How to Backup Your Android Device

People who own an Android smartphone will know the hardships of backing up data. When you lose a phone or want to upgrade to a better phone, there are some hurdles involved in making sure you get the same data from your old phone on a new device. This is all in the past, however. With Google significantly enhancing the ability to sync and backup your data with cloud servers, backing up your Android smartphone is easier than ever today. However, not many are aware of the modern methods available today. The notion that it's difficult to backup and sync on Android is entirely wrong in this day and age. Keeping this in mind, we're going to have a look at some of the best options you have to backup contents of your Android smartphone or tablet. While the process isn't as hard as it used to be, it might still require some tech knowhow, so be sure to pay attention. We're going to categorize the items that need backing up so that it's easier for you to pick and choose the data you want on your new device and the ones you don't. How to Backup Your Android Device Photos and Videos In the past, customers had to manually sync their photos via desktop or upload it on the cloud to then sync it back with their new device. However, Google has revolutionized image storage with the arrival of Google Photos a few years ago. This free to use service lets you save unlimited photos and videos on Google's cloud servers, which can then be viewed on the browser or any other mobile device. It is imperative to use the same Google account while backing up the photos, as they will be linked to a particular email address once set up. Google stores photos and videos in "high quality" which isn't the same as original quality, but helps Google save on storage costs. Remember, you're paying nothing for this service and the app is available on both Android and iOS platforms, which is convenient if you're switching from an Android to an iPhone. If you want to save the photos and videos in their original quality, Google will automatically save them on your Google Drive account. If you already have a subscription for Drive, this particular option makes a whole lot of sense. Contacts and Messages Backing up contacts is also a hassle free process on Google accounts, given the fact that you can automatically save your phone contacts on the cloud. This is done automatically as long as you save your contact on your Google account. Most Android phones offer a prompt when you're trying to save a contact. The general rule is to make sure that you choose the contacts to be stored under your Google account by default. If you have some contacts saved in the phone memory or the SIM card in some cases, you can conveniently migrate them to your Google account by heading over to the Contacts settings. The procedure for this method is different for each phone, so we suggest contacting the manufacturer if you're having trouble finding this particular option. Although not many customers rely on text messages or SMS in the modern era, it can still contain some vital information. While there's no option to manually back up your messages to the cloud on a Google account, you can use third party apps to help you out. One that comes to mind is Pulse SMS, which is a free download on the Google Play Store. This app basically backs up your messages on the cloud and automatically syncs with your new device when you sign in. The app also comes with a bunch of other features, although you will be required to make in-app purchases if you're planning to use anything apart from the core features of Pulse SMS. Music Transferring music from device to device is no longer a concern thanks to the seamless cloud syncing feature offered by Google. Using the Google Music app, customers can save up to 50,000 files on the cloud and carry them forward on another device. This is an amazing service and will greatly help customers with a lot of natively stored music on their device. If you're lucky enough to have a subscription for a streaming service, this isn't a concern at all. Apps Apps are automatically backed up to your Google account. However, this is dependent on the developer, so you might not be able to find all the apps backed up to your Google account. There are some apps that can even backup app data on the cloud, saving you the trouble of starting fresh when you sign in from a new device. You can find this by navigating to Settings - Backup & Reset - App Data to check if an app is backing up data to the cloud on its own. For apps that don't however, there's nothing you can do barring downloading them again and starting fresh. Google still has some work to do on this front, though. Files This is perhaps the easiest part of backing up an Android device, but perhaps the most time consuming. You can opt to back up files to the cloud using services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and a number of cloud storage services. These can then be used on your new device to restore the contents to the desired location. If you want the files to be in the same order as they were in the previous device, you can do so by purchasing an app called FolderSync Pro for $2.99. This app will restore the files into the same folders as they were on your previous device. Clearly, backing up your Android data doesn't come for cheap, but it's a small price to pay considering what it brings to the table. General Settings Settings are automatically backed up to your Google account by default. This includes WiFi passwords, page history and practically every device setting you might want saved. However, you cannot backup all device data, but you will have everything you need. You can select which account is backing up data by heading over to Settings - Backup & Sync. Be sure to select the correct Google account, which is key to restoring all your old settings on a new account.

How to Backup Your Android Device

Contacts and Messages

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