Automatic backing up of Android data has been a lot easy this days, your phone backup some stuff itself, but what if you lose your phone or drop it in water and lose everything. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to backup that data, you can backup everything to google. Ensuring that even if something does happen to your phone, you won’t lose all those important photos and some other files that are important.
Whether it be through Google, a third-party app, or your computer, you can easily restore lost files even after deleting ( an article that helps with restoring deleted files on android ). Here’s how to properly backup phones to make sure you never find yourself in a situation where you end up with lost data.
With Google
Backing up most of your data is actually pretty easy with Google, and it has gotten far easier over the past few years. Unfortunately there isn’t yet a one-stop backup method for Android phones through Google, but there are ways to backup different types of data.Keep in mind, however, that these options don’t cover things like SMS, Here’s how to backup your data with Google.
Photos and videos
If you’re not already using Google Photos, you should be. The service automatically backs up every photo and video you take to the cloud, so you’ll never have to manually backup your media ever again.
If the Photos app isn’t already on your phone, you can download it here. Once it’s installed, you’ll need to make sure Photos is set to automatically backup your files. Here’s how to do that:
- Open the Google Photos app
- In the menu, head to Settings
- Tap ‘Backup & sync’
- Make sure the switch is turned on
Here’s how to check your Google Photos upload quality:
- Open the Google Photos app
- In the menu, head to Settings
- Tap ‘Backup & sync’
- Tap ‘Upload size’
- Choose the option you’d like
Other files
Google Drive lets you store your other files in the cloud, which means they’ll be accessible from any connected device.
To manually upload folders and files, follow these instructions:
- Download the Google Drive app, if you don’t have it already
- In the app, press on the ‘+’ button
- Press ‘Upload’
- Select the file(s) you’d like to backup
- That’s it!
Settings and apps
To backup your phone’s settings and apps, you’ll want to use Android Backup Service. This service essentially backs up the apps you use and the settings that you have selected in most Google apps, making it easy to restore those settings on a new phone. Follow the instructions below to activate it:
- Open your smartphone’s Settings app
- Tap on ‘Backup & reset’
- Press ‘Backup account,’ and add your account, if it’s not there already
Using other backup options
Google’s services are great, but if you’re looking for a more comprehensive solution a nice one that backs up everything at once, that is you might need to use a third-party app.
Unrooted phone
There are a ton of great apps out there for backing up your data, and one of the easiest to use is Easy Backup & Restore. As you might have guessed, Easy Backup & Restore aims to be simple. It backups applications and the usual assortment of other stuff including MMS, calendar, and user dictionaries.
You also have the option of backing up directly to your device, to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com, and OneDrive if you use cloud storage.
- Download Easy Backup & Restore
- When asked if you’d like to create a backup, tap ‘Yes’
- Select the items you’d like to include in your backup
- Select the location where you’d like the backup to save
- Type in a name for your backup
- Wait for the app to backup your data
- Tap ‘OK’
Rooted phones
While most people won’t need to root their phones to backup what they need to, rooting your phone can help you backup a few more things. By rooting your phone, just about everything on your phone can be restored, including things like app settings, system data, and even Wi-Fi passwords.
One of the most used apps for backing up a rooted phone is Titanium Backup. While Titanium Backup certainly looks a little outdated, it’s a very powerful app indeed.
Here’s how to backup your files using Titanium Backup:
- Download and open the app
- Tap the menu button in the top-right corner and select ‘batch actions’
- Select everything you want to backup
- If this is the first time you’re backing up your device, you’ll at least want to select ‘backup all user apps’ and ‘backup all system data’
- You can also choose to backup the files to Dropbox or Google Drive, which you may want to do in case you lose your phone
- You can also opt to create a recovery compatible .zip backup file
- This ensures that even if your phone’s system files become corrupt or something else happens that prevents you from being able to boot up your phone, you’ll be able to restore your phone from the backup
Backing up to your computer
Instead of backing up your device to the cloud or to the phone itself, you might want to backup all your files to your computer for easy access later on.
Luckily, this is pretty easy to do, and the process is pretty much the same whether you’re a Mac or PC user. Mac users will need to download and install the Android File Transfer app, though. Here’s how to backup your Android device to a computer:
- Plug your phone into your computer with your USB cable
- On Windows, go to ‘My Computer’ and open the phone’s storage
- On Mac, open Android File Transfer
- Drag the files you want to backup to a folder on your computer
And that’s it! Now you are safe of loosing your files, it shouldn't be that hard. Let me hear you via the comment box below.
