at least if my phone takes a dive into the roots or mud, I’m not totally out of luck.
Yeah, that’s pretty much my nightmare. I had a phone slip out of my pocket and land right in a trench during a sewer line job—lost a bunch of pics that time. Since then, I auto-sync to Google Photos, but I also dump the important stuff onto a thumb drive every now and then. Cloud’s great, but tech glitches happen... I like having something physical, just in case.
Cloud’s great, but tech glitches happen... I like having something physical, just in case.
Right there with you. I’ve had a phone take a swim in a sump pit—total loss. Now I keep a cheap waterproof pouch clipped to my belt. Not glamorous, but it beats fishing for electronics in the muck. And yeah, I back up to both cloud and an old external hard drive. Redundancy is king when you’re working around water and mud.
I get the appeal of cloud backups, but I’ve seen too many “unrecoverable error” messages to trust it alone. My go-to is a rugged USB drive—nothing fancy, just reliable. For anyone dealing with sump pits or crawlspaces, I’d add: keep a laminated cheat sheet of emergency contacts in your toolbox. Phones are great until they’re not... learned that the hard way during a basement flood last year.
I hear you on the cloud backups—I've seen them fail at the worst times, too. Physical backups just feel more dependable, especially when you're working in places where water and electronics don't mix. I keep a USB drive in my kit, but I've also started using those waterproof document pouches for stuff like cheat sheets and diagrams. Had a job last winter where the crawlspace was half-frozen and my phone battery died in minutes... paper doesn't care about cold or wet.
One thing I'd add for anyone dealing with tree roots or sump pits: mark out your shutoff valves and circuit breakers with glow tape or something visible in low light. When things go sideways, you don't want to be fumbling around in the dark trying to remember which valve does what. It's not fancy, but it saves time and stress.
Not sure I trust cloud backups either—too many things can go wrong. I had a USB fail on me once, though, so now I keep a couple of SD cards in different spots just in case.
Marking shutoff valves is a good call.
I learned that the hard way during a power outage last fall. Fumbling around with a flashlight, trying to read tiny labels... not fun. Might try your glow tape idea, actually.“mark out your shutoff valves and circuit breakers with glow tape or something visible in low light”
Paper copies are underrated. My phone died mid-flood and the only thing that saved me was an old notebook with the plumber’s info scribbled inside.
