How to Back Up Android Smartphone: If your phone crashes unexpectedly, or worse gets lost or stolen, then you’ll not just be down the cost of a phone, but also a huge amount of data. To get around that, you need to enable cloud backups for as many things as possible, so that logging your account into a new handset transfers most of your data automatically. But not everything can be backed up that way, and that’s why it’s still important to take regular backups of your phone.
While some third-party apps like Titanium Backup and Helium will let you take a full backup your Android smartphone, they are not for everyone. Most users don’t know about rooting their phones, or want to mess around with installing ADB drivers. No worry, it may take a few more steps, but you’ll get there (almost).
Here’s how to back up almost any Android smartphone.
Backing up to the cloud: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
- On your phone, go to Settings > Accounts & sync.
- Under ACCOUNTS, and tick mark “Auto-sync data”. Next, tap on Google. Now, tap on the Gmail ID you used to sign onto the phone.
- Here, you can turn on all the options so that all your Google related information gets synced to the cloud. This includes your contacts, photos (uploaded to Google+, privately if you want), app data, calendar events, Chrome tabs, your Google Fit data and more.
- Now go to Settings > Backup & Reset.
- Check Back up my data.
This will save app data and all of your phone’s settings including Wi-Fi passwords to your Google account. When you sign in using this Google account on another phone, all of your preferences, photos (via Google+), and contacts will be imported automatically. This data is synced regularly and you just need to log into another device with the same account to recover it. This does not cover your text messages and various other types of data – you’ll have to back them up yourself.
Locally back up media, messages and apps
Next, you’ll want to save the music, movies and other media you’ve saved on your phone’s memory card. This process is easy – just connect your phone to a PC and copy everything that’s in the microSD card. This is a manual process so you’ll need to make a routine of doing this.
Media: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
- Connect your phone to the computer with a USB cable. If you are on a Mac, make sure you have the Android File Transfer application installed before you do this.
- Open My Computer on your PC, or Finder on your Mac.
- Navigate to the SD card and copy all the files you want to save to your computer.
- After the copying is done, you can unplug your phone.
Text Messages: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
You can easily save all your text messages and call logs to your Gmail account by using an app calledSMS Backup+. Try these steps: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
- Download SMS Backup+.
- Open the app and tap Connect.
- Pick your Gmail account from the pop-up.
- Now grant SMS Backup+ permission to access your Google account.
- Now go back to the app and tap Backup. This will save all your text messages to your Gmail account.
- Log in to Gmail from any Web browser and on the left side you’ll see a new label – SMS. Click it to view all the text messages that have been backed up.
- To restore these messages, just tap Restore in SMS Backup+.
- Tap OK in the pop-up.
- You’ll be asked to set SMS Backup+ as your default SMS app. Tap Yes. This is needed to restore messages.
- Now the app will automatically restore all your messages and call logs. Once the process is complete, the app will show a pop-up that restores your default SMS app. Tap Yes.
Apps: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
The next step is to back up and restore installed apps. You can re-download apps easily if you’re using the same Google account on the new device – just open Google Play, tap the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) on the top-left > My apps. You can install all previously purchased apps from there.
On the other hand, a local backup could be faster to restore, and wouldn’t waste bandwidth either. And it’s also pretty easy to do. How to Back Up Android Smartphone
- Download ES File Explorer.
- Swipe the screen to the right to reveal the Homepage of ES File Explorer.
- Tap APP which is under a blue Android robot icon on the top-right.
- Tap and hold any app until you see a checkmark on its icon.
- Now tap the tick-mark icon on the top-right, the one inside a box with a dotted frame. This will select all apps.
- Tap Backup that’s on the bottom row. This will save a copy of the apk files of all your apps.
- To view which apk files have been saved, tap User apps at the top. From the pop-up, select Backed-up Apps.
- Tap any app’s apk file here to install that app without Internet.
- To save a copy of these files to your computer, connect your Android phone to a PC via USB.
- The phone will appear in My Computer like a pendrive. Open it.
- Go to Internal Storage > backups > apps.
- Copy all the apk files here. In case you format your device, or change handsets, you can quickly copy these apk files to it and install the apps again by placing them in the same folder on your phone, and then following steps 7 and 8. How to Back Up Android Smartphone
By following these steps, you’re able to save a copy of all your contacts, text messages, media, apps, Wi-Fi passwords, and your app data. Of course, doing everything one by one is a little cumbersome, and the best way to back up your phone is to use a third party backup tool. We’ve used Titanium Backupand it is excellent but it requires root access on your Android phone, which is something typically expected from more advanced users. Even its interface is too clunky for most average people. How to Back Up Android Smartphone
Helium is a great app for those who haven’t rooted their phones. It has a nice interface too, but it only works with select Android phones from some international manufacturers. If you bought a phone from Micromax, Karbonn, Lava or countless other brands, you won’t be able to use Helium. Further, using Helium requires you to install drivers for the phone on your computer as well.
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How to back up everything on Android with Easy Backup & Restore: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
1. Download Easy Backup on your Android device.
2. When you launch the app, you’ll be asked if you want to create a backup. Tap Yes.
3. You’ll then see a bunch of check boxes next to the things you can back up: SMS, MMS, call logs, calendar, bookmarks, dictionary and contacts. Make your selections and tap OK.
4. You’ll be asked for a save location for your backup. Make your selection and tap it.
5. If you select a cloud service you’ll have to sign in. If you select SD card you’ll have to confirm the directory.
6. You’ll then be asked to give the backup a file name. The date and time is the default. If you have multiple devices you might want to modify the file name to include the device you’re backing up.
7. You’ll then see a progress page when your data is being backed up. Once completed, you’ll get a pop up window with a summary of what was backed up.
8. If your phone is rooted, you can also back up your apps and app data. If not, you can still tap on the Apps Tools tab in the main menu and create a backup of the APKs on your phone. APKs are like an .exe on a computer: it’s the program or app package. If your Google settings are enabled to back up your app data and settings (outlined above) you can use this option to back up the apps themselves and Google’s backup to save the settings and data in the apps.
9. Just check the boxes next to the apps you want to save and hit Backup at the bottom.
10. When you want to restore your apps or data, just hit the Restore tab. You’ll be prompted to set Easy backup as the default SMS app. You can change this back once your backup has been restored.
11. Select the backup you want to restore and tap it. You’ll see a pop up with details of what will be restored. Tap OKand you’re done.
12. Restoring your apps is slightly different. Go back to Apps Tools in the main menu and tap the Archived tab.
13. You can check off the APKs you want to restore, then tap Install at the bottom.
14. You’ll then see the permissions screen for each app, like you would with any new app you install.
App backup (for rooted phones): How to Back Up Android Smartphone
If your phone is rooted then there is no better backup solution than Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup lets you back up absolutely everything on your phone. The complete backup can be restored at any time and you can set up scheduled backups so you have a regular snapshot of your Android phone’s contents.
Backups can be performed without even closing the apps you’re currently using and they can be saved as flashable zips. Titanium also lets you transfer files between the SD card and your phone with the utmost ease.
Photo Backup: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
The next major important backup tool is for photos. The problem here is there’s hundreds of different ways you can backup your photos, most of which are rather easy, so it’s all about finding what’s right or what works for you. Personally, I use the Google Photos app, and select it from the Google sync instructions above. Google+ (the social network and Google Photos app) have a full resolution copy of every photo I take, up to 1000GB. Or lower the resolution and it can hold an unlimited amount, which is what we’d recommend. Opening the app I can scroll through all my photos from 3 years ago, or photos taken last week.
That being said, the link above for how to automatically backup photos will be your best friend. Whether you’re using Google Photos, Dropbox, or other cloud options, you’ll never lose a photo again. They’ll all be instantly saved, and retrievable from a PC or mobile device. How to Back Up Android Smartphone How to Back Up Android Smartphone
Then of course there’s other options like Flickr, Photobucket, Dropbox, Box, or even Microsoft Skydrive. Personally, I use Dropbox although they only limit you to 5GB free, then you’ll need to buy more storage. The 1,000GB (1TB) Google option shown above will ensure thousands and thousands of photos will be saved, as 5GB isn’t much for the average user.
That said, head to the Google Play Store and get Dropbox, then just enable photo backup like you see below
This can be accessed from any device with the Dropbox link, or by going to their website on your Android smartphone and tablet, or a computer. It’s simple, effective, and fast. Newer versions may look somewhat different, and Dropbox has even more options now than ever before. Like automatic backup and more. How to Back Up Android Smartphone
- To ensure that the backup options for your terminal are configured, go to Settings (or Settings) on your phone or tablet.
- In the Personal section, click Backup and restart.
- Check the box next to the phrase Backup my data.
- Set the Google to be used to make the backup copy by clicking account security account.
- Select the Google account you want by clicking on it or add a new account by clicking Add.
- Backing up your SMS, contacts, photos, etc.
- Photo Backup: How to Back Up Android Smartphone
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