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Syncing and backing up your files may sound like the same thing, but they serve very different purposes—and mixing them up could cost you your data.
What Syncing Your Data Actually Means
When you sync your files, you’re essentially keeping them updated across all your devices. When you create a document on your desktop, it syncs to OneDrive and is available on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you edit a document in Google Docs on your PC, syncing ensures that change reflects instantly on your laptop, too. you’re able to even sync your browser data, like open tabs, bookmarks, saved passwords, and more.
For the most part, services like OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox make this easy by storing your files in the cloud. These files then appear on all linked devices in real-time or shortly after an internet connection is established.
Syncing is incredibly useful for people who need constant access to their files, regardless of the device they’re using.
Windows, in particular, integrates OneDrive deeply into the system, encouraging you to store documents, pictures, and desktop items in the cloud. This makes for a pretty seamless experience. If you log into a different Windows machine, then your files are already there as long as you sign into the same Microsoft account. Plus, there are plenty of othergreat cloud storage servicesavailable you can sync your files to.
But syncing has a major security flaw. Ultimately, it’s all about mirroring. If you accidentally delete a file from one device, it usually gets deleted from everywhere else, too. And, if a file becomes corrupted or infected with malware, that damage is mirrored across all synced versions.
So while syncing gives you convenience, it doesn’t really guarantee safety.
How Backups Work—and Why They’re Different
A backup is a separate, often offline, copy of your data that’s preserved in the state you saved it in. So, no matter how much editing you do to other versions of the file, the backup won’t change unless you decide to make changes to it.
Unlike syncing, backups don’t update automatically with every change. That’s a good thing because if something goes wrong with your original file, the backup remains untouched.
6 Simple Ways to Back Up Your Data Safely
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The best way to think of backups is to treat them like insurance for your data. They protect you from deletion, corruption, ransomware, failed updates, or even hardware failure. When something goes wrong, you may always go back to an earlier copy of your data or even restore your entire system.
There are different types of backups, too. File-level backups save individual files and folders, while system image backups capture your entire drive, including Windows settings, apps, and files.
Then, there are incremental backups, which only save changes made since the last backup. This is a good way to save space and time if you don’t need consistently backed-up data.
Why You Shouldn’t Rely on Sync Alone
Syncing can give you a false sense of security. Sure, it feels like your data is safe because it’s “in the cloud.” But unless you’re also creating backups, you’re just one accident away from losing all that important data.
And that’s where syncing really falls short. It can’t save you from yourself. Let’s say you accidentally overwrite something important in a spreadsheet saved to Google Sheets. Because it’s synced, that corrupted version gets updated across every device—instantly.
Thankfully, Google has version history. However, that doesn’t always guarantee you’ll notice the issue right away or that the version you need to return to will be available.
Browser Syncing Is Useful, but Be Aware of These 4 Security Issues
While convenient, browser syncing does have some risks.
Then there’s the problem that you usually can’t help. Say your file becomes corrupted or gets caught up in malware or ransomware. Syncing can spread infected or encrypted files to all your devices and cloud storage, making recovery even harder.
And while some cloud services offer limited recovery windows, they shouldn’t be your first or only line of defense.
Syncing also doesn’t protect non-file elements like your installed applications or system settings. If your hard drive fails in your Windows PC or Mac, syncing won’t help you get everything back to how it was. For that, you need a proper backup.
Why a Combination of Both Is Best
To truly protect your data, you should combine syncing tools with proper backup tools. I like to think of syncing as the tool that keeps me efficient and flexible. Backups, then, are the safety net that keeps everything from falling apart.
I prefer using a program likeOnlyOffice, which lets me sync up my documents so I can move easily across my different devices. I use OnlyOffice instead of Google Docs (which has a more robust version history) because I prefer writing in a desktop document. However, you can also use any document suite, such as Google or Microsoft.
Then, you can set up a backup system using a built-in app like Time Machine on Mac or Windows Backup on Microsoft-based PCs. This allows you to keep a backup of your important work and settings while also providing you with a way to sync your files. Plus, setting up a backup isn’t difficult. You can easilyset up a quick backup for your most important data in less than 10 minutes.
Of course, if you’re working off a mobile device—like an iPhone or Android device—there are other options for backing up and syncing files. Apple provides a great way to sync up data with iCloud, and then you canback up your iPhone to a Mac or Windows PCusing iTunes.
Android devices, on the other hand, can be synced up using your Google account. You can also back up your device settings through Google or the manufacturer’s software—Samsung offers an easy way to back up the Secure Folder on your Galaxy device.
The most beneficial approach is to use a combination of syncing and backing up. Syncing lets you keep your files up-to-date while backing up ensures that one mistake doesn’t cost you everything.
