PREVENT A SCHOOL TECH DISASTER: STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO BACK UP YOUR CHILD’S iPAD

“The dog deleted my homework” doesn’t cut it in the modern classroom, so students need to backup their work on their school-approved iPads.

Lots of schools insist that students bring an iPad to class, but teachers don’t always explain the best way to backup school work. It’s important to have a digital insurance policy should a tech disaster strike the night before an assignment is due.

These are free, affordable and reliable backup options that every parent needs to know about.

Backup on Apple’s iTunes

One way to backup an iPad is to plug it into a computer running Apple’s iTunes music software, which makes a complete backup of the tablet and stores it all away in hidden folders. This is handy if you’ve bought a new iPad and you’re looking to copy across everything from your old iPad, but it’s not very user-friendly if you need to dip into the backup to recover a single lost file.

Backup on Apple’s iCloud

Another way to backup an iPad is to use Apple’s iCloud online storage service. The benefit of this is that backups run automatically, uploading to the cloud so you don’t have to remember to do it. You can access and edit individual Keynote, Pages and Numbers files via a web browser on your computer – which could be a tear saver if your iPad is lost, stolen or meets with spilled milk or some other disaster.

Apple automatically enables iCloud backups on new iPads, but unfortunately it’s not as set-and-forget as you might hope and is limited by the 5GB of free storage.

Tip: Trim your iCloud backups

The easiest way to keep your iCloud backup under 5GB is to tell the iPad to stop backing up the photos and videos in the Camera Roll. Go to Settings, iCloud and disable Photos backup.

If this isn’t enough to get you under the 5GB limit then tap on Storage and Manage Storage. Under backups you’ll see the name of the iPad, tap here and then tap Show All Apps to see a complete list of apps which are backing up to iCloud and how much storage they’re using. Start working down the list and disabling backups for apps that you’re certain aren’t important.

An extra step

Video download apps that store offline copies of YouTube clips are major offenders, along with some games. If you’ve got room you might want to keep the online backups of sandbox games like Minecraft PE and Terraria to avoid more tears should their online worlds be lost in a tech disaster.

The Essentials

Keynote, Pages and Numbers files are probably the most precious in terms of school work, but it’s worth discussing it with your child and their teachers.

Backup elsewhere

If you’d like to backup your child’s photos and videos there are alternatives to paying for more iCloud storage. You can back up iPad photos and videos to a range of third-party cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Flickr and Amazon Cloud Drive – these can work out a lot more cost-effective than iCloud but you’ll need to test the apps for a while to be sure they meet your needs.

Another option is to backup the iPad’s Camera Roll to your computer or Network Attached Storage drive using an iPad app like PhotoSync or FileExplorer. From here it can be easier to backup those files to the cloud for safe-keeping.

As a parent, the last thing you need worry about is a tech disaster and how to explain it your child’s teachers. It’s essential that you backup your child’s most important files. How do you ensure that the students in your home are protected against a tech disaster?

Source: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/02/how-to-back-up-your-kids-ipad/#V4FipWorjkGLuMM9.99