Back up your ANDROID SMARTPHONE
Switching to a new smartphone
is like moving into a new home. Tedious. You have to set it up all over again
import contacts, your music, photographs and work documents; re-install apps
and re-enter Wi-Fi settings. In any case, it's always better to have a backup
of all your data. What if you suffer from a device crash or an accidental
reset? But don't worry.
Ashutosh
Desai tells you about a few tools and services that will help you...
SAVE TO
THE CLOUD
CM Backup creates an online
repository of your contacts, text messages, call logs, photos, calendars and
bookmarks. When you register for this service, you get 5GB of free space. You
can then select individual items in each category to add to your back up.
A scheduling feature
ensures that your data is backed up every day . On the downside, you cannot
change the frequency . Instead, you can enable the weekly reminder option from
within the app's settings. All you have to then do is manually initiate backup
to the CM cloud.
When you want to restore
your data, install the app on your new smartphone, log in, go to My Cloud from
the app's sidebar and tap the Restore button; then, follow the onscreen
steps. It's that simple.
BACK UP APPS
Downloading and reinstalling the apps you had on your old phone may dent your mobile data plan. App
Back up & Restore will detect the software installed on your phone and let
you save the ones you want to install on your new handset.
It will also scan the phone
for APK (installer) files you may have downloaded from outside of the Play
Store.
The utility can save the
APK file to the phone's internal storage, a memory card or to a USB OTG drive.
Note that this utility can
only take a backup of the app installer and not its settings so you will have
to update that manually . It will also not back up additional downloadable
content, after initial installation, for certain games. This will have to be
downloaded again.
Android's security system
will prevent you from installing apps from outside the Play Store.You can
temporarily allow the system to install the apps by opening the Settings app
and tapping Security. Enable the Unknown sources option to allow installation
of apps from sources other than the Play Store. Disable this feature once all
installations are complete.
MIGRATE DATA WITHOUT INTERNET
Xender lets you transfer
photos, music, videos and documents to a new phone without using a data plan.
Install this app on both
hand sets, and you can then use its replication feature from the app menu to
automatically copy all your files from one Android device to the other.
If you are migrating from
an iOS device to Android or vice versa, Xender only lets you transfer your
contacts and images. Data transfer is very fast because it takes place over
direct Wi-Fi.
BACKUP SMS AND CALL LOGS
One of the first casualties
of a phone reset or migration to a new device is your important text messages.
To back these up, install SMS Backup & Restore.
With this app, you can
choose which SMS, MMS and call logs you want to archive. Conversely , you can
choose what you want to restore to your device.
The app then saves your
backup to your Google Drive, Dropbox or local storage. And if you don't have
internet access, you can transfer the backed up files to the second phone
directly provided you have the app installed on that device and you connect
to it via its direct Wi-Fi option.
SMS Backup & Restore
also comes with a scheduling feature lets you set up automatic ar chival. Here,
only changes and new entries are backed up. According to its developer, this
app will not work with LeEco phones. This issue is yet to be resolved. You can
try SMS Backup+, by Jan Berkel, as an alternative.
MANAGE PHOTOS FROM PC
Browsing through all the
photos and videos on your smartphone to create a backup can be quite time
consuming and nerve wracking. But not if you use Syncios Manager
(http:www.sync-droid.com).
After you install this
software on your PC, connect your handset via USB and follow the onscreen
instructions to enable USB Debugging (from Settings | Developer Options).
Once your device shows up
in the phone management software, just click on Photos or Media.The software
will display content from the default folder and also list the ones where it
has found more snapshots, audio and video files.Select what you want to copy,
click the Export button and save it to a folder of your choice.
The backup process is
similar for contacts and text messages too. When you connect a new phone to
this tool, click Import to transfer those files to the device. That's it.
SAVE WHATSAPP DATA
The easiest way to take a
backup of your WhatsApp conversations is with its built in support for Google
Drive.
However, we recommend that
you back these up without the photos and videos. This will reduce the upload
file size and consume less bandwidth.
To initiate a backup, click
the three dots in the top right corner, select Settings | Chats | Chat backup.
Here, add your Google account under the “Google Drive settings“ section and hit
the Backup button.
For all your multimedia,
use Syncios or Google Photos.
USE GOOGLE SERVICES
You should also use
Google's services to backup and sync your contacts, apps, browser bookmarks,
calendar and documents to your account. In this way, when you reset your device
or switch to a new one, your data including Wi-Fi settings will be
downloaded automatically.
To set up Google backups on
your device...
Open Settings | Accounts,
tap on Google and select your e-mail ID. Enable all the check boxes to ensure
that all the data is synced to your account online.
Open Settings | Backup
& reset. Enable Backup my data under Back & restore. Choose the Google
account under Backup account where you want your device settings to be
saved.
CONTACTS
Always add new contacts to
your registered Google account. This way, even if you lose your phone, you will
have a copy of your phone book in your Gmail account. Before you add a phone
number, make sure the Contacts app is saving those details to the Google cloud:
Click on the down arrow at the top of the Contacts app and select the Google
account with which you have registered your phone.
GOOGLE PHOTOS
If you use Google Photos,
you get unlimited storage for your pictures and Full HD videos. Your device's
multimedia will get saved to your Google Photos library, including ones you
capture in the future. Your online photo library is marked as private by
default.
Open the Google Photos app,
tap Menu icon in the top left corner. Tap Sign in to select the Google account
where your photos should be stored and tap the slider button to enable the
service. Note that any changes you make to photos and videos will reflect in
your albums online.
If you do not want to store
your photos in your Google account, then consider Shoebox. You get unlimited
storage for your photos.
Then there's Flickr, where
you will get 1TB cloud space and the freedom to save your photographs at full
resolution.
TNN
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