Documents

How to protect important documents: scan them, store them, share them safely

Copies of your ID, contracts and medical records save a lot of trouble when the originals are lost or stolen. Here is how to make good copies and keep them where they help you, not someone else.

Updated 5 October 2026 · 5 min read

A lost wallet, a stolen bag on holiday, a flooded cellar with the folder of contracts in it: the trouble that follows is much smaller if you have good copies of your documents. The catch is that a copy of your ID is valuable to other people too. This guide covers both sides: making copies that are useful, and keeping them where only you can use them.

Why keep copies at all

Official advice is simple. The Embassy of Italy in Luxembourg, on its page about emergency travel documents, recommends always keeping a photocopy of your most important documents, such as passport and identity card, in a place different from where you keep the originals, to make assistance easier in case of theft or loss. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) says more generally that you should back up anything you value, in a separate safe location: cloud storage or removable media such as a USB stick or external drive.

The same reasoning applies beyond IDs: a copy of a rental contract, a property deed or a medical report is often what you need when the original is in a drawer far away.

Scan them properly

A photo taken at an angle on the kitchen table is hard to read and hard to print. Both main phone systems have a document scanner that straightens the page and saves a PDF.

On iPhone, with the Notes app

1. Open the Notes app and create or open a note.
2. Tap the Attachments button, then tap “Scan Documents”.
3. Hold iPhone over the page. It captures automatically when it detects the edges; you can also capture manually, adjust the corners and tap “Keep” (or “Retake”).
4. Scan the other pages, then tap Done. Apple says the document is saved as a PDF in the note.

On Android, with the Google Drive app

1. Open the Google Drive app and tap “Camera” at the bottom right.
2. Point the camera at the document; a blue line shows the crop. Take the photo.
3. Adjust with “Crop & Rotate”, “Filter” or “Clean”; tap “Add” for another page.
4. Tap Done, choose a file name, choose .pdf or .jpg, and save. A PDF keeps all the pages of one document together.

Scan both sides of ID cards, and check that every number is readable before you put the original away.

A plan for your documents

1. Make a list. Identity: ID card, passport, driving licence, health card. Home and money: contracts (rent, work, insurance), property deeds, tax returns. Health: medical reports, vaccination records, ongoing prescriptions. Next to each, write where the original is.
2. Scan each one as described above, one PDF per document.
3. Name files clearly, without sensitive data. ID-card-2026.pdf, rent-contract-2025.pdf, blood-test-2026-03.pdf are easy to find. Don't put your tax code, passport number or a diagnosis in the file name. Group files in a few folders, for example Identity, Home, Health, Tax.
4. Keep a copy away from the originals. That's the Embassy's advice: if the bag with your passport is stolen, the copy shouldn't be in the same bag.
5. Protect the accounts that hold them. The NCSC recommends a password manager, so every service can have a unique password, and two-step verification on the password manager account, so that even someone who knows the main password can't get in. Our addition: switch it on for your email and cloud accounts as well.
6. Keep more than one copy. A scan stored in one place only is one accident away from being lost. Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule: three copies, two types of storage, one somewhere else.

Don't send photos of your ID over chat

On 29 April 2026, Italy's data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, published a press release about hotels, B&Bs and guest houses. It said they may not keep copies of guests' identity documents beyond the time needed to send the details to the “Alloggiati Web” system, and that photographing documents with a smartphone or having them sent via WhatsApp exposes people to concrete risks, including identity theft and unlawful access to personal data (our translation).

The release is about accommodation businesses. Our reading, not the Garante's words: the same risk exists whenever a picture of your ID ends up in a chat, where it can sit on other people's phones for years. When someone really needs a copy, send it through a private link that expires, and remove access once they have it. See how to share files privately.

Where LifetimeCloud fits

LifetimeCloud can hold the encrypted copy away from the originals:

• When you upload from the website, the content of your files is encrypted on your device before it leaves, with AES-256-GCM.
• Turn on two-step verification: “Profile” → “Full profile & settings” → “Two-Factor Authentication” → “Enable 2FA”, then scan the QR code with an authenticator app and enter the 6-digit code. It's available on every plan, Free included. There are no backup codes, so keep that in mind when you choose your authenticator app.
• Save your recovery key when it's offered after your first upload, or later from “Recovery Key” in the same profile page. Without your password and without that key, nobody can open the encrypted files. Read why the recovery key matters.
• To share a document, create a link with an expiry (1, 7 or 30 days), a maximum number of downloads and, if you like, a password sent separately.
• Avoid WebDAV for these files unless you encrypt first with rclone “crypt”: WebDAV uploads are stored as they arrive, protected in transit by HTTPS but not end-to-end encrypted.

The free plan gives you 1 GB, up to 50 files of 50 MB each, with no card. Paid plans are a one-time payment with no subscription; current prices are on the plans page.