National Backup Day

Every year on April 2 · the day after April Fools'

Back up everything.
At least once a year.

National Backup Day is one day a year to make sure your photos, files and accounts would survive a lost phone, a dead drive, a stolen laptop or one bad click. Backing up regularly is best. Once a year is the bare minimum.

Back up my device

Next National Backup Day

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Why bother?

Data doesn't usually disappear dramatically. It goes quietly, and usually when you weren't expecting it.

Hardware fails

Every drive, SSD and phone eventually wears out. Most give little or no warning first.

Things get lost

Phones get dropped in lakes, left in taxis and stolen. Laptops too.

Ransomware

Malware that encrypts your files can reach anything your computer can write to, including connected drives.

Oops

The wrong folder deleted, a file overwritten, an account locked. Human error is the most ordinary cause of all.

The 3-2-1 rule

A simple, widely used rule of thumb for backups that actually survive bad days.

  1. 3

    copies of your data

    The original plus two backups. One backup is a single point of failure.

  2. 2

    different kinds of storage

    For example, your computer's internal drive plus an external drive or NAS. Different media rarely fail at the same time.

  3. 1

    copy offsite

    A cloud backup or a drive kept at work or a relative's place, so a fire, flood or burglary can't take everything.

Sync is not backup. iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox sync deletions and overwrites too. They help, but keep a versioned backup as well.

RAID is not backup. It keeps a server or NAS running when a disk dies. It does not protect against deletion, ransomware, theft or fire.

Untested backups are hopes. Restore a file now and then to prove it works.

Back up your stuff

Pick a device. These are common, well-known options, not endorsements. Menu names change between versions, so if a step doesn't match exactly, search your settings for "backup".

Your Backup Day checklist

Tick things off as you go. Your progress is saved only in this browser.

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Take the pledge

“Every April 2nd, I'll check that everything I care about is backed up, and I'll help one person do the same.”

Pledges are remembered in your browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.

FAQ

Why April 2?

Because it's the day after April Fools'. Losing years of photos to a dead phone is no joke, so April 1 is for pranks and April 2 is for not being a fool. It also lands in spring, when plenty of people are already doing a round of cleaning and paperwork.

Is this an official holiday?

No. National Backup Day is a grassroots observance started by this site. Nobody gets the day off. You do get to keep your photos.

Isn't there a World Backup Day on March 31?

Yes, World Backup Day is a separate, long-running observance on March 31. Then comes April Fools', then us. Back up on both. We won't mind.

How often should I really back up?

Continuously and automatically if you can: Time Machine, File History, phone cloud backups and online backup services all run in the background. National Backup Day is the yearly check-up: confirm those backups still work, add an offsite copy, and test a restore.

Do you sell anything or earn from these tools?

No. Tools are mentioned because they're widely used, not because of any affiliation. Use whatever works for you.