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Backup! Backup! Backup! NOW!

ironass

Extreme Android User
Aug 17, 2010
12,762
6,351
Cotswolds, England
Samsung and carriers are issuing updates to the S5.

Over the course of these updates we will see circa 60 million phones updated. It only needs for, say, just 1 in a hundred to fail and you have 600,000 phones that will require a Factory Data Reset.

Also, we are seeing people being locked out of their phones as they do not remember their alternative passwords and need to do a Factory Data Reset to access their phone.

If you are, unfortunately, one of those unlucky ones and you have not taken the simple, sensible, precaution of backing up your phone... tough!

If your phone had been lost, stolen or damaged, you would have lost that data anyway and if you have not backed it up, then it probably wasn't important enough to you in the first place.
You only have yourself to blame... deal with it!

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There are numerous methods of backing up your phone and external SD card. Here are just some of them...

Ensure that you have Backup and Restore is enabled in Settings on your phone.
(Use this in conjunction with one or more of the methods below as the backup is limited to apps, Contacts, Calendar, etc)

Sync your phone with Samsung Smart Switch

Ensure that photos you take are always saved direct to external SD card.

Use Helium or Helium Pro backup from the Play Store

Use My Backup or My Backup Pro from the Play Store

Sync important files and photo, automatically, to DropBox or Google Drive

Connect your phone to a PC and copy your important files across

3 Ways to Backup and Restore Android Phone Effortlessly

SMS Backup and Restore, free from the Play Store

How to Backup Android in 5 Easy Steps

How to back up Android for free: Back up your phone or tablet - back up photos, video, app data, contacts and more

... and the list goes on. Other users will have their favourite backup and restore methods.

(Personally, I believe in the belt and braces approach and use at least 2 or more backup methods)

When to backup your phone?... Now!
It's too late if you forget your PIN or your phone will not boot and needs to be reset or is lost, damaged or stolen.



(The above is an extract from, S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide)

If you have lost data on your phone you, "may", be able to retrieve it using one of the methods in post #2
 
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For all those of you who have failed to take the very simple and sensible precaution of backing up your important files, as detailed in post #1, there are some steps that you can take that, "may", retrieve some of your data, photos, etc:

STOP using your phone now as you will be overwriting the data files you wish to retrieve!

I cannot vouch for any of the methods shown in the following links as I have always backed up files on both my phone and PC. However, if you are desperate enough, try these...

Recuva

Dumpster Image & Video Restore

Undelete android photos video data from android phone and tablet device without root

How to Restore Deleted Files from Unrooted Android?

How to recover lost data on Android (rooted or not)

How to Recover Data after Factory Reset Android

Recover Data from Android Phone Internal Memory

How to Recover Deleted Data from Android Internal Memory


Who knows... you may be able to retrieve that crucial data or those all important photographs of your 98 year old granny, bungee jumping off of the Eiffel Tower or your child's first words which happened to be a rendition of the Declaration of Independence or the all important video of the birth of your septuplets and not to mention, that cute little dog on a skateboard... all of which are irreplaceable but obviously were not worth you backing up in the first place!


From post #1...

"When to backup your phone?... Now!
It's too late if you forget your PIN or your phone will not boot and needs to be reset or is lost, damaged or stolen.
 
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