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[] HOW TO BACK UP YOUR ANDROID’S DATA[ ANDROID ]How to back up your Android’s data
WE SHOW YOU HOW TO SAVE ALL THE IMPORTANT STUFF ON YOUR ANDROID SMARTPHONE OR TABLET,
JUST IN CASE THE WORST HAPPENS.
[ LINDSAY HANDMER ]THERE IS NO worse feeling than losing or
breaking a phone, aside from realising that
none of your data and photos were backed up.
Android has a pretty solid array of backup
options built in, but they are all but useless if
not setup correctly. Of course, not everything
is covered, and data such as texts and call logs
need to be saved separately. To help ensure all
your Android data, photos and music are
backed up, we have put together a guide to using
the built-in options, as well as our favourite
third-party apps.PHOTO BACKUPS
Easily the most devastating to lose, photos (and
videos) are also one of the easiest backups on
Android. If you don’t use it already, Google
Photos (photos.google.com) is an excellent way
to manage your photos, and includes free
unlimited backups. It can also be accessed via
web browser or set to back up folders on a
computer. The only catch is that pics are
automatically saved as ‘high quality’ files,
slightly compressed and downsized to a
maximum resolution of 16MP. Free unlimited
video backup is limited to 1080p. For those
shooting photos with their phone, the saved
quality is excellent. It’s also possible to save your
happy snaps in original quality, but the files
count towards your free storage limit. Aside
from backups, Google Photos makes it easy to
manage your pics, with an excellent search
functionality that is surprisingly good at finding
that picture you took three years ago of a funny
dog. With the Google Photos app installed,
head to ‘Settings > Backup & sync’, and make
sure it’s enabled. You can also select to
immediately backup photos over whatever data
connection is available, but unless you
have a lot of spare data, it’s worth enabling
Wi-Fi only.
Google Photos is so good that no other app
can really compare, but for those invested in
other cloud storage services such as Dropbox
(dropbox.com), it’s possible to set it to
automatically take a copy of your picture folder.
It also never hurts to periodically take a
manual copy, and save them to a local drive, or
NAS. Just plug your Android device into a PC,
make sure it’s set to file transfer mode and head
to ‘Internal Storage > DCIM > Camera’. It’s notan elegant solution, but simply copying the
entire DCIM folder gives extra peace of mind.SYSTEM BACKUPS
Built into Android is the ability to automatically
back up the vast majority of your important
system data to the cloud. It’s not just a one-off
process either — your device constantly syncs
the latest information so the backup is always
complete. While the need to back up items such
as photos are obvious, it’s easy to forget about
the huge amount of info your device has saved.For example, Android can back up data such as
saved Wi-Fi passwords, so if your phone is ever
lost or destroyed, the process of setting up a new
one is a lot easier. Your Android device can also
back up all your specific app data, so
if you need to re-install, passwords and other
preferences are saved. Your Android device
should have backups already turned on, but
make sure by heading to Settings > Backup &
reset, and check ‘Backup my data’ is turned on.
For those using the Google Now Launcher, even
your home screen layout and backgrounds areFor an all-round third party solution, App Backup
Restore is feature-packed and easy to use.Google Play Music is a free and
easy way to back up your music
to the cloud and make it
available across multiple
devices.For Android users, it’s hard to go past the integrated
nature of Google Drive for file backups.