Backup To USB Flash With OTG - General Questions and Answers

I have several old Android phones that will mount a USB Flash connected with an OTG cable; however, the backup app built-in to their versions of Android does not offer the option of doing a backup and directing the files to the external USB Flash drive.
I have tried several Backup apps from Google Play Store, but none of them seem to offer backup to the external USB Flash.
File manager apps like Ghost Commander and Total Commander can access the USB Flash drive without a problem.
Can anyone recommend a Backup app that will allow backup to the OTG connected USB Flash for Android versions 6 - 9 ???
If not, can anyone tell me what directories I should include in a manual file copy using one of the file managers above to manually do backups by copying files and directories ???
TIA

I managed to find one program that claims this capability.
My Backup by Rerware LLC.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rerware.android.MyBackup
Does anyone here have any experience with this app ???

Have a similar issue - only I want to backup/sync photos (DCIM folder) to an OTG USB drive. Your suggested app did not work for me. Similary I also have found only 1 app that does work (was mentioned in one 2012 forum thread that I cannot find at the moment..):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite
The main downside - it is seriously packed with disturbing adds (so I'm looking for something better)! (Nope - it worked fine on the SD card, but does not work on USB OTG!)

Related

[Q] How to Backup & Sync Android System folders

Can anyone suggest a reliable windows application that will do the following:
1. Allow me to view, backup, and edit Android System folders from the phone such as \system\app, \system\csc, \system\etc.
2. The ability to sync system folders on-demand.
3. Function via USB cable, most likely in USB Debugging mode.
This is not to be confused with backing up pictures, music, or other media & files located on the user SD card, via USB Mass Storage connection or via Kies software.
I am currently using MyPhoneExplorer, but if it has not be updated in over six months and has documented stability issues with newer Samsung ADB drivers and possibly ADB.exe.
Thank you.

Q Need help android 3.2 tablet was lost all the files in internal memory

Hi
Android 3.2 tablet /sdcard folder under the sdcard folder, I deleted /sdcard/sdcard folder, deleted all my files. How can I recover my files
seems as MTP device to the computer does not see any undelete program tablets
up
Use Google. Have a search for Android Forensic Recovery. You will find programs you can pay for which may be able to recover some of your data (assuming you have ADB Debugging enabled) or you can send your phone to one of the companies which are listed and pay them to try and do the same thing for you.
Don't ask me for recommendations - I've recover data off 'wiped' hard-drives (and even memory cards) many times, but doing it from a phone's internal memory is a different prospect.

[Q] image folder deleted - how to recover?

Hi, I just deleted the camera folder in gallery (dcim folder on internal sd).
Does anyone know a working recovery app or pc tool that works on internal sd?
I tried several ones, but no luck.
Thanks in advance!
I'm not sure about apps, but some of the desktop software may help. There's a company called Active that has a couple options that may help, such as UNDELETE or File Recovery. The main problem is the fact that this is flash memory. If you've written to the card any since you deleted the folder you dramatically reduce your chances of being able to recover those files.
Also, it depends on how new the card is as the more data has been written and rewritten to it, the lower your chances of being able to recover. That goes for all re-writeable storage. Hopefully that helps ... good luck.
If you're unfortunate enough to not already updated to Jellybean, you can use USB Mass Storage mode and try using PhotoRec to recover files.
THIS is why we need USB mass storage mode... MTP just doesn't cut it.

Recover deleted photos (w/o root) possible? (Verizon 7.1.2 NHG47N)

I checked the box to delete a whole day's worth of photos by accident. Did it before it had time to back-up to Verizon cloud, Google Photos, or anything
Device: Google Pixel XL Verizon stock - running 7.1.2 NHG47N (never rooted)
Question:
- Can I recover the photos/videos I deleted from my phone?
I am willing to root, create drive images, back-ups, the works. I've now spent a good 8-10hrs trying to find any working Mac OSX software and Android software to recover these deleted files/photos/videos but no luck. I've tried to find means to root my device but since it seems to be a Verizon Google Pixel XL I can't see that means working either.
Is there anyway to treat the phone as an external harddrive and create an exact image of the drive? Copy it and restore deleted files that way? Or any any any way to recover the files?
Much help would be appreciated, and I would be very grateful for your kindness. Best regards.
Have you searched the Play Store for an app to undelete files? I realize that every use of your phone's storage including downloading apps has the chance to overwrite some of what you want to recover, but that might be your best chance.
Unfortunately since Android started using MTP for USB file transfers, I don't know if any method exists to mount as an actual drive that would be scanable by the likes of Recuva or another Windows undelete program.
roirraW "edor" ehT said:
Have you searched the Play Store for an app to undelete files? I realize that every use of your phone's storage including downloading apps has the chance to overwrite some of what you want to recover, but that might be your best chance.
Unfortunately since Android started using MTP for USB file transfers, I don't know if any method exists to mount as an actual drive that would be scanable by the likes of Recuva or another Windows undelete program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this before and here's my experience. Most Android disk digging tools require a drive that isn't internal storage to be able to write the recovered data to. This would seem doable using otg but I've never tested it and so disk digging apps aren't gonna save you unless otg is properly mountable. Windows solutions also seem to not recognize the internal storage

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

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