Why does backup- not restore

[sargan]

Have never been able to get Android to restore properly.

Today needed to do h/ware reset .... so first off did full backup .... all OK.

After reset, put in Goggle & Samsung account details, along with WiFi password.
Went to backup restore .... it ran, and after about 30 min completed.

None of the home screens restored, also FB, WhatsApp, Messenger accounts not restored.
About the only thing it seems to restore is contacts.

Why is Android so bad at this ...
You expect a full backup to give a full restore.

 

[Hadron]

Maybe tell us what you did to make a backup? There is not a single universal backup solution for Android, so did you use some Samsung tool, rely on Google to back up app data, use adb, make your own backups of internal storage and particular apps...?

As for why there isn't a simple, one-click backup for Android, ask Google. But you won't be the first, and given that Android has been publicly available for 13 years now and this hasn't been done I'd not hold your breath as it clearly isn't a priority for them.

 

[sargan]

I went into Settings > Backup and Restore > Google Account > Backup my data
Selected all
Selected backup ... and back up run.

To restore I did the same - selecting restore
It showed the backup with the correct date & time
I selected Restore - and it ran to completion ...... I could see slowly counting down apps it was installing.

It restored contacts & calendar entries, but did not restore any of the other accounts, not did it restore the icons on the home screens .... it was pretty useless for a restore.

I have had the same thing on other Galaxy phones ..... on iPad & PC when you do a restore - it restores everything as was.

 

[Hadron]

From what you've said I'm not even certain it restored anything: Contacts and Calendar entries are most likely synced separately with your Google account, so unless you had turned sync off they would restore when you logged into the account whether you had made this backup or not.

That sounds like Google's backup, though as Samsung tend to provide their own (and modify the Settings completely) I can't be certain. I did come across an article on the Google backup earlier today, when looking at someone else's problem - don't know whether there will be anything in there that is any help. I know some people have had success with that, but I've never used or trusted it myself and always made sure I have my own backups of anything important.

Apple have always been different: the iPhone started life almost as a computer peripheral like the iPod (though they never called it that), where you would back up, restore or sync media with a computer using iTunes (and, in the early days, use iTunes to install OS updates). That may have moved to iCloud for most people, but the functionality has remained. Google started out wireless-only, didn't originally offer any backups, and have never really got that serious with them. PC backups depend on what tool you use to do the backup (I've done disk image backups before swapping PC hard drives on occasion, but I'm not really a Windows user - if it doesn't have a bash shell its of limited use to me ). Ironically there are tools to do similar things with Android, but you need to modify the software first (unlock the bootloader and install a custom recovery).

 

[sargan]

That seems to align with my experience each time I try it ..... you have to think about what Backup is doing ...... you tick the box for everything, but it does not restore much. Seems almost pointless.

 

[mikedt]

For a Galaxy S7, there is Samsung Smart Switch, that's a complete backup, restore, and transfer tool that Samsung makes for their devices. Some other manufacturers do similar backup and restore tools as well for their phones, like Huawei's HiSuite, etc. Of course these come from the device manufacturers and NOT Google.

 

[sargan]

I used SmartSwitch to move to new phones, didn’t think to use it within ‘same phone’ ..... where does it store the backup ? In Samsung Cloud ?

 

[ocnbrze]

I used SmartSwitch to move to new phones, didn’t think to use it within ‘same phone’ ..... where does it store the backup ? In Samsung Cloud ?

smart switch can switch data phone to phone. but it also can make and restore data to your pc. it does not store data in the cloud.

 

[sargan]

I’ll use that next time .... the ‘backup’ apps built in to OS should be removed, useless.

 

[ocnbrze]

I’ll use that next time .... the ‘backup’ apps built in to OS should be removed, useless.

agreed