Organizing Your Digital Life

In Grade 6 you met files, folders and the folder tree, and put away the files that had piled up in Downloads Grade 6: Files and folders. Putting away a few files is easy. The hard part is choosing folders that still work after a year of homework, photos, forms and projects, so that you never have to wonder where something went.

Think of a well-run school office. Its cupboards aren’t sorted by the day each paper arrived. There is one shelf for admissions, one for exam results, one for letters to the ministry, each with a box for every year. Anyone can find a paper from three years ago in a minute. A good folder tree works the same way.

Plan the tree

A few rules make a tree that lasts:

1. A few top folders, by what things are. For a student: School, Photos, Documents (certificates, forms, scans) and maybe Personal (music, your own projects). Not one folder per day, and not fifty folders at the top.
2. Then by year, then by subject or event. School › Grade 8 (2083) › Science. Photos › 2083 › Dashain. When the year ends, last year’s folder simply stays there, and the new one starts beside it.
3. Not too deep. Three or four levels is plenty. A file six folders down is a file you will forget.
4. The same tree everywhere. Use the same folders on your phone, the family laptop, the school computer and online, so your hands know the way.
5. Downloads is an inbox, not a home. Files land there from the internet and chat apps. Once a week, move what you want to keep to its place and delete the rest.

One home for each file

A file should have one home: one place where the real, newest copy lives. Copies for other people (an email attachment, a file sent in a chat, a pen drive for the print shop) are just copies. When you get a file back from someone, with their changes, put it in its home and give it a new version number, so there is never a question of which is the real one.

A good file name says what the file is, so you can tell without opening it, and puts things in the right order when the list is sorted. Grade 6 gave you the first rules: say what it is, use letters, numbers and hyphens, and number your versions instead of writing “final”. Now for why the order of the parts matters.

How a list is sorted by name

When a file manager sorts by name, it compares two names from the left, one character at a time, the way a dictionary does. The first character that differs decides, and whatever comes after it doesn’t matter. Digits come before letters, and 1 comes before 2.

So v10 comes before v2: the first characters that differ are the 1 of 10 and the 2, and 1 is smaller. In the same way, the date 9-5-2083 comes after 14-6-2083, because 9 is bigger than 1, even though Bhadra comes before Asoj.

Two habits fix it:

• Write dates biggest part first: year, month, day, as 2083-05-09. Then sorting by name sorts by date, because the year is compared first, then the month, then the day.
• Give numbers the same number of digits, with zeros in front: v01, v02 … v10, and 2083-05-09, not 2083-5-9. Then each digit is compared with the digit in the same place.

Many file managers on computers read the numbers inside names by their value, so they put v2 before v10 anyway. Many other lists don’t: some phone apps and music or video players, many websites, and the command line you will meet in Grade 10. You can’t know which kind the next person’s computer, a print shop or a website will use. A name with the year first and its zeros in place sorts correctly in all of them.

Versions, not “final”

Every time you change a piece of work in a big way (before a teacher’s corrections, before trying a new idea, before cutting a long part), save a copy as a new version: nibandha-v01.docx, nibandha-v02.docx. Keep the old ones. If the new idea doesn’t work, you can go back.

A pattern that works for almost anything: date or year, then what it is, then the version:

2083-05-09-science-heart-project-v03.docx

Long? A little. But you can see what it is, when it is from and which version, without opening it, and a whole folder of them sorts itself.

Many programs also keep versions for you. A document kept online usually has a version history: every saved change, with the time and who made it, and a button to go back to any of them. It is very useful, but it lives inside that one program and that one account. Your own version numbers work everywhere: on a pen drive, in an email, on someone else’s computer.

Reuse, revise, repurpose

Good names and versions aren’t only about tidiness. They let you build on your own work instead of starting again:

• Reuse: next year’s science project can start from this year’s layout. Copy the file, rename it, and you keep the headings and the table you designed.
• Revise: your teacher’s comments go into v02, while v01 stays as it was, so you can see what you changed.
• Repurpose: the same work for a new audience. Your essay on the water cycle becomes a poster for the school wall, or slides for younger students. Make a copy with a new name (water-cycle-poster-v01), and the essay stays untouched.

Grade 6 gave you five places to look: search, Recent, Downloads, sort by date, and the bin Grade 6: Finding a lost file. Today’s phones and computers can do more, if you know to ask:

• Search by what you remember. Not only a word from its name: most file managers let you narrow a search to a kind (images, videos, documents, PDFs) and a time (today, last week, last month). On a computer, search also looks inside documents for words in them.
• Search photos by what is in them. Many photo apps recognize what a picture shows, so a search for “certificate”, “receipt” or “mountain” finds photos of those things, even ones called IMG_4521.
• Think about which app it came from. A photo a teacher sent in a chat app is saved in that app’s own folder, not with your camera’s photos, and the chat itself has a list of every photo and file shared in it.
• Look online. A file saved with sync on may be in the online storage, and online storage has its own bin.
• Check the other devices. Was it saved on the school computer, the family laptop, or the pen drive you took to the print shop?

Better than any search is knowing where it is: one home, a good name, and moving files out of Downloads.

In Grade 7 you saw that a phone has everything a computer has: a processor, memory, storage, an operating system Grade 7: Inside the computer. So it needs the same care as a computer: room in its storage, control over what its programs can do, and updates.

Storage full

A phone that says Storage full can’t take photos, install updates or save a voice message, and it often gets slow. Before deleting anything, find out what fills it. The phone’s Storage settings show a bar like the one below, split into kinds of things, biggest first. Usually the big ones are:

• Photos and videos, especially videos: a minute of video can take as much space as dozens of photos.
• Chat apps’ media: every photo, video and voice message you receive is saved on the phone, and a funny video forwarded to five groups may be stored again for each.
• Apps: the apps themselves, the data they keep, and their cache.
• Downloads: forms, PDFs and app installers, downloaded once, used once and forgotten.
• The system: the operating system itself, which you can’t remove.

A cache (said like cash) is a store of spare copies an app keeps so it can work faster: the pictures in a feed you scrolled through, the map of streets you looked at. It is safe to clear, because the app can fetch it all again, and it does, slowly, as you use it. An app’s data is different: it is your settings, your login and what the app holds for you, such as chats not yet backed up. Clearing it is like reinstalling the app from scratch.

So, to free space safely:

1. Look first: open Storage in the phone’s settings and see what is big.
2. Clear what comes back: the cache of the biggest apps.
3. Delete what is a copy: forwarded videos and files in chat apps (their storage screens list the biggest first), old downloads, the same photo saved twice.
4. Uninstall what you don’t use: you can install it again from the store.
5. Move what you want to keep: photos and videos to a computer, a disk or an online backup, and delete them from the phone only after checking the copy opens.
6. Empty the bin: deleted photos often sit in a Recently deleted folder for 30 days or more, still taking space.

App permissions

In Grade 7 you saw that an app must ask the operating system before it uses the camera, the microphone or your location, and the operating system asks you Grade 7: The operating system at work. Each thing an app is allowed to use is a permission. You give it when the app first asks, and you can take it back any time in the phone’s settings.

Permission	What it lets the app do	Who really needs it
camera	take photos and video	camera, video-calling, QR scanning apps
microphone	record sound	calling and voice-message apps, a recorder
location	know where the phone is	maps, ride-sharing and delivery apps
contacts	read the names and numbers in your phone	chat and calling apps
SMS	read your text messages	only the phone’s own messages app: your bank’s codes come by SMS
photos and files	see the photos and files on the phone	gallery and photo editors, file managers
notifications	show messages at the top of the screen	anything you want to hear from
accessibility	read the screen and tap for you	apps that help people who can’t see or touch the screen; harmful apps ask for it to control the phone

When an app asks, the phone usually offers more than yes or no: Allow all the time, Allow only while using the app, Ask every time (or Only this time), or Don’t allow. Many phones also let you share your approximate location instead of the exact spot, or choose selected photos instead of all of them.

The rule is one question: does this app need this to do its job? A map needs your location while you use it. A torch doesn’t need your contacts, ever. When an app asks for far more than its job needs, that is a warning sign: it may be collecting your data to sell, or it may be malware.

Installing apps only from safe places

In Grade 7 you saw how malware gets onto phones: an APK from a chat group, a “cracked” game, a fake update Grade 7: How malware gets in. So install apps only from the phone’s official app store, which checks apps before they are listed and removes harmful ones it finds. Even there, fakes slip in, so before you install:

• Check who made it. The developer’s name is under the app’s name. Your bank’s app comes from your bank, not from “Bank Apps Nepal”.
• Check how many people use it and read a few of the newest reviews, especially the low ones.
• Read what it asks for, and say no to permissions it doesn’t need.
• Get it from the source. If a bank or a school tells you to install its app, follow the link from its official website, or search the store for its exact name.

On Android, a setting called Install unknown apps decides which apps (a browser, a chat app, a file manager) may install other apps from outside the store. Keep it off for all of them.

Updates

An update is a new version of the operating system or of an app, sent by its maker. In Grade 7 you saw why they matter: they close the holes that malware uses (WannaCry spread through computers that hadn’t been updated). There are three kinds:

• App updates, from the app store, often every few weeks;
• Security updates for the operating system, small and frequent, often monthly;
• System updates, big ones with new features, about once a year.

Turn on automatic updates for apps, on Wi-Fi only so they don’t use up your data pack. When the phone says a system update is ready, install it when the battery is charged, the phone is on Wi-Fi and you don’t need it for half an hour. And check how long your phone will get updates (Grade 7, Choosing a phone or laptop): a phone that no longer gets security updates shouldn’t be the one you use for banking.

The cloud is a short name for computers you reach over the internet, run by companies in data centers, the buildings full of computers you met in Grade 6. Cloud storage (Grade 7) keeps your files on those computers, and you open them from any device by logging in. Your files aren’t floating in the sky: they are on someone else’s disks, far away (how such systems work is in Grade 10).

Most cloud storage syncs, as you saw in Grade 7: the same files are kept on your phone, online and on your laptop, and a change on any one of them is copied to all the others, as soon as they are online. Write half an essay on the school computer, and it is waiting on your phone on the bus home.

That is very useful. It also means a mistake is copied everywhere just as fast. In Grade 7 you saw that a copy that follows you also follows your mistakes Grade 7: Backups. Figure 8.2 shows the difference.

So sync is not a backup. It keeps your files in step; a backup keeps them safe. Many cloud services do both a little: a bin for deleted files and a version history for a while. Know how long yours keeps them.

The cloud has costs too:

• It needs the internet, and syncing big videos uses a lot of data. Set it to sync on Wi-Fi only.
• The free space is small, and more costs money every month.
• Your files are on a company’s computers. The company sets the rules: who can see them (sharing a link to “anyone with the link” means exactly that), what happens if you break its rules, and whether it scans what you upload.
• Everything hangs on one account. Lose the account and you lose every file in it, on every device. That is why the last section of this unit is about keeping your accounts safe.

In Grade 7 you planned where a family’s photos should be copied, and saw that a copy is only useful if it isn’t lost together with the original. People who look after important data use a short rule for this, the 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of everything that matters: the original and two backups;
• on 2 different kinds of storage (a phone and a computer, a laptop and an external disk, a disk and an online backup), so that one kind of fault can’t take them all;
• with 1 copy away from home (at a relative’s house, or online), so that a fire, a flood or a thief can’t take them all.

And one more step, which people forget: check that the copies work. Open a few files from the backup now and then. A backup that has quietly stopped, or can’t be opened, is no backup.

Your email, your social media, your school’s online classroom, your family’s wallet app: each is an account, and each opens a part of your life. Grade 6 taught you strong passwords and Grade 7 two-step login Grade 7: Two-step login. This section is about the rest: setting up a device, getting back in when you are locked out, a password manager, and what to do when a phone is lost or an account is taken.

Setting up a new phone or laptop

The first hour with a new phone or laptop decides how safe it will be for years. Whether it is yours or you are helping a grandparent, go through these steps:

1. Install the updates first, on Wi-Fi.
2. Set a screen lock: a PIN of six digits or more, or a pattern that isn’t an L or a Z, plus a fingerprint or face if the phone has one. A phone with no lock gives every app and every account to whoever picks it up.
3. Sign in to the main account (or make one), and set up its recovery options (below) and two-step login.
4. Switch on “find my device”, so a lost phone can be found, locked or wiped from another device.
5. Switch on backup of photos, contacts and settings, on Wi-Fi only.
6. Remove or switch off apps that came with the phone that you won’t use, and check the permissions of the ones you keep.
7. Write down the phone’s IMEI number (dial *#06# to see it), and keep it at home with the box and the bill. The police need it if the phone is stolen.

A second-hand phone or laptop needs one step before all of these: a factory reset (Grade 7), which wipes everything the last owner left. And before you sell or give away your own: back it up, sign out of your accounts, then reset it.

The account that opens the others

When you forget a password, you press Forgot password? and the website sends a link or a code to your email or your phone. So whoever controls your email can reset the password of almost every other account you have. Your email account is the master key: give it your strongest password and two-step login before anything else.

A way back in

Every important account should have more than one way back in, set up before you need it. These are its recovery options:

• A recovery email: a second email address, such as a parent’s, where the account can send a reset link.
• A recovery phone number: a number the account can text a code to. Use a SIM you will keep for years, and update it if you change your number.
• Recovery codes (Grade 7’s backup codes): a list of one-time codes the account gives you when you switch on two-step login, each good for one login, for the day your phone is lost. Write them on paper, and keep them at home, with your passwords notebook if you have one. Never keep them only on the phone they are meant to replace.

Check them once a year: an old phone number or a forgotten email address is a locked door.

A password manager

You know the rule: a different, strong password for every account. With twenty accounts, that is twenty passwords. A password manager, which Grade 6 mentioned, is an app that remembers them for you. It keeps them in a vault, scrambled so that nobody can read them without your one master password (or your phone’s fingerprint or face lock). It can:

• make up a long, random password for each new account;
• fill it in for you when you log in;
• warn you when a password is reused, weak, or found in a data breach;
• sync the vault to your other devices, so your laptop knows the passwords too.

It also protects you from fake pages. A password manager fills in a password only on the exact website it was saved for. If it doesn’t offer your password on a page that looks like your bank’s, stop: the page may not be your bank’s at all.

Its weak point is the master password and the account behind it. Make the master password your strongest (four or more random words, Grade 6), switch on two-step login for it, and write it down at home until you know it by heart. A notebook of passwords kept at home is still a good way too; the worst way is the same password everywhere.

When a phone is lost or stolen

Act quickly, from another phone or a computer, in this order:

1. Call your own number from another phone, in case it is just lost nearby, and someone kind answers.
2. Find, lock or erase it online with “find my device”, signed in to your account. Lock it with a message and a number to call. Erase it only if you are sure it won’t come back, because on many phones, once it is erased, it can’t be found any more.
3. Block the SIM: call your phone company on its official number, or visit its office, and ask them to block the SIM, so nobody can receive your codes. They can give you a new SIM with the same number.
4. Call your bank and wallet company if the phone had their apps, and ask them to block the apps until you have a new phone.
5. Change your main passwords, starting with your email, from another device, and sign the lost phone out of your accounts.
6. Report it to the police, with the phone’s IMEI number. A police report also helps with the phone company and insurance.
7. Set up the new phone from your backup (and be glad you had one).

When an account is hacked

Signs that someone else is in your account: messages you didn’t send, a password that suddenly doesn’t work, an email saying your password or recovery number was changed, logins from places you have never been. Then:

1. Try to get back in at once, through the official Forgot password? or account-recovery page, typed in yourself, never from a link in a message. This is where your recovery email, phone and codes save you.
2. Once you are in, change the password, and the password of any account that used the same one.
3. Sign out every other device, from the account’s security page.
4. Check the recovery email and phone: an attacker often changes them to keep a way back in. Put yours back.
5. Switch on two-step login, if it wasn’t on.
6. Warn your friends, from another account, not to trust messages, money requests or links from the hacked one until you have it back.
7. Keep the proof (screenshots, dates, times) and report it: to the website through its help pages, and if someone is threatening you, pretending to be you, or asking your friends for money, to Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau. Tell an adult you trust; you won’t be in trouble for telling. (Grade 7, When something goes wrong.)