Backupify: Free Online Account Backup

The Critical Importance of Data Backups

It is widely understood that regularly backing up your data represents a fundamental principle in the digital age. The unfortunate experience of the photographer who suffered the loss of five years’ worth of photographs serves as a potent illustration of why backups are essential, even for those previously hesitant to implement them.

Despite this understanding, a significant number of individuals still neglect to create backups, particularly for their data stored online. This omission often stems from the perception that the backup process is somewhat involved and requires more than minimal effort.

The Demand for Automated Solutions

Users increasingly desire complete automation across all digital tasks, and data backups are no exception. Backupify provides precisely this level of automated web data protection.

The need for streamlined, hands-off backup solutions is growing. Individuals and businesses alike seek methods to safeguard their information without constant manual intervention.

Backupify: Automated Web Data Protection

Backupify specializes in automating the backup process for online data. This eliminates the need for manual intervention and ensures consistent data protection.

The service is designed to provide a seamless and reliable backup experience. It caters to users who prioritize convenience and peace of mind.

Key Benefits of Automation

Reduced Effort: Automated backups require minimal user input.
Consistent Protection: Backups are performed regularly, ensuring data is always current.
Minimized Risk: The automated nature of the process reduces the likelihood of forgotten or delayed backups.

By automating the backup process, Backupify addresses a key barrier to data protection. It empowers users to safeguard their valuable online information with ease and confidence.

Introducing Backupify: Your Automated Online Data Protector

Backupify is a cloud-based service designed to automatically create backups of your important online account data. It provides a convenient solution for safeguarding information stored across various platforms. The free personal plan offers 2GB of online storage capacity.

This storage space can be utilized to connect and back up data from up to five different social media accounts. Backups for these social accounts are performed on a weekly schedule.

Supported Social Networks

Backupify’s free plan extends support to several popular social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Blogger, and Wordpress. This ensures comprehensive protection for your data across these key platforms.

While 2GB may seem limited, it generally proves sufficient for the needs of individual users. To begin, simply register for an account and select the "Personal/FREE" option.

Existing Backupify users, upon logging in, may initially encounter the older platform interface. This version displays a list of service settings and services currently in beta testing.

A notification is prominently displayed, encouraging long-term users to transition to the updated platform.

Platform Differences: Old vs. New

The new platform presents a streamlined interface, consolidating services into a single group. However, certain services available on the older platform, such as Wordpress, Basecamp, and Hotmail, are currently unavailable in the new version.

Users requiring backups from these specific services can revert to the original platform by visiting: "https://secure.backupify.com/settings". The new platform is accessible at: "https://app.backupify.com/settings". The key distinction lies in the URL prefix – "secure" for the older version and "app" for the newer one.

Further discrepancies exist between the experiences of new and long-standing users regarding storage limits and the number of supported accounts.

Long-time users on the free plan receive 10 account connections and 5GB of storage.

Conversely, new users on the free plan are allocated 5 account connections and 2GB of storage.

Constructing Your Backup Selection

To incorporate a service into the backup schedule, select the "Add" link positioned adjacent to its name.

The subsequent action involves granting Backupify the necessary permissions to access the chosen service. As an illustration, the addition of a Facebook account for backup was attempted. Regular Facebook users who frequently upload photos and videos may find account backups particularly beneficial.

Authorization must then be provided, allowing Backupify access to your Facebook account for the purpose of completing the backup procedure.

Once a service has been added, its configuration can be tailored to your specific requirements.

Regarding Facebook, you have the ability to specify the types of data to be included in the backup. Activate the "On" radio button next to each item you wish to preserve. Remember to save your chosen configuration.

The process should be repeated for each additional service you wish to protect. Google Docs is one service that is personally recommended for inclusion in your backup strategy.

Should you need to, a service can be removed from the list by clicking the "Remove" link next to its name. A confirmation prompt will appear before the deletion is finalized.

WordPress Blog Backup Procedures

Longstanding users wishing to incorporate their self-hosted WordPress blog into their backup regimen must revert to Backupify’s previous platform iteration. Within the “Services in beta” section, locate WordPress and select “Manage”. This action will provide a link for downloading the necessary WordPress plugin.

The downloaded plugin should then be installed through the plugin interface of your WordPress blog. Navigate to the “Upload” section within “Install Plugin”, select the zip file, and proceed with the upload and installation process.

Following installation, the Backupify settings will become visible in the sidebar menu of your WordPress dashboard.

Within these settings, you will find the “Initialize Plugin” button. Selecting this button will redirect you to the Backupify website, and your blog will subsequently be added to the backup list.

Access to your backups will be granted through the “Archives” section.

Currently, a limitation exists regarding the integration of services added from the older platform with the new platform. Users may need to navigate between both platforms to manage and access their backups. It remains uncertain whether this method will function for new users.

A key advantage of Backupify lies in its capacity to create backups of data originating from a diverse range of social media platforms. The automated nature of the service allows users to configure their services once and then rely on the system to handle backups without further intervention.

Have you had experience with Backupify? What are your impressions of the service? Are you familiar with, and do you utilize, alternative backup solutions? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.