Android backup & restore made easy

AVOID LOSING YOUR PRECIOUS DATA WITH OUR QUICK-AND-EASY GUIDE TO BACKING UP YOUR ANDROID DEVICES.

WE’VE ALL LOST data we wanted at some time. It happens to hard and soft copies alike, and can be quite devastating.

So, how do your reliably and securely make and store copies of your precious Android data?

There are a lot of complicated ways of doing this, but we decided to focus on the simple ways and free cloud-based services.

GOOGLE BACKUP

Android is tightly meshed with Google, and when you set up an Android smartphone it will ask you to log in to, or set up, a Google account. Your Google account gives you access to the whole range of Google services, including Google Drive Backup.

When setting up your phone, go to Settings/ Google/Backup (or search for Backup to find it) and make sure “Back up to Google Drive” is switched on. This will create a backup of your: Device settings Contacts WiFi passwords Call information Clock and alarms info Some third party app data You don’t get to make choices - but at least it’s simple. Just make sure that the Google account listed (usually an email address) is the same one that your phone logs in to. If it isn’t, tap on it and choose the right account.

Give it some time to upload, then log into your Google account on a computer or other device, click on the apps icon, select Drive, and the Backups tab. When your phone has uploaded a backup you will be able to see it there, along with a summary of what has been backed up. You can back up multiple devices to the one Drive account, and they will each be visible under their device name.

RESTORE, RESTORE, RESTORE

Backing up is of no use if you can’t restore your data. Google Backup and Restore is intended to recreate your settings and key information on a new or reset phone.

To do this just sign in to your Google account on the new or wiped phone and follow the prompts. You will be asked if you want to Copy your backed-up data or set up a new blank phone. You can select Copy, then Backup from the Cloud. You will be prompted to sign in to your Google account, and can then choose which device to restore from. Let the process run, and you should soon be back to fully loaded with data and apps.

This is also useful it you want to set up a different phone or device with the same apps and settings. As long as the device runs a recent version of Android there should be no issues.

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Typically the largest users of storage space, and the most treasured files, are photos and videos. The sheer volume of images we record presents a backup challenge, plus they would fill up your free Google Drive space very quickly.

You can plug in a USB cable and copy them to your computer from time to time, but disasters always seem to happen when you were just about to do that. And of course, right when you are traveling and have captured amazing shots, your phone and laptop can both go missing in action..

Fortunately there is a simple and free solution – Google photos. This service lets you store an unlimited number of photos for free, as long as you opt in to have them slightly compressed. Set your phone to upload every photo and relax, your photos will be backed up.

Setting up Google photos is so easy, and chances are the app is on your phone already. Look under the Google icon to open it. As long as you are logged in to your Google account you are ready to go.

Google Photos will index your photos and

connected to Google Photos it will sync and all copies will be deleted!

So how can you use Google Photos as a backup and clear space on your phone? There are two functions for this in the Google Photos app menu, “Delete Device Copy” and “Free up Device Storage”. The first lets you delete selected photos from your chosen device while keeping the cloud backup, and Free up Device Storage deletes all the device copies of photos that have been backed up but keeps the cloud copies.

Remember, the cloud copies are not as high resolution as your originals, so you might want to keep separate copies of special photos and videos.

CONTACTS, CALL LOGS, SMS, MMS, SYSTEM SETTINGS, APPLICATIONS ETC.

Ok, so we can rely on Google for our phone settings and data, plus photos and videos, and all we really had to do was switch the options on. But what about a bit more flexibility, and what about SMS/MMS messages?

There are numerous apps with various capabilities, but with a focus on simple, free and lazy our favourite is the basic “Backup Your Mobile” – downloadable for free from the Google Play Store. There are occasional full screen ads, but they can be closed easily.

When you install Backup Your Mobile it will ask for permissions to access the files it’s backing up, then ask to be restarted. A screen showing your backup selections is displayed and can be edited. Proceed and it will ask you if you want to backup to cloud storage such as Google Drive or DropBox, and you’re done.

Backup Your Mobile copies your data into an archive and uploads it to the cloud. Then you receive a report of what’s in the archive. That’s easy!

You also have the option of setting a daily, weekly or monthly scheduled backup. Just set and forget – that’s lazy!

RESTORE AGAIN

Unlike Google Backup, Backup Your Mobile lets you select a backup archive and restore the parts you want. The interface is basic, but everything we tried worked. With Backup Your Mobile installed along with the Google services you have just about everything covered.

Hopefully you will never lose your key files again!