Chromebooks mostly live online, but it’s good to back up your data every now and then
Chromebooks are great computing devices for many people since most things are done on the web. They’re especially great for those who need a cheap device that just works. If you run into an issue and need to reset your device or receive a new device and want to move your data over, Chromebooks make that easy. All Chromebooks, including our favorites, are web-based, so there isn’t a lot of data that is saved locally. Nonetheless, some items need to be backed up, and here’s how to do so.
How to back up data on a Chromebook
Data on a Chromebook can be roughly categorized into two buckets: system data and user data. System data includes your settings, app data, bookmarks, extensions, passwords, and other data usually handled directly by Google Chrome. This data is more related to your Google account than your specific device. User data contains the files you downloaded, copied, or migrated onto your Chromebook. You should be able to find this data using the Files app on your device.
There’s a different method to back up each of these types of data.
How to back up system data on a Chromebook
To make sure all your settings and preferences are backed up, follow these steps:
- Open Google Chrome on your Chromebook.
- Tap the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Select Settings near the bottom of the menu.
- Select You and Google on the left side of the screen.
- Under your profile picture, tap Sync and Google services.
- Below the word Sync, select Manage what you sync.
- Choose what data you want to sync. To sync all your data, select Sync everything. To choose the data that is backed up, select Customize sync and turn on the toggle switch for the items you want to sync.
After selecting the data you want to back up, your device regularly and automatically backs up this data.
How to back up user data on a Chromebook
Backing up user data is a different process because the data is stored offline by default. Chromebooks have Google Drive integration, allowing you to manually back up your files.
- Open the Files app, and head to the folder with the files you want to back up. Most files automatically end up in the Downloads folder, but you may have created your own folders.
- Select the files you want to back up by holding Ctrl and clicking or clicking to the left of each file. To select all the files, press Ctrl+A.
- Press Ctrl+C, or right-click the selected files and click Copy.
- Tap Google Drive in the navigation pane on the left.
- Go to the folder you’d like to back up your data to. Press Ctrl+E or right-click, and click New Folder to create a new folder if you need to create a new one.
- Press Ctrl+V or right-click and tap Paste.
You must do this manually for any user data you want to back up from your Chromebook. Since it’s backed up to Google Drive, the data will be there when you sign in to a new Chromebook. If you need the files on your device, copy them from Google Drive onto your local storage. You can even access it from the web if you need it in a pinch.
If you want to use a local data storage option instead of Google Drive, connect a flash drive to your Chromebook and follow the same procedure as above, except select the flash drive instead of Google Drive.
Keep your data safe
We have a lot of important data stored on our devices these days. It’s always a good practice to back up your data if something happens to one of your devices. There are ways to make sure that your preferences and files are backed up so that you can access and move your data when necessary. If something happens to your device and you lose data, there might be a way to recover lost data on your Chromebook.
