Holiday Tech Tune-Up: Quick Back-Ups For Your Devices Before the Holidays

Dec 11, 2025

The holiday season is one of the worst times to lose photos, documents, or your entire device — but it’s also one of the most common times it happens. Travel, accidents, malware, and failing hard drives all become more frequent this time of year.

A quick backup now can save a lot of stress later.

Here’s how to make sure your computer and phone are protected.

1. Back Up Your Windows PC

You’ve got two easy options:

Option A: OneDrive (recommended)

Most Windows 10/11 systems include it.

Go to Settings → Accounts → Windows Backup
Turn on OneDrive Folder Backup

This protects Desktop, Documents, and Pictures automatically.

Option B: External Drive

Use File History:

Settings → Windows Update → Advanced Options → Backup
Choose an external drive

2. Back Up Your Mac

Use Time Machine with an external drive:

Plug in the drive
macOS will usually ask if you want to use it for Time Machine
If not: System Settings → Time Machine → Add Backup Disk

Time Machine is reliable and easy to restore.

3. Back Up Your iPhone or iPad

Two simple options:

iCloud Backup:

Settings → Your Name → iCloud → iCloud Backup → Back Up Now
Computer Backup:

Plug into a Mac or PC → Finder/iTunes → Back Up Now

4. Back Up Your Android Phone

Google One backup: Settings → Google → Backup
Turn on Photos, Messages, App Data, and Device Settings

You can also back up photos separately with Google Photos.

5. Verify Your Backup

A backup only matters if it works.

Check that:

Your backup completed successfully
The date/time is recent
Your storage isn’t full

If your backup keeps failing…

PCRescue can diagnose storage issues, sync errors, and failing drives, and help you set up a reliable backup system before the holidays. Plus we can provide simple, quick backup solutions as part of our subscription plans.

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