So I believe my s4 is faulty. I've spent a considerable amount of time getting it just how I like it. I'm going to take it back and get a new one but in the mean time would like to know the best way to restore absolutely everything as is on my phone right now. I use nova launcher... I have that backed up. I know google also offers the option to download all the apps that were last on your phone. Are these two enough or is there a better way? Thank you.
Root your phone and then make a nandroid backup and then save it your computer for later use. Then unroot and exchange phones. That is the best way because it copies everything exactly.
I agree with shmn. A nandroid backup is the most complete, mirror image backup of OS, apps and settings... but it does require you to be rooted. In your case, as you are returning the phone, as shmn states, you would need to root and install a custom recovery and then make your nandroid backup before un-rooting your phone again and resetting the flash counter. For un-rooted users, the best backup around is Helium and Helium Premium from the Play Store. You can read a review about it on the Phandroid forum... Helium is an extremely handy app backup solution for Android
My backup will not save the state of your home screen or the other screens even though there is an option for it. The option does not work. Best and quickest way is recovery backup. The other way is titanium Backup and make sure you backup the launcher and manually restore it. That option needs root so go with recovery backup!
If you are rooted, or are willing to root, recovery backup (nandroid) would be the easiest option. (or use Titanium Backup for all user apps) If you are not rooted, and don't want to root, think about what needs to be backed up Home screens - backing up your launcher data should suffice Apps backup - google play store has all the apps available, so just re-download App data backup (example: game progress) - helium or other backup apps should be able to back up the app data for you Contacts/calendar - if you are synced to google/gmail, it should get restored automatically Pictures/videos - make sure you have those backed up, either on sd card, or online (preferably both)
*IF* the problem is software related, a nandroid backup and restore will just reintroduce the problem to the new phone. Also, I suspect the OP's phone is not rooted, or he would likely have known about the nand backup already, so going through the root/unroot process just to backup the phone isn't really going to save any time, and COULD lead to more problems if he hits a snag during rootiing. I'd suggest just using the Nova backup that you already have, and doing everything else manually.
Good point the question that follows is whether the problem is software based or hardware based? That would change the options drastically and my recommendation would be mute!
Buy
Buy