First smart phone (iPhone 4S)...few ?'s

[Wills.Details]

So far i think im ok...only had it a couple days and just watching some tutorials youtube to get a little better idea about it.

a couple things im wondering about is first, text messages. Is there a way i can save the or archive them to my computer or online or something?

Secondly, a good calendar. I think i had someone once tel me that google calendar on their phone will link to the same google calendar they use on their computer? I have my own small business so being able to kinda keep jobs organized is always a plus.

Lastly, my pics/vids/contacts etc. Ive heard a few people have lost everything and id like to know how to properly make sure this doesnt happen. Im new to this so iCloud or any of the other goodies iphone offers, im totally oblivious to. I do have a macbook pro if that helps any. SO any responders feel free to talk to me starting from the beginning lol.

Thanks in advance.

 

[deeddawg]

Yes, texts are saved when you backup your phone to iCloud or to your computer.

I find the included Calendar app just fine. It will sync to multiple calendars and display the different ones in different colors. iCloud, Google, even corporate Exchange servers. This is set up as part of the email account setups; if you don't want the emails you can turn off fetching email and just sync calendar. You also can specify in settings which calendar is the default for any new appointments you create.

Same thing for contacts. You can sync to multiple sources and it keeps them sorted. I keep my personal contacts on iCloud, and those I want on my phone I put into a "Phone" group. Same for my work Exchange account. My phone is set to just sync the "Phone" groups from each source as I don't typically need to wade through a bunch of contacts I keep for reference or whatnot, I can always just change the sync from the phone to grab everything instead of just the groups if I found myself in a pinch.

IMHO the best thing is backup to iCloud. Nice in that it just happens automagically. I'd suggest also periodically backing up to your computer via iTunes; you can do this manually any time you want without interfering with the iCloud automatic backup.

For pictures and videos, set up PhotoStream via iCloud then also set up iCloud on your Mac and have iPhoto automatically import the Photostream. That at least gets the recent content automatically. Because I'm not sure doing the photostream gets you the complete full versions of pictures, you might want to manually import pictures periodically, or pull them from photostream to create albums for important stuff. You then sync back to your phone via iTunes. This is what I do as it's just easier to sort out the good stuff and delete the cr@p; plus that way my Mac is the base source for the photos I truly want to keep long term. In terms of backup, photos (and everything else) gets backed up from my Mac via Time Machine (I use a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 2 network storage that supports Time Machine and has two hard drives mirrored) Also, every month or so I back up the key stuff from the Netgear to an external USB drive that I keep offsite in case of a house fire or something. The Netgear makes it easy; I just plug in the drive and press the backup button on the front. It then backs up the stuff I'd previously specified.

Hope this helps.

 

[Wills.Details]

Yes, texts are saved when you backup your phone to iCloud or to your computer.

I find the included Calendar app just fine. It will sync to multiple calendars and display the different ones in different colors. iCloud, Google, even corporate Exchange servers. This is set up as part of the email account setups; if you don't want the emails you can turn off fetching email and just sync calendar. You also can specify in settings which calendar is the default for any new appointments you create.

Same thing for contacts. You can sync to multiple sources and it keeps them sorted. I keep my personal contacts on iCloud, and those I want on my phone I put into a "Phone" group. Same for my work Exchange account. My phone is set to just sync the "Phone" groups from each source as I don't typically need to wade through a bunch of contacts I keep for reference or whatnot, I can always just change the sync from the phone to grab everything instead of just the groups if I found myself in a pinch.

IMHO the best thing is backup to iCloud. Nice in that it just happens automagically. I'd suggest also periodically backing up to your computer via iTunes; you can do this manually any time you want without interfering with the iCloud automatic backup.

For pictures and videos, set up PhotoStream via iCloud then also set up iCloud on your Mac and have iPhoto automatically import the Photostream. That at least gets the recent content automatically. Because I'm not sure doing the photostream gets you the complete full versions of pictures, you might want to manually import pictures periodically, or pull them from photostream to create albums for important stuff. You then sync back to your phone via iTunes. This is what I do as it's just easier to sort out the good stuff and delete the cr@p; plus that way my Mac is the base source for the photos I truly want to keep long term. In terms of backup, photos (and everything else) gets backed up from my Mac via Time Machine (I use a Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 2 network storage that supports Time Machine and has two hard drives mirrored) Also, every month or so I back up the key stuff from the Netgear to an external USB drive that I keep offsite in case of a house fire or something. The Netgear makes it easy; I just plug in the drive and press the backup button on the front. It then backs up the stuff I'd previously specified.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply, you talked a little over my head though on a few things lol.

So if i back up to icloud, i'll only be able to access them if i RESTORE my phone, i cant go through them on my computer? Or is there a way i can actually access the info in icloud and edit it/sort through it etc?

How do i know if it has been backed up to icloud automatically?

As for the calendars syncing....how the hell do i do that lol?

 

[deeddawg]

Thanks for the reply, you talked a little over my head though on a few things lol.

No worries. If there's something you don't understand, google the term/phrase and see if there's help or a tutorial to help you out. If you can't find something then of course ask on Macrumors.

To your questions:

You won't be able to paw through your icloud backup for individual stuff. It's just handy to save your bacon if your phone dies or gets lost/stolen.

You can access/edit your iCloud contacts/calandar/email/notes all via www.icloud.com

Check backup status via Settings->General->iCloud->Storage&Backup -- scroll to bottom where it tells you the last icloud backup date/time.

Calendar sync: How to set up iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendars