'I just cried': how one traveller lost every photo from two years abroad
How to prevent this happening to you.
Fabiana De Abreu remembers the precise moment she realised she'd lost her travel memories.
"I just cried," she told Explore. "It was horrible."
In her early 20s, the Sydney woman spent months travelling through south-east Asia, documenting everything on her phone - from homestays between Cambodia and Vietnam to quiet, solo moments she never shared online.
"I didn't post much at the time," she said. "I didn't want to boast."
"I'd also just gone through a really awful break-up and I was keeping everything to myself. Those photos were my memories."
About a year after returning, as she prepared to fly home for a wedding, something went wrong.
"My phone started acting strangely, and I had to sign back into iCloud," she said.
"When I did, every single photo from the past two years was just gone."
The loss was total. Her phone appeared as though it had been reset - a malfunction.
"It looked like I hadn't touched anything in years. I couldn't find the photos anywhere - not on my phone, not in the cloud. They were just gone," she said.
Fabiana had assumed her phone and cloud storage would protect her files. She hadn't paid for additional backup storage and hadn't saved copies elsewhere.
"I never thought my phone would fail me," she said.
The loss hit hardest because she had been travelling alone.
"There are places I don't even remember properly now," she said.
"You're so in your own head when you travel solo.
"You meet new people every day, and you don't always realise how special it is at the time."
She recalls a remote island stay - dolphins, simple living, a sense of calm - but without photos, the memories feel fragmented.
Even her WhatsApp history disappeared. Only a handful of images survived, saved by her mother.
Now, she takes no chances.
After recently getting married, she made sure her wedding photos were stored in several places.
Her advice is simple: don't rely on just one system.
IT consultant Peter Saville, from Saville Tech, said data loss is "incredibly common" in the age of smartphones, with many people overestimating how safe their devices are.
He said modern phones rely on solid-state memory, which can fail suddenly and without warning - often leaving little chance of recovering lost files.
"Unlike older devices, you don't get warning signs," Mr Saville said. "They work perfectly, then fail completely."
Common causes include physical damage such as drops or water exposure, as well as electrical faults or corruption during updates. Even everyday incidents - like a phone falling off a car - can result in total data loss.
While cloud storage can provide a layer of protection, Mr Saville said it should not be relied on alone.
"If you read the terms and conditions, it's still your responsibility in most cases," he said.
He recommends keeping multiple copies of important files across different formats, such as cloud services, external drives and sharing copies with trusted contacts.
Mr Saville advised people to follow a simple framework: Keep three versions of every photo (the original plus two backups), use two different types of storage (e.g. an SD card and a hard drive), one off-site: and keep one copy off-site (e.g. in the cloud).
Carla Mascarenhas is a journalist with Explore Travel and The Senior. She specialises in deep issues affecting Gen X and beyond, and the latest in travel news. Contact her on carla.mascarenhas@austcommunitymedia.com.au
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