Preserve Your Mobile Data with Free Wirefly Backup Service
Most folks would be devastated if they lost their mobile phones, but few bother to back up the data that's stored in them. Either they don't know how or they just don't think it's worth the effort.
Free service Wirefly Mobile Backup saves your smartphone data to the cloud, making it easy to recover, view online, and transfer to a new phone -- even if you move from one carrier and/or platform to another.
To get started, all you do is supply a bit of personal data (name, e-mail address, etc.), then select your current phone and carrier. (The service works with Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile platforms.) WMB will send you a text message with a link for downloading the required backup app.
Well, sort of. When I tested this with my iPhone 4, the link took me to the wrong app. To actually back up an iPhone, you need the Wirefly Mobile Transfer app. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a very basic, barely functional beta.
Further confusing the matter is Step 3 of the setup process: Add Your PC. As it happens, your PC plays no role whatsoever in the backup or recovery of your phone data. Instead, you simply have the option of installing a Wirefly-branded version of Spare Backup, a Mozy-like desktop-backup utility that comes with 2GB of free online storage. My advice: click the Skip This Step link near the top of Step 3.
Once I figured out the app confusion on my iPhone, I was able to successfully back up my contacts (though the process took a good 15-20 minutes to complete). After that, I had the option of choosing individual photos to archive -- but nothing else. According to a Wirefly rep, an "Apple limitation" prevents calendar backups.
Thankfully, you can save appointment data (and music, videos, etc.) on Android and other platforms. You also have the option of scheduling automatic, incremental backup updates, meaning you don't have to remember to run the app manually after you add or change contacts, appointments, etc.
Correction: Android does not support calendar backup.
Although my iPhone experience wasn't great (owing in part to the beta version of the app; a better, final version has already been submitted to Apple), the Wirefly Mobile Backup service itself is extremely promising -- and you gotta love the price. It's definitely worth a look.
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