Reliability of Type C vs. micro-USB vs. SD card I don't use cloud services. I just manually backup my phone using a rotation of a few SD cards I own, and when I have access to a family computer, I transfer what's in those cards to the computer, in order to &quot;double&quot; backup.
(Not the best approach but works fine for me.)
A few years ago (pre-type-C being the norm), I tried to depart from SD cards (just for convenience, so that I wouldn't have to remove and insert them to/from my SIM tray all the time) and gave some flash drives and external HD's (via an OTG micro-USB cable) a chance, as they're more &quot;plug and play&quot;.
Me being careful in general with my equipment and their cables, and always mindful about properly ejecting flash/hard drives, it's safe to say I've almost never experienced corrupted files on a computer.
But that wasn't the case on my phone. I tried both flash and hard drives (even with an externally powered OTG cable) and I'd encounter some corrupted files after moving them back and forth.
So I just figured micro-USB might be unreliable for this purpose and I went back to using SD cards.
Has type C been any different? Other than transfer speed (which is not my biggest concern) is it more reliable than micro-USB?
In terms of reliability alone where does it rank between micro-USB and SD cards? Am I better off with my SD cards as it is, or type C is reliable enough, for me to quit SD cards and start using it instead?
Like I said, type C's transfer speed is less important than reliability, but it's tempting nonetheless.
USB-C has multiple advantages, however speed is usually not one of it. Unless you buy a high-end smartphone the USB-C port usually operates with USB 2.0 speed. But that is device specific, hence check it out what USB transfer speed is supported by your device.
However from my USB-C has from my perspective the following advantages:

Easier handling (easier to plug-in, reversability)
Because of the easier plug-in the chance to break the USB-port soldering is lower - broken USB-ports because of inserted too often too much force is a common problem
I am not 100% sure but I would assume that the durability of an USB-C port is higher than micro-USB when it comes to plug cycles
For USB-C- USB sticks you don't need an adapter (however considering 2. an adapter cable also has advantages compared to a large USB-C stick - the smaller the stick/plug the lower the force that can be applied orthogonally to the USB-plug (because of the leverage).

On the other had you have to consider that micro-SD card slots are usually not designed for may insert/eject cycles. Therefore I would be carefully when regularly use if for inserting an card for backup purposes. An Micro-USB or USB-C port is usually designed for way more plug cycles.
Production quality of Micro-USB plugs and connectors
I don't know if this is a problem of cheap devices only but it seems to me like the quality for Micro-USB plugs and connectors is often terrible. At the moment I have devices and cables that are all &quot;Micro-USB&quot; but some Micro USB connectors are so tight that not all of my cables fit (e.g. a Nokia 2.2 phone) and on other devices the standard Micro USB cables are so loose that the plug pops out if I move the device a few centimetre (not that we are talking about brand new devices, not old device that has been plugged/unplugged hundred of times, an example: TP-Link TL-WR902AC AC750 mini router). Therefore I even got to a point where I categorize my Micro USB devices and cables into three sub-categories: thin, normal and wide.
Another problem of Micro-USB pugs is that not every plug fits regarding it's length.