It’s 9:00. Do you know where your data is? With the explosion of mobile devices, it is possible that you have data in places you might not realize. It’s not a problem unless the data is critical…how many of you would be able to dial your family if presented with an old-fashioned dial phone? I’ve already talked about the dangers of having your data in someone else’s system. But how can you find these hidden data stashes?
It Is Everywhere
As I was going through this exercise, I realized how much of my data had become far-flung. There were things that were in all sorts of apps and services. It ranges from my calendar and phone book to my entire recipe collection to my craft patterns to my incomplete blog articles.
I realized, too, that it is also about devices. My computer stores things in apps. My phone does as well. And my tablet. Some apps span multiple platforms, like Notion, which is available on phone, tablet and PC. My OneNote, which I have been using as a giant filing cabinet, appears to be on my PC, but it isn’t – it’s in the cloud and gets synched. That’s how I can use it on the mobile devices.
How Much Am I Willing To Lose?
The main question behind this look at my data and its locations are the question of how much I would be willing to lose.
In some cases, I don’t really care. If my reading list in Instapaper disappeared tomorrow, I would probably feel more relief than anything else.
Losing my recipe archive would be a pain point, because I have family recipes passed down on both sides of the family for three generations and the paper copies are disintegrating.
Finding Data And Deciding If It Needs To Be Extracted
In order to assess what, if anything, I was willing to lose, I had to locate all the data. Sadly, there is no fast way to do this.
PC
In order to find all the apps I had data stored in, I went to my control panel and chose apps. This gave me a list of programs that I went through one at a time.
iOS
Since I have both phone and tablet, I went to the apps list on both devices and determined if there was data stored in these.
Websites
Since some of the data is accessed only through websites (like Ravelry), I did a quick run through my password manager to determine which websites needed to be examined.
My (Partial) App List
| App | Platform | What Type of Data | Willing to Lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Password | PC, iOS | Passwords and logins | No |
| aBreevy8 | PC | Text expansions | No |
| Dropbox | PC, iOS | Files | Yes/No |
| Google Drive | PC, iOS | Files | Yes/No |
| iTunes | PC | Media | No |
| Microsoft Money | PC | Monetary | No |
| Notion | PC, iOS | Blog articles, blog article ideas | Yes/No |
| OneNote | PC, iOS | Reference material, craft patterns | Yes/No |
| Paprika | PC, iOS | Recipes | No |
| Trello | PC, iOS | Projects, backlogs | No |
| Remember The Milk | Web, iOS | Task manager | No !!!! |
| Google Calendar | Web, iOS | Calendar | No !!!! |
| Contacts via Google | Web, iOS | Address book | No !!! |
Looking at this list, I was able to see some patterns.
For file storage apps, like Dropbox and Google Drive, I use them for convenience of transport. All of the files also live elsewhere on my hard drive. For the files that are in transport mode, they get copied to the hard drive every two weeks. If I were to lose the uncopied files, it would be no big deal.
For some programs, like 1Password and Money (which I am already using the sunset edition), it would be a major inconvenience if I were to lose this data. I also have no backup plan for either. Paprika and Trello also fall into this category. Making the list highlighted the risk.
I don’t really use iTunes anymore, but I also know that it stores the music I have ripped from my CDs in a specific directory. That gets backed up to an external hard drive from time to time. Since I don’t really use it anymore, it’s a minimal risk.
Notion, where I do the majority of my writing, is ambiguous. I store my blog articles in there, but once an article is published, I don’t care what happens to the Notion copy. The blog article ideas are another matter, though, and I would be inconvenienced should I lose those.
OneNote, which was my solution after I left Evernote, has become a problem. Not only do I have a lot of data tied up in the app, but the search can be flaky and I find myself unable to find things. There is some data in OneNote that I should lose (articles I saved from the web now hopelessly outdated). There is some I can’t lose (specifics of programming changes). Since I also keep all my work notes in OneNote, this is going to need some additional effort.
The web apps are a game unto themselves, and will need additional strategies.
The Next Steps
Once the apps were identified, I started to find a way to back up the data in them.
Backups
For some apps like 1Password and aBreevy8, Paprika and Money, there is a way to export the data into a neutral file format. 1Password exports to CSV. aBreevy8 exports to a proprietary file, but this can be opened and read in Notepad. Paprika exports to HTML. Money exports to QIF, which is a standard monetary format.
For each of these apps I set up a task in my task manager in Remember The Milk to manually export this data to my PC hard drive. Since none of it changes frequently, I do this once a month. Once it is on the hard drive, my backup software will take care of it.
Other Extraction
Some apps require more effort to get the data out. I will be talking about the specifics of how I got data out of Notion, OneNote, and Google Calendar in future articles.
One thing I didn’t count on was that for Notion and OneNote, the information became easier to use once I removed it from the respective app.
In Conclusion
Taking stock of your data’s location is an essential step in digital organization. Identifying where your information resides, across devices, apps, and cloud services, gives clarity about what you’re willing to risk losing and what needs protection. This inventory process might seem tedious, but the peace of mind it brings is invaluable. Creating regular backups of critical information, exporting data to neutral formats, and developing a consistent backup schedule ensures that your digital life remains secure and accessible, regardless of what happens to any single app or service.
