We can all agree that digitization of data has been a blessing. It has made sorting through, searching for, and arranging essential information a breeze. And that is true of contacts than perhaps any other data.
However, there is this one great disaster that’s always threatening to destroy all our lives: What if I lose my address book?
That’s a real danger that we’ve all experienced at least once in our lives. That harrowing experience of losing all your contacts and then having to sit and physically type in every name, number, and email! That’s the stuff nightmares are made up of.
So we use back-ups – make digital copies of our data – so that we can sleep in peace. We will discuss that in more detail in this post. Starting with:
The Usual Suspects
The big four of email based contact services — Google, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo — all have their own cloud backup features. The first three have the added benefit of running right on your mobile devices, thus eliminating the need to use additional apps to backup data from your mobile.
They also offer a web-based catalogue of your contacts. So if you want to do a lot of editing in your address book, you don’t have to struggle with the tiny screens of your mobile phones.
Of course, there’s no clear winner among these four. But if you are an Apple user, iCloud is your best bet. It offers the requisite email, contact management, and calendar services, plus a lot more. The level of compatibility that iCloud has with your iOS and Mac devices is unmatched.
The iCloud Advantage
Setting up iCloud backup is easy. Just go to your System Preferences and click on the tab called “iCloud”. Under that, ensure that you’ve checked the “Contacts” box.
Note: If you are doing this for the first time, you’ll be required to provide your Apple ID and password.
On iOS, go to Settings > iCloud, then switch the Contacts toggle to the “on” position (it’ll turn green).
You can also configure your iPhone’s Contacts to sync with a hoard of other apps. Open up your Settings app, and go into Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then click Add Account and choose an account of your liking (Google, Yahoo, etc). Provide the needed ID-passwords and you’re done.
The process is similar on the Mac as well. Open System Preferences, then select Internet Accounts. Pick the service you want to use, then follow the onscreen instructions to set it up.
Avoiding duplicity
The problem with using multiple accounts to sync your contacts is that you end with duplicate contacts. For some people it’s no big deal, but if you’re anything like us, your OCD will start giving you rude shocks in less than a week.
You can choose a default account where all your new contacts will be saved, but you’ll have to end up spending some time deleting all the duplicate contacts.
To choose a default account go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendar. Scroll down to the Contacts section, then tap Default Account. From there, pick the account you want to save new contacts to.
Some Other Apps
Apart from these, there are a lot of independent apps that do an exceptional job of backing up your data to the cloud. There’s a growing list of apps that specialize in Contacts. One quick Google search will give you any number of references. However, security can be a big concern. So we suggest you play it safe and stick to the Big Four.
A few quick fixes:
You can use the Mac’s Contacts app to export a PDF list of your contacts:
Open the Contacts app on your Mac, then select everyone in your contacts list by going to Edit > Select All.
Go to File > Export as PDF. Give your file a name of your choosing. Click Save. That’s it!
Alternatively, go to the File menu > Export > Contacts Archive. Choose a name and Save. You can use this file to get back your contacts at a later date. Choose File> Import and navigate to the archive file you saved.
We would like to point out here that along with all these advantages, there is a disadvantage as well. It’s the same risk that plagues any (every) piece of data stored on the cloud, namely, hacking. No matter how minute it may be, it is still present. However, that’s a risk we take willingly every day! We recommend that you always use strong password methods and two-factor authentications to stay safe.
We hope this guide saves you some trouble by helping you secure your contacts. After all, that list is literally a list of your entire world!