​Have you made a will? Thought about who you would like to take care of your outstanding affairs when you die?
 
Yes or No, have you thought about your Digital Legacy?
 
‘My what?’
 
Your Digital Legacy… All those photos you stored in the cloud, all those Instagram posts, or Facebook. Not to mention your online banking and PayPal accounts, your eBay and Amazon Prime. Your Microsoft 365 and all those other many digital subscriptions, social media, and electronic devices we now use. What happens to them when you are no longer around, or no longer able to take care of them?
 
Worried?
 
Don’t be. Just take steps NOW to make sure that there is someone who is legally able to take care of this for you when you die, or perhaps more importantly, should you no longer have the capacity to do so.
 
How do you do that?
 
Well, Think about who you want to trust to look after your digital legacy, then take a look at this website: Digital Legacy Association > They provide a social media will template and in their toolkit section, information on how to deal with your phone, computer, social media and things like a website or blog.
​(Please note this website also discusses other end-of-life arrangements such as funerals.)
 
You could also consider leaving a sealed instruction with a solicitor, containing a list of your accounts and the passwords so that your nominated person can deal with your digital legacy.
 
Most importantly of all, deal with it NOW. Don’t think this is only for old people either – no matter what your age, if something were to happen to you tomorrow, the likelihood is that you will leave a lot of information about yourself out there and it can only be dealt with if you think about it today.

Your Digital Legacy - How To Plan What Happens When You Die - written for File Genie by Freelance Writer Ruth Raymer @WritingWalking

These days, we take lots of photographs on our phones, or tablets. It’s great to sit and flick through them, or show them to family and friends BUT what happens when you have so many pictures, the memory is full. You don’t want to lose them, so the best thing to do is to transfer those photos to your computer which is likely to have more storage, or to the cloud. Your precious images will then be in a good place for editing, sharing, and saving.

​
 
There are lots of combinations of devices, so this blog will point you to some excellent resources on YouTube – videos to show you how to transfer pictures to your computer or the cloud, step by step.
 
There are three types of phone on the UK market at the moment: Android, Windows and iPhone. Each have their own operating system, and will work in a particular fashion. Most Windows phones are Nokia branded. iPhones all use iOS software. Android phones are sold by many brands, e.g. Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC, Nokia, Motorola… and several others. They all work in a very similar way.
 
Android, Windows and iPhone phones
Transferring to a Windows 10 computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsYelI4cevk
 
Iphones
Transferring to a Windows computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBgkiszP88Y
 
Transferring to a Mac computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7nFgWC-MmI
 
Windows Phone
Transferring to a Mac computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14NXr_Q2yXo 
(You might want to skip to 2mins 50 secs through this video, where the real info begins.)
 
Once you have transferred to your computer, don’t forget to back up the computer too. You can find some ideas about backing up here:

The data we keep on our computers is precious. Things like photographs, videos, letters and other documents are sitting on our hard drives, so they’re safe – aren’t they?

​Well yes, but what if your hard drive develops a fault, or you drop your laptop in the bath? Often that means waving goodbye to all that important stuff but these days there are several ways to
improve the odds by saving your data in another place. 

1. CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs
2. USB Sticks or Flash Drives
3. External Hard Drives
4. Cloud Storage
5. Social Media

 
It’s a good idea to use a combination of methods – belt and braces, so that if one fails you have another copy too. Each have their pros and cons but all of these are better than losing your files forever.
 
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Discs
These are useful for backing up documents. Of the three, only a Blu-ray disc can hold a larger number of photos. These can be easily stored or sent through the post – for instance a wedding album is easy to share in this way. Beware though, these discs don’t last for ever and you should think about something else for long term storage.
 
USB Stick/Flash Drive
These have the advantage of being small and easy to use on the go. They come in a wide variety of capacities from 1GB up to a max of around 256GB. If you need to transfer files from one computer to another – these are the tool for the job. One note of caution is that being so small, they are also easy to lose. I keep mine on a lanyard around my neck if I’m travelling.
 
External Hard Drive
Desktop versions are the size of a hefty hardback book, whilst portable versions are no bigger than your mobile phone. They also have a wide variety of capacities, from around 500GB up to 8TB or maybe more. As time goes by, larger and larger drives are on the market. A reasonable portable drive will cost around £50-£80 and will last you for a long time. You can back up your entire computer to it, or just the files you choose.
 
Social Media
Did you know that you can request an archive of all your Facebook activity – posts, photos, everything? Just go to Settings> General Account Settings> Download a copy of your Facebook data. You will be asked to confirm your password and then a file will be sent to the email address you have registered with. Instagram and Twitter have similar features too.
 
Cloud Storage
Most of us have access to some cloud storage though you might not necessarily know it.

• If your broadband is through BT, you have up to 100GB of free cloud storage which you can set up and access though your BT account online.
• If you are an Office 365 subscriber, you have 1TB of free OneDrive storage per user.
• If you have a Google account – gmail or an android phone, you have 15GB of free Google cloud storage.
• If you are an Amazon Prime customer, you have unlimited photo storage on Amazon Cloud, plus 5GB for other data.
• If you have an iPhone or other Apple product, you have 5GB of free iCloud storage.

Then there are the cloud services you can find online. One of the most popular is Dropbox which gives you 2-16GB of free storage. Others are Mega.com which gives 50GB free and Box, giving 10GB free of charge. All of these also have paid-for upgrades of space available.
 
These services are straightforward to access – most can be connected to straight from your phone as well as your computer. Using cloud storage combined with at least one of the other methods in this blog post, will help you to keep your data safe for years to come.

'Five Ways to Store Your Files and Photos' - written for File Genie by Freelance Writer Ruth Raymer @WritingWalking