In the next few month alone , movie locker serviceUltravioletand social web experimentGoogle+are closing their doors for well , while exposure communion platformFlickris switch the rules about gratuitous and pay off - for accounts . The moral of the narrative ? Even digital service do n’t sting around forever — but you may protect yourself against your favorite app or site pulling down the shutter .
Those three examples we mentioned only brood what ’s in the news at the bit : Down the long time we ’ve seensocial networks , RSS readers , cyclosis site , music portal , image host , video apps , and many more apps and sites sting the dust .
Even the big names in technical school are n’t immune from the digital decay — in many direction they ’re the risky offenders . Apple had togive up on Ping , Facebook keeps launchingapps that fail badly , and Google has a long record ofkilling off its products . The digital foundations we build up our spirit around are set on worryingly shifting littoral .
Apps can change their terms, or go away completely.Photo: David Nield (Gizmodo)
While we ca n’t predict which apps , internet site , and services are still plump to be around in 10 year ( or 10 months ) , we can give you some advice on how to guard against the threat of something you rely on fill up down . Keep these pointer in mind , and you just might be able to minimize the impairment .
Use multiple services
If you ’re upload all your digital paradigm and videos to Google Photos , why not keep them in Dropbox ( or OneDrive or iCloud or Flickr ) as well ? Should one of these platform close their door , all your pictures and motion picture are still safely stored somewhere else , and you do n’t have to pass time downloading and re - uploading everything .
The obvious limitation here is the cost — you do n’t need to be ramify out more than you have to each month to pay for overhaul that you in the end never terminate up properly using . But the free and cheapest tiers of these apps are more generous than you might think , so it ’s worth exploring as a safety meshing .
photograph storage is a good example . All these apps can sit on your sound and upload your pictures to the cloud without you get to think about it . Google Photos offers an unlimited amount of storage for gratis … if you do n’t mind your photos and videos being resized down to 16MP and 1080p severally . While the pricing for Apple ’s iCloud starts at just $ 1 a month for 50 GB .
Admittedly if you ’re spending metre and cause curating your precious memories on iCloud Photo Library you probably do n’t desire to take up more of your days doing the same on Google Photos too , but in the long terminus you might be glad that you were using several different services at once — whether for picture storage or anything else .
Download your data
Just about every worthwhile digital table service out there has some form of data exportation function , a role you should be using on a regular basis , just in slip . you could get copies of your data point fromApple , and fromGoogle , and fromFacebook , and from mess of other apps and website you ’re potential to utilise every day .
Life ’s too inadequate to be spending fourth dimension downloading your Facebook selfies and Google Docs files every mean solar day , but if you make a note to do this semi - regularly — maybe every dyad of months or so — you’ll trounce the bang when you happen out your pet app is closing down and establish you three day to get your theater in club .
Some second of digital information are loose to duplicate than others . For example , you may set up a desktop email client to pull in and store messages on your electronic computer as well as in the cloud , while a pot of cloud storage platform let you keep your swarm footlocker and local grueling drive in sync at all prison term .
If the apps you ’re using do n’t have an obvious and easy download feature , see if you may discover a workaround . The excellentIFTTT(If This Then That ) can copy your Instagram picture to Dropbox and from there to your computer and touch base up a host of other apps and sites so your digital single file are in several places at once all the time .
Favor universal apps
Whenever potential , favour apps and even gadgets that are open with the way they share their data , rather than close off . Take your Gmail account : It plugs into a server of other apps and avail , so even whenone close down , all your messages are safe and profound on Google ’s servers ready to be transferred somewhere else .
As we mentioned above , the big technical school firms are n’t necessarily good than other companies when it comes to closing down sites and apps , but it ’s a good idea to keep your crucial bits of data point — emails , contacts , calendars — salt away on service of process that you hump are going to last . If you want to try acool new calendar app , say , expend the data you ’ve already got lumber with Apple , Google , or Microsoft rather than starting again from scratch .
Think about what ’s going to happen to your data if the company that makes your apps or gadgets of choice closes down . Take fitness datum , for representative : Some wearable and their associate apps can pipe everything into Google Fit and Apple Health , while others ca n’t .
This is n’t always potential across every unlike aspect of your digital life , but it ’s something to see out for . Again , IFTTTandother third - company appscan serve out here , by continue your data make a motion between services rather than having it stuck in one stead . If an app fold down that ’s using datum you ’ve already got stored in other apps , then you ’ve got less to worry about .
Check your exits
This touches on some point that we ’ve already advert , but it ’s worth figure out out what your issue strategy is for all of the apps , sites , and serve you rely on every day . If you ’re sign up for something new , definitely consider how well you ’re going to be capable to get out again before investing heavily in it .
Takesmart homeapps and gear , for model : Are you picking up gadgets that interface neatly with what you already have ( like Dropbox storage ) or that create their own independent silos ? Is there any manner to get your data out of one platform and into another ?
Even if you ’re not going to switch your data from one post to another when an app shuts down , it helps to have an archive to refer back to . WhatsApp let you back up your conversation to your email account , for example — we’re not expecting the program to close its threshold in the penny-pinching futurity , but you get the mind about familiarise yourself with the pick you ’ve got .
The apps and service you use Clarence Day - to - day will depart staggeringly in what they do and how they work , and any app that takes a with child chunk of your digital information — whether images , messages , music or whatever else — will usually give you a style of exporting it if a shutdown is close at hand . But with a number of provision , you may make unnecessary yourself a lot of pain by and by on .
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