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[Q] Will backup work on a different computer?

I am transferring my files from one computer to another, i would like my windows phone to also transfer its sync relationship with the new computer... but would i still be able to use the backup from my old computer??
If i place the back up file in the new computer's directory, would it be recognized??
Thanks

When you say backup do you mean a backup of the application/games data or a backup of your phone (made with the phone backup tool)?
Both of those should still work if you a copy them across to a new PC.

by backup i meant when you are updating ur phone OS, the backup that it produces. I havent used the backup tool yet
I am afraid that if i sync with another computer it wont recognize that backup.... as it could be computer specific...
Has anyone actually tried this?

Complete phone backup?

I'm trying to clear up a confusion in my mind about how to really backup a rooted Nexus 5.
(For privacy reasons I use a firewall, etc. and do not sync with Google or the cloud).
- I know that Titanium Backup will backup all the installed apps and their data.
- I know that a nandroid backup (I use twrp) will backup the android system and apps.
But there seems to be gap here - unless I am mistaken. Over time, most users add new folders in the sdcard for downloads, documents, genealogy, and the like. I tend to think of a nandroid backup as similar to an "image backup" in windows, but I suspect it might not be because the nandroid backup does not backup these newly created folders. Am I correct? Does a nandroid backup these additional sdcard folders? I think most people assume they do, but a friend just told me they do not and he lost a lot of data because of that erroneous assumption. I hope he is wrong!
Does a nandroid backup the system and the entire sdcard - or not? If not, why not? I'm not a programmer but it would seem to be a simple thing to include any additional sdcard folders? What am I missing? Is there a technical reason why a complete backup is not possible in android?

A nandroid doesn't backup 100% of the device.. I'm not sure why, but I know it doesn't. /sdcard (or whatever its called lol) is not backed up.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

You're correct that there is no simple way to back up your entire device. Even using Google will not back it up.
A nandroid will back up your system, apps and app data. It will not backup your /sdcard. That means any photos, music, downloaded files, etc.
Unfortunately, to backup your device you really need to use a nandroid, the cloud and your pc.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

That's a shame. I was hoping I was wrong! I bet a lot of users have been burned by that! :crying:
Seems to be a glaring opening for a "killer app" that would
a) reboot the phone into recovery
b) do a nandroid backup
c) append a backup of remaining folders
Then the whole could be copied to a pc or flashdrive. Maybe even done in one swoop while attached by usb to a pc. Like a pc backing up an image to an external hd - which I do all the time.
It's so obvious that I wonder what is making this unachievable in android.
Is there such an app? Looks like I have been living dangerously.......

If you could do that you'd run out of storage space before it completed
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I just create a folder called backup on my comp. Then do a:
Code:
adb pull /. backup
It takes two hours but pulls the entire phone to my comp. Or at least as close as you'll ever get with android.

Ben36 said:
If you could do that you'd run out of storage space before it completed
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
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I thought of that. That is why it would be an app to run while your device was connected to the pc. Just like when I do an image backup of my windows laptop to an external HD.
You need to connect to a PC or other drive to transfer the nandroid anyway.

theesotericone said:
I just create a folder called backup on my comp. Then do a:
Code:
adb pull /. backup
It takes two hours but pulls the entire phone to my comp. Or at least as close as you'll ever get with android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what I will have to do. Thanks for the adb command to use.
But, it is a two step procedure: first create a nandroid, then connect to PC to move everything there. Unless I am wrong, without a nandroid, just copying everything on the phone will not let me restore the system. (Maybe I am wrong).
I am not knowledgeable enough, but, if not an app, maybe a script that you run - while connected to the PC (or external HD? with stickmount?) - would either boot the phone into recovery, do the nandroid, and copy everything (including the nandroid) to the pc. Unless one can skip a step by creating the nandroid directly on the PC instead of on the phone.
I'm a relative newbie and could be talking nonsense - sorry if I am - but if it can be done in Windows, it should be abe to be done in android/linux.

maybeme2 said:
That is what I will have to do. Thanks for the adb command to use.
But, it is a two step procedure: first create a nandroid, then connect to PC to move everything there. Unless I am wrong, without a nandroid, just copying everything on the phone will not let me restore the system. (Maybe I am wrong).
I am not knowledgeable enough, but, if not an app, maybe a script that you run - while connected to the PC (or external HD? with stickmount?) - would either boot the phone into recovery, do the nandroid, and copy everything (including the nandroid) to the pc. Unless one can skip a step by creating the nandroid directly on the PC instead of on the phone.
I'm a relative newbie and could be talking nonsense - sorry if I am - but if it can be done in Windows, it should be abe to be done in android/linux.
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Honestly the only time I've used that command was a few years ago when I was looking into what your asking about. Long
story short, it was a complete failure. lol The best bet is just using a nand and copying your sdcard over to the comp whenever you feel the need. It's really easy to restore the sdcard. It's really hard to use ADB to restore anything else. It's possible but takes way more time than just restoring a nand.

Helium Backup doesn't work; any other options for non-rooted devices?

I'm trying to transfer app data from my rooted Nexus 6 to my stock Galaxy S8+. The Nexus 6 is on Oreo, and the Galaxy is on Nougat. As far as I know, Helium is the only method for backing up application data without root access.
Unfortunately, out of the 24 apps that I'm trying to back up, only 11 apparently worked. And yet they would ONLY backup to internal storage. I repeatedly get an unspecified, generic error when trying to back them up to the cloud. So I was forced to use internal storage. I then transferred the carbon folder to my PC, and then copied it to my new phone, but the backups aren't recognized.
I tried rooting the Galaxy, which worked fine, but after a few hours, somehow it randomly rebooted and got stuck booting to upload mode every time no matter what I did. So I had to load download mode and restore it to stock. I was pissed, to say the least, as I had spent well over an hour restoring and setting it up. If I could, I'd just copy over my TB folder from the Nexus again, and go from there, but that's not a viable option. I'm leery of rooting it again.
And before anyone asks, yes, I checked the permissions, and they were already all enabled, storage access included. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that the app hasn't been updated since October 2016. Though one reviewer mentions that it works on Oreo just fine. Any suggestions?

Anyone?

I have tried to transfer apps and data just like what you did with Helium. I found some phone changed backup files when they were been copied from internal storage to PC. The solution was to compress them to a RAR file, then extracted it after copying to PC or new phone, so it could be recognized and restored.
The problem is some apps are "disallowed" to be backup, only part of them can be.

ypsilonn said:
I have tried to transfer apps and data just like what you did with Helium. I found some phone changed backup files when they were been copied from internal storage to PC. The solution was to compress them to a RAR file, then extracted it after copying to PC or new phone, so it could be recognized and restored.
The problem is some apps are "disallowed" to be backup, only part of them can be.
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So you compressed them on the phone, copied them to the new one, and extracted them again? Then ran Helium?

Yes. Of course you can extract it on PC and then copy to the new phone, too.
And here are other key points:
1.The USB mode must be PTP, not MTP.
2.Helium can only restore data of apps, not including apps themselves, even though it says it can. To solve this problem, you can use another backup app to restore the apps to the new phone, then restore the backup files made by Helium.

ypsilonn said:
Yes. Of course you can extract it on PC and then copy to the new phone, too.
And here are other key points:
1.The USB mode must be PTP, not MTP.
2.Helium can only restore data of apps, not including apps themselves, even though it says it can. To solve this problem, you can use another backup app to restore the apps to the new phone, then restore the backup files made by Helium.
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Click to collapse
OK, cool. I will try that out next time I have to wipe/restore my phone.

Can't open .bak file with encryption! 2

So, my brother backed up my Samsung Galaxy S4 on his laptop about 3 years ago. Can't remember the program used. He gave me the backup file yesterday.
(I screenshotted the file name and attached it here titled " FILE BACKUP TITLE.PNG")
I edited the file, to a .exe. (eg “Samsung SM-G350E_20191001_103009.bak” delete the bak and write exe after the dot and press enter.) That way I can access everything through winrar. However all of the files are encrypted! We have no idea what the password is, what shall I do! (Attached the password screen in winrar titled " RAR.PNG")
It has 1000's of photos from 2014-2017, I have no idea on what to do. I've checked out brute forcing, but I wasn't sure how to do it.
Thanks.

AkiraPerera04 said:
So, my brother backed up my Samsung Galaxy S4 on his laptop about 3 years ago. Can't remember the program used. He gave me the backup file yesterday.
(I screenshotted the file name and attached it here titled " FILE BACKUP TITLE.PNG")
I edited the file, to a .exe. (eg “Samsung SM-G350E_20191001_103009.bak” delete the bak and write exe after the dot and press enter.) That way I can access everything through winrar. However all of the files are encrypted! We have no idea what the password is, what shall I do! (Attached the password screen in winrar titled " RAR.PNG")
It has 1000's of photos from 2014-2017, I have no idea on what to do. I've checked out brute forcing, but I wasn't sure how to do it.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What method was used to create the backup? It may require using the same tool that created it to decrypt it, but, without the password, you're pretty much screwed.
Whatever he used, it isn't the best way of backing up android devices. Methods typically used to backup/manage PC's are not suggested for android. ADB and custom recovery are the recommended methods of backing up android, you take your chances with any other method, as you have discovered.
For future reference, backing up your internal storage such as photos, videos and personal files doesn't require any special tools or methods, all you have to do is connect to PC, open your phones internal storage on PC and then copy all the folders there and save them on your PC in whatever folder you choose, no encryption is necessary. Then, all you have to do to retrieve data from that backup is open the folder containing the backup and everything will be there for you to copy/paste/move/open/delete the same as you can with any other file on PC.
Transferring data from that backup folder to a new device is as simple as connecting the new device to PC, opening the backup folder then copying everything in the folder then opening the internal storage of the new device on PC and then pasting the contents of the backup into the internal storage of the new device. It is virtually no different than copying files from one USB drive to another USB drive, you are just going it with phones instead of USB drives.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
What method was used to create the backup? It may require using the same tool that created it to decrypt it, but, without the password, you're pretty much screwed.
Whatever he used, it isn't the best way of backing up android devices. Methods typically used to backup/manage PC's are not suggested for android. ADB and custom recovery are the recommended methods of backing up android, you take your chances with any other method, as you have discovered.
For future reference, backing up your internal storage such as photos, videos and personal files doesn't require any special tools or methods, all you have to do is connect to PC, open your phones internal storage on PC and then copy all the folders there and save them on your PC in whatever folder you choose, no encryption is necessary. Then, all you have to do to retrieve data from that backup is open the folder containing the backup and everything will be there for you to copy/paste/move/open/delete the same as you can with any other file on PC.
Transferring data from that backup folder to a new device is as simple as connecting the new device to PC, opening the backup folder then copying everything in the folder then opening the internal storage of the new device on PC and then pasting the contents of the backup into the internal storage of the new device. It is virtually no different than copying files from one USB drive to another USB drive, you are just going it with phones instead of USB drives.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
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Thanks for your response, I thought nobody was going to reply.
We can't remember. All I remember is that my custom rom s4 (android 4) was hooked up to our mac laptop. Then we backed it up using some kind of backup program. Then it was updated to android 8.
Yeah I understand now, but at the time we were fairly new to the whole android scene. I have an s7 edge now, I just back everything up on google photos and the regular cloud service. What should I do? I really want those files back.
Thanks.
Mod edit: Duplicate thread closed

Recover old phone's WhatsApp data

I have a new phone (Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite). I wanted to transfer my Whatsapp account to it. But I stupidly went ahead without making a Google Drive backup of my messages on my old phone (Motorola G5S).
Instead, I installed Whatsapp on the new phone, which, since it has my old sim card in it, recognised me and re-created all the Whatsapp groups.
BUT all chats were empty.
I have copied the msgstore.db.crypt14 file from my old phone's Whatsapp/Databases folder. I've transferred it to my new phone. But no luck.
Is there any way to recover my old Whatsapp data (at least the chats)?

There is recover software for deleted files on your phone.. unless you wrote more data over in your old phone it is likely that you can recover it.
Google for a trusted recover software for android.
It might be possible if you install whatapps on your old phone again and it might recover the chats on it's on..
But I would try first going over a recover software.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I do not need to recover files. I have been able to copy the msgstore.db.crypt14 file from my old phone's Whatsapp/Databases folder. But transferring it to my new phone does not seem to work.

Goarklight said:
Sorry if I wasn't clear, I do not need to recover files. I have been able to copy the msgstore.db.crypt14 file from my old phone's Whatsapp/Databases folder. But transferring it to my new phone does not seem to work.
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Click to collapse
I read that but that encryption file is most likely tied to hardware identifiers of your old phone and I doubt you might be able to decrypt in your new phone.
So my recommendation still stands try to power up your old phone, recover the whatsapp files, copy these files to a folder on your pc, then install whatapps again on your old phone.. see if it recovers automatically if not, replace the recover files..
Then there should be a backup option natively in whatsapp and then do a migration..
That seems to me your best shot.

Thank you, I will try this and report back if it works.

It worked, thanks!

Goarklight said:
It worked, thanks!
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Did it simple worked by reinstall whatsapp on the old phone?