Database Info

Root and Contacts

Question: I am a newbie to ANDROID world, I like to 'root' my EVO, and like to know what will happening to my 'contacts' and other 'staff' I have on the phone?
What are the benefit of 'rooting' the EVO?

When you root your phone, you are your own Administrator, versus having an unrooted phone, and just being a guest on the phone. A rooted phone will allow you to flash custom roms, themes, can tether your phone to a pc or a gaming system, can backup your phone and restore. You will/should have a better performing phone, with the battery lasting a little longer. Endless list of things you can do. Do some reading, you should start here and just go from there.
When you first powered the EVO, you had to sign in to google using a gmail account. This account that you created automatically stores your contacts on an offshore account (google) so that it will allow you to use the internal phone storage for other things, like apps. When you do root and flash a rom, you are supposed to do a data wipe/factory reset to ensure a clean flash for the particular rom of your choosing. After flashing a rom, you have to reboot, and have to sign into the google gmail account to retrieve your contacts.

[Q] How to backup contacts, apps and settings?

Can someone tell me, or point me to a tutorial that explains how to:
1. Backup contacts to PC
2. Backup paid apps to PC(don't want to have to buy it twice...)
3. Backup app data/settings to PC.

Using appbrain will sync your apps with your account on appbrain.com
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

So, there is no way to backup to your SD card, or PC? For windows mobile, I use Sprite, which works great. I was looking for something like that.
Thanks

Never used WinMo, but Titanium Backup might be what you're looking for. You need root to use it though.

I don't mind rooting if that is what it takes, but I can't belive that there is not an easy way to at least backup your contacts.

Backing up Contacts, several ways:
Samsung Kies -- follow the sticky at the top of this forum, it will back them up to your PC.
Export to SD Card, then copy to your PC -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, Import/Export, Export to SD Card.
Copy them to your SIM -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, SIM Management.
Sync them to AT&T's servers, which will do it in real-time when you add/delete them, similar to if you synced to your Gmail contacts .. the other benefit here is that you can log on to your AT&T account via the web to manage your phone contacts and it will sync your changes. Useful if you're mass-adding and want to use a full keyboard for speed. -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, Settings, AT&T Address Book, click Auto Sync contact with online Address Book.
Backing up paid apps: I have not used it, myself, but Titanium Backup might do what you need, as the previous poster said. You can find it in the Market and read up on it.
Backing up app/data settings to a PC. I'm guessing this would be more app-specific than anything, no? I don't think Google imposes or enforces any standards on data/setting storage for apps, so any single backup tool would have to support individual apps one-by-one. Please update this thread if you find anything, because it would be pretty convenient ....

UserNamer said:
Backing up Contacts, several ways:
Samsung Kies -- follow the sticky at the top of this forum, it will back them up to your PC.
Export to SD Card, then copy to your PC -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, Import/Export, Export to SD Card.
Copy them to your SIM -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, SIM Management.
Sync them to AT&T's servers, which will do it in real-time when you add/delete them, similar to if you synced to your Gmail contacts .. the other benefit here is that you can log on to your AT&T account via the web to manage your phone contacts and it will sync your changes. Useful if you're mass-adding and want to use a full keyboard for speed. -- Enter the Contacts app, hit Menu, More, Settings, AT&T Address Book, click Auto Sync contact with online Address Book.
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Awesome. Sounds like backing up the contacts won't be a problem.
Backing up paid apps: I have not used it, myself, but Titanium Backup might do what you need, as the previous poster said. You can find it in the Market and read up on it.
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Will look into it. What would really be nice would be if google would do this for us. Seems like it would be pretty easy for google to remember which apps I have purchased, and not charge me next time I try to download it. Perhaps the marketplace already does this? I just don't want to buy an app and then remove it to find out....actually I will not pay for any apps until I can figure out how to back them up. I don't mind spending $5 on an app, but I do mind spending $5 for each app every time the phone gets reset...
Backing up app/data settings to a PC. I'm guessing this would be more app-specific than anything, no? I don't think Google imposes or enforces any standards on data/setting storage for apps, so any single backup tool would have to support individual apps one-by-one. Please update this thread if you find anything, because it would be pretty convenient ....
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Again, I don't know, this is my first android phone. But with Ubuntu Linux, pretty much all apps store their settings in a hidden folder in /home/{your-username}/ (i.e. firefox would store it's data in /home/{your-username}/.firefox/ ) All you have to do to backup all of your settings is to backup the /home/{your-username}/ folder. It is common for people to place /home/ on a different disk/partition, so that you can reinstall the OS and not loose any of your data/settings...
Android is also linux so I would think it would be similar...

cypho said:
Seems like it would be pretty easy for google to remember which apps I have purchased, and not charge me next time I try to download it. Perhaps the marketplace already does this?
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I am not sure how most app developers currently handle this, but I think Google made it easier a few weeks ago with the announcement of their new "licensing service for android applications". Plug that into your favorite search site (minus the quotation marks) and a post from Eric Chu explaining it on the Android Developers Blog should be up top.
But with Ubuntu Linux, pretty much all apps store their settings in a hidden folder in /home/{your-username}/
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Home directories are great. =) I haven't used Ubuntu in a long time, so I'm not sure if you're saying that the system enforces it or if it's still just up to the individual developers to follow convention and store their settings in /home/ ... but I'm looking through my internal SD card and it seems like most of the apps I have installed (including the Google ones) each created their own data directory at the root level. :\

Titanium also backs up your contacts, paid apps, and free apps. The pros of rooting outway the cons. You can always un root if you need to send your phone in. I am also a newb and I've been wondering if I had to return my phone and get a new one will my paid apps carry over to a new device. I have the my license key for Titanium so I am thinking that I will be good in the event of such emergency. All of my paid apps are backed up there and I wiped my phone to factory settings the other night, I didn't un root, I was trouble shooting an issue caused by AT&. I did a reinstall of Titanium and it recognized my device because it installed donated version and I restored everything with ease.

UserNamer said:
I haven't used Ubuntu in a long time, so I'm not sure if you're saying that the system enforces it or if it's still just up to the individual developers to follow convention and store their settings in /home/ ...
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I don't know, as I'm not a developer. But I would think that it would cause problems if a program tried to save data outside of /home/ The user would probably be prompted for their password every time the app tried to write a file...since sudo is required to gain write access to anything outside of home.

How to transfer all contacts from iPhone to Android

Solution 1: The easiest way to transfer all the iPhone contacts to Android is by using an iOS to Android data transfer tool like PanFone Mobile Data Transfer. It gives you the ability to transfer all your data including photos, messages, call history, photos, videos and more from one device to another with a single click. This program is compatible with every leading Android and iPhone model. You can transfer your data from iPhone to Android and vice-versa. It supports the newest Samsung Galaxy S10, iPhone XS.
PanFone Mobile Data Transfer can offer other features as well. It can restore iTunes and iCloud data to devices conveniently as well as backup your phone data and restore later:
1. Transfer files between Android and iOS, including contacts, photos, music, SMS, and more.
2. Backup phone data and restore in lossless quality.
3. Recover iTunes/iCloud backup to iOS or Android devices.
4. Sync media files from iTunes Library to devices.
Solution 2: You can also choose to migrate your contacts from iPhone to Android without computer. You can also use your Google account to sync and transfer all your contacts from iPhone to Android phone.
Step 1: Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account under the Settings menu of your iPhone and tap on “Google”.
Step 2: Sign-in with your Google account and grant your phone the needed permissions to access your Gmail data.
Step 3: Now, you can go back to your Google account from here and turn on the sync option for “Contacts”.
Step 4: Once your contacts are synced with your Google account, you can easily access them on any Android device. You can use the Google Contacts app or simply use the same account to set up your device for auto-sync of contacts.

Just sync contacts with sim card and then move it to new Android device, it's the easiest and fastest way.
Also,you can use iCloud/iTunes/contact app to do this.

Also think a copy/clone app should suffice...

Did I hear that using the icloud.com option through pc and then later connect the android phone, do this works?

Using google contacts is probably the easiest option, especially if you want to keep your contacts in sync across multiple devices.

XDEric said:
Did I hear that using the icloud.com option through pc and then later connect the android phone, do this works?
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yes, that works for me.

Is there an open source software solution to export iphone contacts to a .vcf file? Getting stuck in the Apple ecosystem without using iCloud seems to be an impossible situation.

Can I manually retrieve data from Google Drive Android phone backup (to PC) ?

Scenario: My Galaxy S8 died completely about a month ago, I got an iPhone - still getting used to it, spent incredible amount of time tuning and tweaking the settings.
Today I've noticed I still have the backup from my Galaxy S8 in my Google Drive account and it seems I still should be able to import that data to my new phone. There are some valuable information for me, especially contacts (in call history, not synced with Google), text messages, whatsapp messages etc.
I however don't have another Android phone to sync it and then somehow export it, also I probably won't be able to do it on my iPhone - I am logged in to that account but somehow can't find a way to import such data. (All of my Google synced contacts for example got imported automatically, but not the rest).
Is there a way to somehow manually download that backup data from Google Drive to PC and "unpack" it?
Thanks.

TinoArts said:
Scenario: My Galaxy S8 died completely about a month ago, I got an iPhone - still getting used to it, spent incredible amount of time tuning and tweaking the settings.
Today I've noticed I still have the backup from my Galaxy S8 in my Google Drive account and it seems I still should be able to import that data to my new phone. There are some valuable information for me, especially contacts (in call history, not synced with Google), text messages, whatsapp messages etc.
I however don't have another Android phone to sync it and then somehow export it, also I probably won't be able to do it on my iPhone - I am logged in to that account but somehow can't find a way to import such data. (All of my Google synced contacts for example got imported automatically, but not the rest).
Is there a way to somehow manually download that backup data from Google Drive to PC and "unpack" it?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This might help if you can use the import option to import your backup directly from Google drive then transfer it to iOS. Or maybe you can transfer the backup from Google drive then use 7zip or similar software to extract the backup into its separate parts and import/transfer them from your PC to iOS.
How to Transfer Data from Android to iPhone - [2023]
Want to transfer data from Android to iPhone 14 or iPhone 13/12/11/XS/X/8/8 Plus? Here are some easy and free ways to transfer data from Android to iPhone.
mobiletrans.wondershare.com
The various tools in that software may help you but you may not be able to do it all in with "one shot", you may have to attack from different angles using more than one option, function or tool provided by this software.
Or, another possible option is to install an android emulator on your PC, install Android in it, then sign into your Google account in the android running in the emulator, restore the backup from Google drive in the Android running in the emulator then see if you can transfer the data from the emulated android to iOS

@TinoArts
take note that whenever you backup Android phone to Google, all your data is safely stored in an encrypted backup file over your Google Drive account.

Question Backup options for Stock+Unrooted+Locked Pixel 6a

I have a new 6a here, never turned on before. I'm planning to use the stock image without root on this phone, so I can keep receiving OTAs, etc. I want this phone to just work with minimal maintenance effort.
Going forward, what is the best way to back up the data on this phone? I'm mostly trying to protect against hardware failures.
My goal would be to quickly restore the previous state on a new Pixel 6a, if the hardware stops working for whatever reason. (Which happens 1-2 per year in my case, oops.)
My understanding is that the Google Cloud backup would be the most convenient option, but that it's not end-to-end encrypted. Correct? That's a K.O., unfortunately.
EDIT: Seems Google Cloud Backup DOES have E2E? Can someone confirm? The dialog that Android shows is very ambiguous.
Thank you!

What do you mean end-to-end?
I do use the google backup and it's pretty legit. It's not a 100% "image" back up...but does include all your settings, apps, text messages, google photos etc. You can set it up to auto-backup every day or so when charging/on wifi at night...backs up to your Drive app.
When I reset the phone or add a new rom - it's about perfect. The only thing I "lose" or have to move back to the phone that google doesn't cover is data that the app doesn't automatically restore. So like - a stand-alone music library. But all my other apps automatically restore all their data as well.
So if an app uploads/auto-restores the data from their servers, you'll get everything back 100%. If an app only saves to your sdcard, you'll lose that data. I really only have 1 app that does that so not a big deal.

mmead1143 said:
What do you mean end-to-end?
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End-to-end encryption - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Encrypt the backup in a way that only the owner of the device can read it, but not Google or anyone else with access to Google's servers.
iCloud backups are not E2E encrypted, for example, so anyone with access to Apple servers could read your data. Apple just announced that they are going to change that, though, as far as I remember.
QUESTION:
I noticed that there's an option in the Developer options that allows me to set a DESKTOP BACKUP PASSWORD. What software would I then use to create the backup on my computer?
Sounds like iTunes local backup... I liked that option, I don't need it in the cloud.
EDIT: Found something here https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/ics-psa-how-to-full-desktop-backup-no-root-needed.1607254/
Why are people not using / recommending this? Sounds great?
@V0latyle @simplepinoi177

Google say their backups are encrypted:
Where your phone data is stored​Backups are uploaded to Google servers and they're encrypted with your Google Account password. For some data, your phone's screen lock PIN, pattern, or password is also used to encrypt your data so it can be backed up safely.
Back up your device - Android - Google One Help
Where your phone data is stored Backups are uploaded to Google servers and they're encrypted with your Google Account password. For some data, your phone's screen lock
support.google.com

MrUrgit said:
Google say their backups are encrypted:
Where your phone data is stored​Backups are uploaded to Google servers and they're encrypted with your Google Account password. For some data, your phone's screen lock PIN, pattern, or password is also used to encrypt your data so it can be backed up safely.
Back up your device - Android - Google One Help
Where your phone data is stored Backups are uploaded to Google servers and they're encrypted with your Google Account password. For some data, your phone's screen lock
support.google.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's what I saw in Android when I decided not to use it. This suggested to me that some data was ONLY encrypted with my PIN/Pattern, and that didn't seem like strong protection. (Once it's in the cloud, you have to assume it will be there forever... and who knows if my PIN is still considered secure in X years from now.)
I still have to do more research, but so far my sense is that the sensitive data is encrypted at least with my (much more complex) account password.

Try Swift Backup. You need ADB for backing up system apps, but you don't need root lol