Back it Up before you Back it Up: The Case of the Flushed Cell Phone

I was having dinner with my sister the other night and we noticed that she had a new phone.  Upgrade?  Nope, her other one got “lost.”

“What happened?” I inquired.

“I flushed it down the toilet,” she replied matter-of-factly.  At which point, all conversation ceased and a few people start giggling.

“Did you not see it? How did that happen? Did you get it back?”  Yeah, you get asked a lot of questions when you fess up to losing a phone down the commode.

According to my sister it was a simple act of phone suicide.  It was on the back of the toilet. She flushed, and the phone leaped  in. Curious? Indeed.

It got worse when she went on to describe that it was her toilet, and the phone got stuck in said toilet.  Resulting in the purchase of not only a new phone, but a new toilet too.

All right, happens to the best of us.  But, then I got really worried for her… Your photos!  Are all of your photos lost?

Fortunately for her, she didn’t have many photos stored on her phone.  Had that been me, I would have lost two years of my children’s lives had I flushed my phone down the toilet on that day.  Which motivated me to do something I had never done… back up my phone to the mysterious iCloud.

So here’s a little icloud 101 for iPhone users.

First, you’ll wanna download the iCloud setup for your computer (PC or Mac): http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/ios.html and to any additional devices, i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch, Apple TV, and your toaster.  You have an iToaster, right?

Once that step is complete, head on over to your phone.  Click on Settings, then select “iCloud.”  Anything you want saved, check beside it, then select Storage and Backup.  Be sure you’re connected to a secure wifi source and begin.  Takes only a few minutes.  Voila.  Your phone is flush-ready even if your toilet isn’t.

In the event you are able to recover your phone, you can try these handy tips from wikihow and rest assured that you are clearly not the only dude to suffer this same fat.  You’re in good company.