It’s always a good idea to back up your Android smartphone because you never know when your device gets lost or stolen, or it just fails to start up someday. Well, Android has evolved a lot over the years and unlike the past, you can backup a majority of your important data in your Google account. However, what if you want to backup everything on your Android smartphone. Well, here are all the ways you can back up your Android device:
Backup Android through Google Account
You can easily back up data like WiFi passwords, call history, app data such as settings & files stored by apps (not all apps are supported), various settings, wallpapers etc. to your Google account.
All you need to do, is head over to Settings->Backup & Reset and enable the option “Back up my data“. Here, you can also choose the Google account you want to back up the data in. If you own a Google Pixel, you can back up almost everything from this page.
You can also back up data from contacts, Chrome, calendar, Google Fit, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music etc. While these data are automatically backed up in your Google account, you can make sure that they are indeed being backed up. To do so, head to Settings->Accounts->Google. Here, tap on your Google account and just enable the various toggles for different data. It’s that simple!
Backup Photos using Google Photos
You should install the Google Photos app if you haven’t already because along with its amazing features, the app lets you store unlimited photos & videos to Google Drive. There’s a catch though. The photos and videos are backed up only in High Quality (maximum 1080p for videos and 16 MP for photos) and if you want to backup full resolution photos, it’ll take up your Google Drive storage. While the backed up High Quality photos look almost the same as the photos you took, they surely go under some compression to reduce the size. If you don’t mind that, you can easily store all your photos and videos on Google Drive for free.
You can just open the Google Photos app, bring up the navigation drawer from the left and go to Settings->Back up & sync. Here, you can check your available Google Drive storage, select the quality in which you want to store the photos and the folders you want to back up.
Backup Android through Third Party Apps
While there are a plethora of apps that claim to back up all your data on Android, we especially like G Cloud Backup. The app lets you almost backup everything, be it contacts, call logs, WhatsApp messages, photos, videos, music, system settings etc. So, here’s how you can backup everything on your Android smartphone using G Cloud Backup:
1. First, install the G Cloud Backup app (Free) from the Play Store. It’s available for free, so you can easily download it. Once done, launch the app and sign up using your Facebook or Google account.
2. Once done, grant the app necessary permissions. Then, select the data you want to backup and tap on the floating save icon to start the backup process.
3. It’s important to note here that the data is synced to the app’s cloud storage. With the app, you get free 1 GB of cloud storage but you can increase the storage through a subscription plan (starting at $1.99/month) or by doing a one-time payment for a specific amount of storage. You can also get more storage for free, by doing certain tasks like inviting friends to use G Cloud, installing sponsored apps etc.
By default, the data is only backed up when your device is charging and it’s connected to a WiFi network. However, you can change that from the settings page. There are also options to auto backup files, delete files that are backed up, secure the app through a passcode and more.
What we like about G Cloud is the fact that it lets you backup almost anything including music, which is something backup apps on the Play Store fail to backup. Having said that, if you want to back up your Android data locally on the internal storage or an SD card, you can use apps like Helium (Free version) or Easy Backup (Free) but keep in mind that they do not backup everything, although they backup apps, which is important for some people.
Backup Android through Titanium Backup (Rooted Devices)
When we talk about rooted devices and apps for rooted devices, we do mention Titanium Backup, which is arguably the best backup solution for rooted Android devices. However, if you have never used the app, its UI and plethora of options might seem daunting and overwhelming. So, we are walking you through on how you can backup your Android device using Titanium Backup:
1. Install the Titanium Backup app (Free version) from the Play Store. Then, open the app and grant it root access. Once done, tap on the “Menu” button at the top right corner. In the menu page, go to “Preferences“.
2. Here, tap on “Backup folder location” and select the location where you want to save your backups. You can also store backups in the cloud but that requires you to purchase the Pro version ($5.99) of the app.
3. Then, you can head to the Backup/Restore tab and backup apps and their data one by one or you can go to the “Menu“, tap on “Batch actions” and then run the backup options. Here, you can backup user apps, system data or both by tapping on the “Run” button. The process might take some time, depending on the amount of data on your device.
4. In the Batch actions page, you can also create an update.zip file from the “Recovery” section, which combines all your backups that you can flash through the custom recovery you are using.
While Titanium Backup does seem like an overwhelming app, it’s pretty simple to use, once you get the hang of it. Do keep in mind though that the app only lets you backup apps, app data and all the system data.
Backup Android through PC or Mac
If you’d only like to make a backup of your media, you can easily transfer them to your Windows PC or Mac. On a Windows PC, you can just connect your Android device and you are good to go, as the device is mounted on the system as a flash drive, so you can just drag and drop files. On a Mac, you will have to install the Android File Transfer app (download) to transfer data from the Android device to the Mac.
SEE ALSO: How to Backup iPhone Using iTunes or iCloud
Keep your data protected by making backups of your Android device
Well, those were all the ways you can backup your Android device and almost all the ways are pretty simple and straightforward. So, go ahead and backup your Android device because you never know when a mishap occurs. Do let us know if you face any problems with any of the methods. Sound off in the comments section below.
Abubakar Mohammed
