Summer has arrived, and for many people it means taking a vacation. Whether you have plans to visit your grandmother’s countryside house or travel to a far-away country, it is important to ensure than not only you but also your information is safe from unexpected losses. A few steps to take to keep your files safe before leaving for summer vacation:
First: your documents
Choose information that’s important for you. First of all, it is vital to back up your travel and identity documents as well as information necessary for the trip. Scan the documents or take a photo. If you lose the originals, having scanned copies can make the process easier or even save you from being stranded without plane tickets or a passport.
For countries where electronic copies of documents are not well received, we would suggest also the old-fashioned method of taking a physical copy with you. Even better, make redundancy your friend and back up the documents online, take a physical copy and save some scans on a USB stick to take with you.
What are the documents you should scan and back up? It depends on your destination country, but we would suggest scanning your passport, visa, travel insurance, driver’s license, health information, travel plans, airline tickets, hotel confirmations, car rental information, any other prepaid confirmations and even your vaccination certificate.
Second: your home
Don’t forget about the documents you are leaving at home. When you go on a vacation, especially if nobody is looking after your home, the risk of intrusions increases. While a good insurance and a watchful neighbor might reduce the risk of thieves, protect your information by backing it up — even if somebody steals your device, the invaluable information on it will not be lost. This should be done regularly, but is even more important when you leave your house for several days or weeks.
Third: your memories
You’ve safely travelled to another country, have not gotten lost, your passport is safe in your bag, and your pockets are full of souvenirs and travel photos. On your last day, somebody decides to steal your phone. While losing your phone is a big inconvenience, for a lot of people, the biggest loss would not be the phone itself but rather the memories kept on it. We suggest backing up your travel photos and videos regularly to avoid losing them at the most important moment.
Some other tips for better file-keeping:
- When you back up your information, give access to it to a trusted friend or relative. If something happens on your trip, they might need to know your medical and travel information.
- File sync is great for avoiding disturbances during the holidays — sync your files with colleagues and nobody has the right to call you because they cannot find some document.
- Most of these suggestions are not only for travelling. It is better to follow them every day. Losing information is always painful, which means that you should back up your files often (or better yet, automatically), and it might turn out to be really useful to keep copies of all your important documents in one place.