, then Accounts. From there, add a new Google account and choose what to sync. If you're using an iPad or iPhone, go to Settings then choose the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option to add a Google Account and select what to sync.

Remember when we said syncing to Google has limitations? Those come in when you're dealing with third-party mail applications like Outlook. The good news is that it's easy to sync your email messages. The bad news is that if you want to sync your Google calendar and contacts to Outlook, it's less simple.

There are two ways to add Google contacts and your calendar to third-party mail programs. The first is to share your calendar from the Google Calendar website and add it as an internet calendar on Outlook. Unfortunately, this will only allow you to view your calendar--it won't be editable, and it won't show your contacts. The second way is to use Google App Sync, but this only works for paid Google business accounts. If you have a free Google account (like most people), you will have to use a third-party Google App syncing program. Here are a few suggestions:

• Calendar Sync+ - If you only need to make sure your calendar syncs, this app will do it every hour, day, week, month, or whatever frequency you desire.
• WebDAV Collaborator - This program will sync your Outlook contacts and calendar with an array of programs like Yahoo, Zimbra, Zarafa, Atmail, and more.
• CompanionLink for Mac - If you're a Mac user with Outlook, this program lets you sync your contacts, calendars, and tasks amongst all your devices.
• IQTell - Sync your email, calendars, contacts and Evernote data to iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. This app connects to most email providers, including Gmail, Yahoo, Exchange, Office 365, AOL, iCloud, cPanel, Hotmail, and Outlook.com.

As for backing up text messages from your Android phone, it's actually pretty simple. While you can't do it via syncing with Google, this app makes it a breeze: SMS Backup and Restore.

If you still find yourself overwhelmed (or just pressed for time!), remember that if you have Tech Helpline as an association or MLS member benefit, you may simply call your MLS' or association's dedicated Tech Helpline phone number for support. They can walk you through any issues you're having, or even fix the problem remotely. Click here to learn more.