Where Does Your Old Data Go When You Get a New Phone?

spacemannn on 09/08/2025 - 15:22
Last edited 09/08/2025 - 15:31 by 1 other user

So I thought of cleaning out my SSD as I I had 130GB free out of the 465GB total.

Dug down to find that over 220GB is data from my old phones that I backed up from years ago.

Much of this consisting of many videos and photos. It's not like I go through these throughout the year, but I also don't want to permanently delete these memories.

This begs the question. Where does your old data go when you get a new phone? Do you just backup everything to the cloud? How long can you keep doing this for? That's alot of cloud storage you'll need to subscribe to.

Mobile

Comments

  • dealt on 09/08/2025 - 15:35

    Zipped and into Google cloud storage bucket hardly costs me more than 10$ a year. Even cheaper if you don't have immediate access needs but this is more of a technical user way may be not very average user friendly

    You can even encrypt it with some custom keys if you really want to be that pedantic

    • spacemannn on 10/08/2025 - 01:17

      I didn't think about zipping everything. Great idea, thanks!

    • chocsyrup on 10/08/2025 - 10:50

      The cheapest Google storage I can get is $3/mth. Any tips on how to get it cheaper? :)

      • dealt on 10/08/2025 - 10:57
        +3

        In my original comment I mean Google cloud storage buckets, need to login via cloud console etc

        I use them regularly as a software developer so I am familiar with it. Try YouTube and see if you're not sure how to.
        Also I think first 5gb is free later you pay by the GB

        Storages differ, anytime access ones are not the cheapest but long term cold line storage or archival storage where you have to request them to load data and wait a day? (iirc but check this) Those are pretty cheap like 0.006 $ per GB for Melbourne/Syd region storage per month

        Here's some prices
        Location Standard storage
        (per GB per Month) Nearline storage
        (per GB per Month) Coldline storage
        (per GB per Month) Archive storage
        (per GB per Month)
        Sydney (australia-southeast1) $0.023 $0.016 $0.006 $0.0025
        Melbourne (australia-southeast2) $0.023 $0.016 $0.006 $0.0025
        https://cloud.google.com/storage/pricing#australia

        Cold line and archival are cheap as some are
        1/10 of a cent 0.006
        But they have some retrieval fees
        See various types and fees here

        https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/storage-classes

    • Dr Phil on 10/08/2025 - 19:14
      -2

      If you can store it and not access the data for a year then its a total waste of money.
      Because you probably wont bother accessing it again. Likely because youve forgotten whats there
      Just delete most of it.

      • cfuse on 10/08/2025 - 22:57

        If you can do this then you're not a hoarder and the entire discussion is irrelevant to you.

        The rest of us are wondering how to best print out binary on acid free paper and store it inside a glass vessel with a nitrogen atmosphere in an underground bunker.

    • ATTS on 11/08/2025 - 16:39

      Does customs keys secure the data you load into the google cloud storage buckets?

      • dealt on 11/08/2025 - 18:06

        Yes you can but it's a bit more setup through Google KMS, console gives you that option even while creating your storage bucket iirc.

        • ATTS on 11/08/2025 - 20:11

          Thanks

  • FireRunner on 09/08/2025 - 16:08
    +3

    Backup files to a local PC/Storage device. Make several backups to ensure if one dies/breaks you don't end up losing it all.

    • spacemannn on 10/08/2025 - 01:16

      That's the thing I'm trying to avoid. There's only so much physical storage one can keep. At some point it surely becomes too much?

      • jjjaar on 10/08/2025 - 06:04
        +2

        3, 2, 1 rule with backups.

        3 copies, 2 media types, 1 copy stored offsite.

        It may feel “too much” until you don’t do this and you lose your backup.

        • tenpercent on 10/08/2025 - 10:27

          1 copy stored offsite? does that include cloud? if not, how do you ensure security of that copy and what are some examples of offsite storage (mum's place? in a ziplock bag under a a rock in a national park?)

          • overbyte on 10/08/2025 - 12:04
            +3

            @tenpercent: The offsite rule is to account for the risk if your house floods or burns down and you have to restore your data from another source that has a very different risk profile, like cloud and self storage units.

            As for security, encrypt your backups with your own keys and do the same process with encryption keys. E.g printout on home safe, another printout in a safety deposit box, another in Bitwarden. Have a documented process on how to actually restore these backups, then actually run and test the restores like quarterly. Not too different from how companies do disaster recovery plans.

        • overbyte on 10/08/2025 - 11:49
          +3

          And always, always test your restores especially if they're encrypted. It's not a backup if you can't restore from it.

      • FireRunner on 10/08/2025 - 09:02
        +1

        If it gets unwieldy, you start looking into local or network area storage but I don’t think that’s necessary. Portable (USB powered) hard drives are up to 6TB. You can get external drives in 24TB (USB connected, AC adapter powered). 8TB SSDs are also a thing though long term storage is better on hard drives.

  • Benoffie on 09/08/2025 - 16:20
    +3

    I routinely back up my phone to my NAS and then wipe my phone.

    No one needs 10000 photos on their phone. No one else cares.

  • AndyC1 on 09/08/2025 - 16:58

    Depends on the eco system the phone was born into.

  • jv on 09/08/2025 - 19:54

    Where Does Your Old Data Go When You Get a New Phone?

    Our local council collects them.

    • dealt on 10/08/2025 - 11:02
      +2

      Our council mayors Mr zuck and Mr besos want every bit they can get their hands on

  • plmko on 09/08/2025 - 20:03
    -2

    1 Buy a phone with a SD card
    2 Put old phone data to SD card, take out card
    3. Put SD card into new phone

    Why do people want to make it so hard.

    • Craze on 09/08/2025 - 22:42
      +4

      How many flagship phones these days have SD card slots?

    • spacemannn on 10/08/2025 - 01:14
      +1

      Currently using an iPhone, if it wasn't an iPhone It'd be a Samsung S series. Neither one support sd cards unfortunately.

    • Thinkscape on 10/08/2025 - 08:12
      +3

      SD cards are not known for their durability and longevity. One day it randomly dies and recovery will be virtually impossible.

  • AustriaBargain on 10/08/2025 - 00:14
    +2

    Everything to the cloud. Life is too short to be manually dealing with backups. Being able to set up a new iPhone exactly the same as the old one in one button press and then getting on with your life simplifies things a lot.

    • spacemannn on 10/08/2025 - 01:15
      +1

      Then I'd have thousands of photos and videos on my phone. Also it feels good to reset a phone and start from scratch.

      • AustriaBargain on 10/08/2025 - 01:35

        Yeah videos add up.

      • soan papdi on 10/08/2025 - 17:24

        You can delete local content once it is uploaded (the app itself give you the option, it's not a manual process). It will be accessible via the Google Photos app but not stored locally.

    • fatherofcats on 11/08/2025 - 11:53

      This.

      I tinkered around on a DIY solution but in the end I decided that I was spending too much time on the project. Then by accident I permanently wiped the files I was working on while trying to clean out duplicates (luckily could restore from a backup but still lost a few recent items). It occurred to me that my devices are tools rather than toys, my files (including media) are important/necessary, and my time is valuable. After this revelation I upgraded my iCloud storage purely due to the native iOS integration. Automatic backups, automatically remove local copies (of media), automatic dedup, automatically detect duplicates (pics and videos), automatically available on my new device, semantic searching.

      Worth every cent.

      I'm sure Google Photos is just as good but Android probably has more flexibility for integrating other providers (e.g. Dropbox).

  • Jac33au on 10/08/2025 - 07:49
    +1

    Google backs up photos, messages, contacts automatically. What other data is there to keep?

    The my phone goes into the draw with its predecessors.

  • surfingedge on 10/08/2025 - 07:57
    +1

    Much of this consisting of many videos and photos. It's not like I go through these throughout the year

    Go through them when you get a new phone and delete the meaningless ones. Usually frees up half of the space

  • Mugsy on 10/08/2025 - 08:01

    Got a MS365 family subscription specifically for backing up my photos and videos automatically so i don’t need to bother with doing it manually which would have been a headache for my wife's phones and tablet.

    Google deals with the other settings on the phones. Works pretty well.

  • Thinkscape on 10/08/2025 - 08:14
    1. Have photo repository locally (Immich ) and/or in cloud
    2. Regularly upload there, share albums with family etc
    3. When upgrading phone (or when full) just delete from device 👌
  • Benno007 on 10/08/2025 - 09:05

    I have approx 800GB of photos and videos stored on OneDrive. I backup photos from my phone every 6 months and group them by holiday or family etc and then store them in those folders on OneDrive. I often go through them looking up photos from like ‘my friends 21st birthday’ or ‘that hike we did 10 years ago’. I can usually find any photo within a minute or two. I also have these photos on my chromecast as background so get to see them cycle through on my Tv.

  • Lastchancetosee on 11/08/2025 - 11:54

    Dropbox for my data and photos.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join