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Complete backup & restore of Andriod content

I am a Windows (and occasional Linux) user. For many years now I have had a policy of using Acronis True Image to make an image copy of the system disk of a newly built Windows system. This allows me easily to restore a clean system in the event of a virus or other disaster. From time to time I will restore from this image, update all the relevant software, apply patches, etc. and then make an up-to-date image of the system disk.

Is there any similar technique available for Android on a Tablet or 'phone?
What happens if you install some piece of software that cannot readily be removed or in some way your system gets corrupted?

It will be pretty obvious that I am not at all familiar with Android. However, any Android user to whom I have spoken seems entirely unconcerned about backing up, a few of them copy off photos and perhaps contact lists but other than that, they don't seem to care.

The device in question (Samsung Galaxy Note Tablet) includes some reasonably expensive software (Memory-Map OS Explorer 1:25,000). She doesn't want to have to pay for it again if she loses (or somehow corrupts) it.

What she would like to do and has asked my advice on is what I described above - make an image of the working system with the desired options loaded.

I understand that Google will back up Apps, Contacts and Photos (if you turn on Google photo upload). However, so far as Google capturing her contact details and photos for whatever commercial uses they might dream up is concerned - I suspect that she could certainly live without that happening - although I accept that they will probably do it anyhow :(

Any suggestions?
 
If she paid for the app via the AppStore, she won't have to buy it again. It will always be linked to the Google account used to buy it.
As it happens, she didn't, she bought it from Memory-Map.

However, that rather misses the point. What I was wondering is whether there is a mechanism allowing a user to carry out a complete backup & restore of the content of an Andriod device.

I believe that one can gain "root access" on an Android device somehow? With such access I imagine that there might be a way to make (and restore) an image of the content of the device. Has anyone got any experience of doing this?
 
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Well what you're looking for is called a nandroid backup, and is done if you have root. That's a complete image backup of the device. Although personally I find it more hassle than it's worth. The backup provided by Google and Samsung is more than enough to restore all my data if I reset, or even restore it to a new device. The problem with a nandroid backup is you can't restore it to a different device.

I just checked out Memory Map:
https://www.memory-map.co.uk/get-started#mobile
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.memorymap.mm2

Their site brings you to the PlayStore to download, and talks about an account, which means it's not the app you paid for, but the account. You can use the account on up to 5 devices. So even if you uninstall Memory Map from the device, you can just download it again and login.

Samsung has a program called Smart Switch for PC/Mac. You can install than to make a backup of the device. Granted though it's not a complete image backup since you won't be rooted, but it's close enough. Apps back themselves up to Google's cloud automatically unless you disabled it. All apps have a login inside them which enables this too. Samsung's backup program reinstalls the app onto the device, but relies on the app's Google integration to backup it's data (like game progress for example). Another way to back this data up without root is Helium (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup). You can use that in conjunction with the Samsung program.
 
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I root all of my devices and make full image backups with a custom recovery. But yeah, a rooted device is required for this option. Honestly, I used to worry about it a lot more because I was constantly flashing custom firmware to my devices. Now I use Google backup for everything and Titanium backup for my apps and app data. But titanium backup is a root only app.

Most devices (including Samsung) provide Factory firmware that can be flashed to a device using their tools in a crisis. Obviously this starts you with a clean slate, but anything you have chosen to backup (photos. Contacts, etc.) Can all be restored.

There are a couple major sites for Samsung firmware:
https://samsung-firmware.org
https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/

I believe the latter is the official Samsung firmware site.
 
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I have important data backed up to the cloud, or exported to me via different methods.


Then, since I am using Nova Launcher, all I need do is make NOVA Backup which contains all of the folders and single app icons on each homepage. Those backups are stored to the extSDcard and emailed to me.

That way, it does not matter what device I decide to restore to.
This turned out to be very beneficial a couple years ago.
I left my Note 4 on the truck's dashboard during a rainstorm while charging and following the map.

sun came out bright, my arm got hot, and "hold cow!" I remembered the Note 4 on the dash.

Too late.... it would not even turn on again.

I had my previous phone, a Galaxy S5 with me.
I pulled the SIM from the Note 4, plugged it into the S5 and was in business...

Then, I logged into Google Apps and allowed all the apps to download that were supposed to be there.

That done, I opened up my email inbox named
NOVA and clicked on the last backup copy.

less than 2 minutes, the S5 looked exactly like the Note 4
 
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