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Help How to back up an S4?

lotus49

Android Expert
May 9, 2011
1,513
232
Yorkshire
I have long since given up trying to find a decent solution to syncing my S4 with my desktop because no decent solution (or for that matter, one that isn't completely and utterly crap) exists but one area I would appreciate some help with is backing up my S4.

I use Titanium Backup Pro as well as taking occasional nandroid backups but this does not cover everything. Added to which, restoring a TBP backup is an appalling dog's breakfast that requires a complex and detailed understanding of what must be restored, what can be restored and what should not be restored. Added to which, TBP (which is effective and powerful) has to have the worst and least intuitive interface of any program I use regularly.

On my iPhone (and on my MacBook Pro) backing up is extremely easy and a couple of clicks will see absolutely everything on my phone (or computer) backed up or restored.

Is there a relatively simple way of backing up everything on my phone so that, should the worst happen, I can just restore the whole lot with a few clicks?
 
Have you looked at Helium?

I'm not sure if it will do homsecreen placements if you're using the touchwiz launcher but I had to use it on my mates HTC Sensation and it did pretty much everything else (text messages too).
Thank you for the suggestion but, like everything I have seen so far Helium (according to the description in the Play Store) focuses on backing up apps or some other particular subset of data.

What I want is something that will literally back up everything. All apps and data, system apps, configuration, media and absolutely anything else on my phone.
 
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I'm not really sure what needs to be backed up. When I moved to the S4 as soon as I input my Gmail addresses I basically had access to everything. As I recall, almost every program I use (and even more I no longer use) downloaded. Am I remembering that wrong?

Out of curiosity, what is it you're not able to sync to your desktop? I'm able to sync my contacts and calendars just fine, although the latter is through a program Google no longer supports (big shock).
 
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Thank you for the suggestion but, like everything I have seen so far Helium (according to the description in the Play Store) focuses on backing up apps or some other particular subset of data.

What I want is something that will literally back up everything. All apps and data, system apps, configuration, media and absolutely anything else on my phone.

http://androidforums.com/sprint-gal...eroot-get-back-wherei-am-now.html#post6130239

This lists how I handle backups. (I assume you are rooted)

"configuration" - that won't get backed up with this list though. For that, the nandroid backup (as Darnell0216 suggested) really is the only recourse.
 
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Thank you for all your replies.

I think it's fair to say that the executive summary is that what I want to do just isn't possible.

A nandroid backup is closest to what I want but this doesn't backup my internal and external SD cards so it looks as though I shall have to go through a laborious process of performing a nandroid backup, copying the contents of my external SD card using rsync on another computer and something similar with the internal SD card, although of course I cannot remove this.

I love Android but the whole process of backing up and syncing with a desktop is literally years behind iOS. I could do all of this using iTunes on my iPhone 3GS with just a few clicks and that was 4.5 years ago :(.
 
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IOut of curiosity, what is it you're not able to sync to your desktop? I'm able to sync my contacts and calendars just fine, although the latter is through a program Google no longer supports (big shock).
I can sync everything but it's a horrible mess compared to iTunes, which synced and backed up everything in an intuitive fashion with just a few clicks.

Firstly, even if a cloud-based solution were practical (and I suspect it's not because of the volume of data) I don't want to hand over my data to Google (or Apple for that matter).

I use iSyncr to copy music from iTunes to my phone. This is not pretty but it (usually) works OK.

I used SyncMate to sync contacts and my calendar. This was awful and caused so many duplicate entries that I eventually gave up and used Google Calendar even though I don't want to. I still use it for contacts but I'm not sure how long I can stand it as it's very flaky (frequently won't connect and I have limited faith in the reliability of the syncing).

I use AnyDo for tasks and Evernote (which I love BTW) for notes. I use Dropbox for files.

I cannot do a comprehensive backup at all.

All of this was simple with iTunes. None of it works properly with Android and it's a horrible rat's nest of varied and sometimes unreliable software. It's my only real complaint about Android but it's a big one and I absolutely hate it.
 
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:eek:
I love Android but the whole process of backing up and syncing with a desktop is literally years behind iOS. I could do all of this using iTunes on my iPhone 3GS with just a few clicks and that was 4.5 years ago :(.

Heh! And then there are those of us who despise iTunes and have had iTunes back up the wrong way destroying everything you wanted to keep replacing it with something else.

Been there and done that. :mad:

I found nothing intuitive at all about iTunes and personally consider it to be more of an iVirus. :eek:
 
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:eek:

Heh! And then there are those of us who despise iTunes and have had iTunes back up the wrong way destroying everything you wanted to keep replacing it with something else.

Been there and done that. :mad:

I found nothing intuitive at all about iTunes and personally consider it to be more of an iVirus. :eek:
Do you use Windows?

The reason I ask is that I have heard a lot of complaints about iTunes but they all seem to be from Windows users. That's not to take anything away from your complaints - it should work properly on both platforms.

On OSX it works flawlessly and, as I mentioned above, did everything I wanted, most of which just isn't possible on Android.

It does surprise me that years after I first realised how inadequate the Android/desktop syncing solutions available were (i.e. next to useless for my relatively simple needs), no-one has filled this obvious gap in the market.
 
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I use Kies to backup and have had no issues at all. You get a split screen, one showing your device, the other showing your PC. A simple click and drag from the device to the PC and it's backed up.

For my music. I sync with Google. I started this with my GS3. When I upgraded to the GS4, once I logged in, all my music that was backed up in Google cloud was available.
 
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Do you use Windows?

The reason I ask is that I have heard a lot of complaints about iTunes but they all seem to be from Windows users. That's not to take anything away from your complaints - it should work properly on both platforms.

On OSX it works flawlessly and, as I mentioned above, did everything I wanted, most of which just isn't possible on Android.

It does surprise me that years after I first realised how inadequate the Android/desktop syncing solutions available were (i.e. next to useless for my relatively simple needs), no-one has filled this obvious gap in the market.

Yes, I use Win8/7/XP.

The only Apple devices we have are iPods, iPhones, iPad, etc. No Apple laptop or desktop computers.

I've heard that before about the iTunes experience on Windows. And therein may lie the tale. Be that as it may, it has not been a welcome experience and thus I avoid iTunes if at all possible.

... not to sidetrack the thread... but to answer your question. ;)
 
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