What's the best way to backup a Pixel 3a?
I do NOT want to use google drive, google already has enough information about my device, they don't need my backups too.
I tried the adb backup way however it failed to restore correctly and was a mess. What's my other options?
Device is rooted fyi.
I always use Titanium Backup for apps. Worked well for me every time, even with different phones and android versions. Titanum is also able to sync the backups with google drive after encrypting them.
For full backup: TWRP
For Pictures and other folders: FolderSync Pro with private NAS
There is pretty much only Titanium as viable option when it comes to backing up apps. Other apps aren't as complete and don't come with compression.
If you just want to back up files just use any cloud storage or copy to your own server/computer
Related
on my 4th ROM now, comfortable with the process...but i'm still not super clear on the best way to backup.
i use titanium backup, and i have it set to batch twice a week, i go in and manually nandroid backup once a week or so, and i figured out that if i do a backup in LauncherPro (my favorite launcher) that i don't have to re-do all my screens again, just the clock widget. i also backup my bookmarks in Dolphin.
something tells me i have a bunch of unnecessary steps. can you guys streamline my process? or am i failing to understand how to use titanium (i suspect this is the case)?
appreciate any advice.
Sounds pretty good. Are you also copying off your backups to a PC or network share? That's important in case you lose your phone. Set Titanium to backup to Dropbox and do that periodically.
hmmm no i have not been backing up to PC. should i just copy the entire SD card to PC periodically? i did figure out the trick to get TIBU to synch with my dropbox without having to pay for it, though.
Nandroid backups are useless if you are swapping between ROMs, as they are pretty much a snapshot of your entire phone at the time that you create it. If you just want a complete backup of everything exactly the way it is, then this is all you need to do.
For most other purposes, Titanium Backup is all that you will need to use, it WILL backup the layout of your screen when it creates the backup for LauncherPro, so that's a wasted step. It also gives you quite granular control over how your applications are restored (and which ones). One thing to take note of is that things like SMSs and call logs may not be compatible when swapping between certain ROMs and restoring with titanium backup. To get around this, use a dedicated SMS backup utility from the market (there are plenty of free ones) since it saves the SMS and call log in a different format.
When swapping from something like gingerbread to ICS (for example), you may find that some applications WILL NOT work if you try to restore them. There really isn't any way that you can get around this, and it isn't the fault of any of your backup methods.
Also, its probably worth the five or so dollars to buy Titanium Backup, assuming you want to get the most out of your phone. There are a lot of pro only features that are quite powerful.
innocencio said:
hmmm no i have not been backing up to PC. should i just copy the entire SD card to PC periodically? i did figure out the trick to get TIBU to synch with my dropbox without having to pay for it, though.
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I'd just copy the nandroid backup directory to your PC periodically. The only downside is that the file is pretty big. No need to copy anything else to your PC as long as your syncing Titanium to Dropbox.
Just got an N5. My first smartphone although I have an N7. I'm trying to move my user apps and app data from the N7 to the N5 but the process is failing. I can't find good instructions that don't assume you are restoring to the same device or assume you have an SD card you can move between devices. I've checked threads here and can't find anything.
N7 3G (2012), Android 4.2.1 Unlocked, rooted, stock ROM
N5 Android 4.4.2 Unlocked, rooted, stock ROM
Titanium backup is installed on both. N7 does TB backups and syncs to Google drive.
I created a filter on the n7 of just the apps to transfer and did another backup of those and sync'd to Google Drive. I copied the files for the ones I wanted (based on files having a just change date/time) from Google Drive to the N5 and put them in a new directory. I set the new folder as the backup folder in titanium backup. Now when I go to TB on the N5 I can see the apps but they all have a line through them. When I try to batch restore, I get a message that ### elements failed. I turned on allow unknown sources and that didn't make a difference. If I select an app in the list, I have options to uninstall or delete.
I have a feeling it would be easier to use one of the newer apps designed just for apps but I've got this far. I don't know why I can't restore them via TB.
Im not a fan of titanium backup I think its a good app but it has no place anymore in kit kat and it just kills battery and resources... Just my opinion
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I did something similar with TB and this worked for me.
I strongly suggest you do it in steps. First step is go to Play Store, My Apps, All. Manually install each app fresh. (Don't panic...keep reading). If you didn't get the app from the Play Store, then copy the apk from your N7.
Once you have them all installed (fresh new versions, yay!) now open Titanium and press the middle tab (Backup/Restore). Go down the list and just tap the individual app name...a box pops up..press Restore...box pops up...Press Data Only. Done! Move on down the list, one by one. As you discovered, you can't batch restore this. It takes time, but they'll all work.
Whatever you do...DO NOT restore data to ANY SYSTEM APPS!. We don't need seeing another thread where you rushed and borked something
In fact, before you start, back up your N5..just in case.
Have fun.
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Thanks. I ended up using the migrate feature on MyBackup Pro. It was kind of slow but less hassle than looking up 150 apps on the play store and installing them. (I'm an app addict). Some of them failed though so I'll have to do those manually and then I'll try the restore in Titanium. Not touching system apps except I wanted to move my wifi hot spots over with passwords which Titanium can supposedly do.
Wondering if I could have use OTG to back them up and then restore to the new device. Found some threads on it but not sure if it would have worked.
I have paid for the full versions of both Titanium Backup and Helium and both leave a lot to be desired.
Helium doesn't work half the time--restores fail, and it can't back up certain apps. Plus, I keep my backups on Google Drive, and it puts them in an annoyingly-named folder in the root directory of Drive, and it doesn't appear to do diffs (e.g. backup up only changed information and not re-backing up anything if nothing has changed).
Everyone tells me that Titanium Backup is better, but it's so littered with odd options and so poorly-designed UI-wise that I'm never even sure if I have it working right.
The ideal would be a Mac or Linux desktop app where I just hook up my phone (a Note 3 running CM11) and it does a complete, bit-for-bit backup so that if a nightly hoses my system I can just flawlessly roll it back. Something akin to SuperDuper! on the Mac.
what about nandroid backups? isn't that exactly what you are looking for?
This is the first time I have bought a phone without a known method for rooting. I have always used Titanium Backup to backup and restore apps+data whenever I bought a new phone but unfortunately without root, this won't work. Can some one suggest another method to transfer app data from my Oneplus 3T to Pixel 2? I tried Helium but it shows "Backup Disallowed" for several of my installed apps.
Did you try using the data transfer process that is part of the initial setup on the phone? It walks you through connecting a cable between your old phone and new one and then is supposed to transfer everything.
That said, people have had extremely inconsistent results with this. I've seen people say it transferred everything no problem. Others that it didn't work. For me in transferred a lot of phone settings, but not all, wifi passwords, but not contacts or calender data; and all it did with apps was redownload them from the store and not transfer the actual data and settings at all. I had to redo settings myself, manually copy data that was on the sdcard partition, and for any apps that had a feature to export their settings to a file and then reimport them on the other phone I did that by hand.
The other possible option that I'm aware of is to use the settings on your old phone that allows Google to backup your app data to the cloud and then sync it on the new phone. I did not do that, because I don't want Google to have all my personal information. But perhaps that works. I have the sense that the whole data transfer process works best when you just let Google invade your soul as deeply as possible, because that's what they are really after.
But those less than optimal options aside, I think that transferring app data without root is pretty much impossible, since most of it resides in the /data directory which is not accessible without root.
Yeah, this sucks. Personally this is the first and last time I will buy a device at the moment of release, before root is available.
Edit: Never mind, I see you already tried Helium
Android Debug Bridge is what you're looking for. In short: enable USB debugging, install ADB, connect to computer with USB.
You can backup an app with:
adb backup -f backupfileonyourcomputer.ab packagename
You can get the packagename from the address bar if you check the application page on Play Store in a browser.
Restoring an app:
adb restore backupfileonyourcomputer.ab
You could backup all apps at once, but then can only restore the whole bulk later. (Possible to extract apps, but it's tedious)
If you need more details just search for adb backup.
Cloud save is also working really well, as stated above, but some apps don't support it. I use adb to move those from one device to another. Finally some apps have backup disabled by the developers, well.... no luck if you have some of those.
I recently messed up my current Pixel 3a XL trying to do some repairs on it (I'd rather not discuss it :crying:). I am probably just gonna end up biting the bullet and getting another one.
But here's where the problem comes in... If I could, I would like to do a full backup of my current Pixel and then just flash it all over to the new one once I get it. That'd make set up the easiest. But I dont have a working screen on the old one. So how would I go about doing that? I would also prefer if I didn't root the new one, so I could keep google pay and all that without having to mess with magisk or anything...
Should I just suck it up and deactivate/move 2FA and stuff by hand?
@Zombtastic if you are doing a backup to e.g. Google drive, you can easily set up your new device from an existing device and almost all of your apps and settings can be restored automatically ... beside those settings where the developer decided to not allow backup of the data / settings.
You can also do a ADB backup of your device as long as you have adb enabled on your device. With this option you can also backup the content of your (internal) sdcard but it has the same restrictions as the cloud backup: if a developer of an app decides to not allow backup of data and settings, nothing will be backed up.
All other solutions need root access and you can e.g. use something like Titanium Backup or the tools I am currently developing (https://forum.xda-developers.com/an.../tools-anddisa-backup-restore-tools-t4016617) ... but as they are still in an early stage and you do not have a working screen, it's on you whether you would like to try.
AndDiSa said:
@Zombtastic if you are doing a backup to e.g. Google drive, you can easily set up your new device from an existing device and almost all of your apps and settings can be restored automatically ... beside those settings where the developer decided to not allow backup of the data / settings.
You can also do a ADB backup of your device as long as you have adb enabled on your device. With this option you can also backup the content of your (internal) sdcard but it has the same restrictions as the cloud backup: if a developer of an app decides to not allow backup of data and settings, nothing will be backed up.
All other solutions need root access and you can e.g. use something like Titanium Backup or the tools I am currently developing (https://forum.xda-developers.com/an.../tools-anddisa-backup-restore-tools-t4016617) ... but as they are still in an early stage and you do not have a working screen, it's on you whether you would like to try.
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If you've done a full backup (which you should do before making a major change to ANY device), simply restore from that backup; backups since Android 7 are not device-specific as long as you use the included backup utilities; instead, they are linked to your Google account. Before I got my Pixel 3a, I used both Google's own "generic" backup utilities and Samsung's backup utilities; thus I could restore from either. Since I crossed from the S7 to the Pixel 3a, I still can (for the rather odd reason that even Samsung's backup utilities are NOT tied to the phone - but to your Samsung account settings; the Samsung account settings are different from those used by Google). The generic backup utilities are included with Android 8 and later (thus Oreo, Pie, and Android 10).
PGHammer said:
If you've done a full backup (which you should do before making a major change to ANY device), simply restore from that backup; backups since Android 7 are not device-specific as long as you use the included backup utilities; instead, they are linked to your Google account. Before I got my Pixel 3a, I used both Google's own "generic" backup utilities and Samsung's backup utilities; thus I could restore from either. Since I crossed from the S7 to the Pixel 3a, I still can (for the rather odd reason that even Samsung's backup utilities are NOT tied to the phone - but to your Samsung account settings; the Samsung account settings are different from those used by Google). The generic backup utilities are included with Android 8 and later (thus Oreo, Pie, and Android 10).
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Click to collapse
Just in case anyone else stumbles on this like I did (just noticed the date.
You can't do a FULL backup with any of these methods AFAICT.
You can backup up all your apps that allow it and the data associated with them but not low level stuff like
radios boot image etc.
If you have backed up to the Google Cloud (your Google drive) it will restore lots of stuff automagically but you will still have the
same ... level of android, bootloader, radio, patch level even when the restore is completed.
Then you have to update everything and put in place any mods that you did.
Might be different with root apps which I am about to try.
Ulitimate Backup root or Titanium backup.
if you have TWRP installed that is by far the best and easiest way to get a FULL backup from what I understand.