Hi,
My first post to the forum, long time lurker but now I actually have a question or two.
I have a samsung galaxy s3 (blue, 16GB), it is totally stock, has the XELLA update as well.
Whilst reading the thread regarding dying S3's, it got me thinking about my own S3 and what I'd do if it died.
Of course, I have Kies and MyPhoneExplorer, I use both to do the same task that the old Nokia PC Suite used to do (I've come from Nokia S60 phones).
My concern is, despite backing up via Kies, I read in the above thread, that Kies shouldn't be used for backup as it doesn't do a 'proper' backup.
(I've tested Kies backups myself and didn't spot a problem, but I've never tried to factory reset my phone and then restore everything from Kies)
Given that I do not want to install custom ROMs or root my phone in any way, is Kies suitable for backups or should I be using something more comprehensive?
If I should use something else - what should I use?
Ideally I want software that sits on the PC itself and backs up to my local drive, I don't really want something that sits on the phone unless it's really good.
Ideally, all I want is some useful software that allows me to backup my phone content, SMS/MMS/Contacts/Apps/App Settings/Phone Settings, maybe music and ringtones too. Most other parts (such as calendars/notes) are sync'd from a local Outlook install so these get overwritten upon sync anyway.
Does anyone have any ideas?
A78
Root your phone, install custom recovery and make a nandroid backup. Nothing beats that.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Oomahey said:
Root your phone, install custom recovery and make a nandroid backup. Nothing beats that.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whilst I'm grateful for the suggestion, I don't want to root my phone. Especially as it works perfectly well as-is. I'm happy to keep it as stock, however if you're telling me that the only way to get good, reliable backups of everything with my phone is to root it, then that doesn't bode well.
Why include software with a phone that suggests it can backup the phone, when in-fact it cannot.
i came from Nokia e72 with symbian s60 too. Kies backup is not up to my expectations. And myphoneexplorer is fiddly with its backup function. I was reluctant before rooting my phone, but I'm happy that I did it with cf auto root, it allows me to use titanium backup which is very good.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
Kies questions try a a Kies or Samsung forum is what i would do .
No root then XDA does not exist .
jje
I wouldn't worry about it. If you've been lucky enough to get a kies backup, that'll do. I never got that far (and my s3 died)
I can't really root either Would love to. Rooted my desire the second it wasn't my primary phone. Barclays banking and sky go are two apps which don't like rooted phones and I squarely blame them, app-security shouldn't be compromised by root access. Nevermind, so I'm in your shoes too...
While ensuring my wifes (already swapped S3) doesn't lose anymore data if it goes again (hurry up fix).. it got me thinking about what she'd really loose and it's not that much...
Apps (can be re-downloaded). Your kies backup should have got the appdata (I can't be sure of this). Edit: I have successfully backed up many apps data settings without kies by using an 'adb' backup. You just need the Android sdk. Not all apps can be backed up this way (it also allows you to violate settings in their sqlite dbs), better than nothing though.
SMS (can be backed up using many Play Store apps)
Contacts/Chrome bookmarks are all stored by google
Kies can be used to ensure your Internal Memory doesn't contain any photos/music/movies/downloads that you want to keep (copy to sd)
Alot of apps which stored data on the internal storage were manually copied/pasted to an sdcard folder for safe-keeping.
and then there's probably not a whole lot else that you can't configure via system/in-app settings to avoid using internal storage and opt for sdcard/online instead.
I haven't got my phone back yet so I don't know what i've yet lost... don't want to think about it, at least wifeys happy that if hers goes (again) she wont loose much of value.
Edit2: A helpful XDA member detailed the adb (whole system) backup process: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351
What I was looking for, was a single application or tool that would backup the entire phone, absolutely everything ideally.
But I suspect I won't be able to do that without rooting the phone, and even then - the backup application itself would probably need to be ON the phone and couldn't necessarily backup to the computer itself (unless I copied the backup from the SD memory to hard disk).
I know the old nokia software did back up pretty much everything and I'm sure Kies backs up pretty much everything, but if my phone were to die or be lost somehow, I want the ability to restore the backup entirely and be back to where I was (or as close as possible), so I don't need to set up apps again or their settings or set the phone settings back up etc.
Is all of that asking too much? (I use an equivalent of Ghost on my PC to back it up, that covers literally everything, just wondering if I can do a similar task with my phone)
arkane78 said:
Is all of that asking too much? (I use an equivalent of Ghost on my PC to back it up, that covers literally everything, just wondering if I can do a similar task with my phone)
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Click to collapse
+1. It does seem like a glaring omission. I've never gotten Kies backup to complete successfully.
What do u want to backup?
Sync contacts with google. Save ur DCIM photos in a new folder named I9300 and music and other stuff from sdcards
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app
UncleBeer said:
+1. It does seem like a glaring omission. I've never gotten Kies backup to complete successfully.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I'm now doing is a Kies backup and an ADB backup as documented in a link earlier in this thread.
The Kies backups come in at around 270-290MB each, but the ADB backups come in at around 1GB each, so am wondering if perhaps doing an ADB backup once a month would be a better idea.
At least that way, I'm pretty much covered in the event of device failure or theft
Appreciate you confirming your backup approach. As with any new backup method, of course, it pays to test your restore strategy before you really need it
Good luck and if you do manage to do a test restore, let us know how it goes.
PS: I hadn't mentioned it because it conflicts with your (imo very reasonable) goals, but, the only backup I've ever fully trusted is the nandroid backup(s) I have of my rooted desire That's as close to a 'ghost' image as possible.
arkane78 said:
What I'm now doing is a Kies backup and an ADB backup as documented in a link earlier in this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hatless said:
Appreciate you confirming your backup approach. As with any new backup method, of course, it pays to test your restore strategy before you really need it
Good luck and if you do manage to do a test restore, let us know how it goes.
PS: I hadn't mentioned it because it conflicts with your (imo very reasonable) goals, but, the only backup I've ever fully trusted is the nandroid backup(s) I have of my rooted desire That's as close to a 'ghost' image as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So a nandroid backup would literally clone everything as some kind of dump file?
I've told the ADB backup to cover shared storage as well as storing all APKs (excluding system ones), but what strikes me as odd is that my internal memory has used around 1GB and SD memory is around the 600MB mark, yet the backup is only 1GB.
I'm hoping between a monthly of ADB and a weekly Kies, I'll be able to get 90% of my phone back in operation if anything were to happen to it.
It's the same kind of strategy I use on my PCs here at home, except with them I know I can literally take a 'copy' of the entire system, including data.
I know the Kies restore works, but I don't know if the ADB does, I guess I should try it at some stage. Maybe when I do my next Kies backup
Question
I want to know if I back up all my data with kies from s3 (4.1.2) after that i update the phone can i restore the saved data with kies?
So i want to update the phone via odin so i have to do a factory reset and all the wipe,that would delet all my stuff so i saved the data i need,after update can i restore to the phone if the data i saved was from s3 (4.1.2) and the restoring woud go to s3 with 4.3 jellybean?
Thx
Hi Folks,
I apologise in advance for my limited knowledge, I am not as techy as I would like to be, but here is my issue:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100T) running Android 4.1.2. I made a habit of backing everything up on Kies version 2.6.0.13091_9.
Kies claims to have backed everything up but when my phone had some issues and was wiped, I tried to restore which worked fine except my sms messages where not restored. I have 3 years worth of sms's that are important to me.
Likewise, messages and content within programs like viber no longer appear but program content like say Whatsapp does.
My internet searches on resolving the matter lead me to here; can someone please bestow some of their wisdom upon me and help me get the complete backup back on my phone?
Thanks
Helpless Amateur.
Back up with cwm/twrp recovery. Make a nandroid of your rom and don't forget preload . Use google to back up you're contacts.use an app of play store to back up you're messages. BTW have you heard of Efs? You need to back that up too. Use hc ktool to back that up. It's also on play store.
andrewwright said:
Back up with cwm/twrp recovery. Make a nandroid of your rom and don't forget preload . Use google to back up you're contacts.use an app of play store to back up you're messages. BTW have you heard of Efs? You need to back that up too. Use hc ktool to back that up. It's also on play store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your response, but my phone is already wiped and the only backup I have is what kies backed up (claiming it backed up everything including txt messages which are very important for me). I need to find a way to restore from that back up that I have.
Regards
Dunno much about kies, used it short, so I cant help here...
But when you deal with your problem and you feel that you need be much careful in the future:
I am using 3 thing when backing up. (and I do it often, I exchanged many ROMS)
1. Titanium backup is a must.
2. SMS Backup - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore
3. Next Launcher Backup in its preferences...
Good luck finding your sms...
I have a stock I9300, un-rooted and up until 3 weeks ago had been happily using ADB and Samsung Kies to backup my phone.
Then the wonderful thing called Kies 3 happened - and since then I've not managed to get a single backup out of it.
It seems to backup some things but my applications it fails on yet won't tell me WHICH application is causing the issue (or if it's just Kies being Kies).
I'd like to be able to take backups of everything on my phone - something like Kies + ADB together, I know that with my phone being un-rooted, that application settings/data will not get backed up - I'm not sure what else wouldn't. But I'd rather not root my device.
What I'm asking for are recommendations for a SINGLE backup solution that would allow me to backup my phone to my PC, so that that can be included in my PC backups.
It's probably asking a lot just to find a single solution for this, I'd be happy with 2 solutions to achieve my aim as long as both of them worked together and backed up to the PC.
I'm happy enough to keep using ADB, except ADB doesn't backup SMS/MMS and ADB's Restore functionality is not at all granular - it's more like a 'my phone is boned, restore the entire thing' rather than restoring part of it.
If you recommend that I root my phone in order to get the single solution backup then I'd be happy to consider it. (If I were to root my phone, would restoring it or upgrading firmware be an issue from that point on - assuming I didn't want to use anything but stock firmware?)
Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated, I'm going to take a look at Helium and see what that can do for me, although I'd prefer a PC-based backup solution.
Unrooted try Helium .
JJEgan said:
Unrooted try Helium .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've just tried Helium, it didn't work well - the desktop client/web interface never appeared in my IE10 or Firefox 25, so couldn't actually backup to PC. Another concern with it was it didn't explicitly say it backed up MMS, only SMS.
Does it do both?
arkane78 said:
I've just tried Helium, it didn't work well - the desktop client/web interface never appeared in my IE10 or Firefox 25, so couldn't actually backup to PC. Another concern with it was it didn't explicitly say it backed up MMS, only SMS.
Does it do both?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No idea i don't use it .
It's a very bad time when you are not using WhatsApp. The thing is I was using s3 with root and many more. And I always use to take backup with titanium application. I took WhatsApp backup in my s3. Unfortunately in last week my s3 gets wet and now it won't work. But I have that backup file in my sdcard. Yesterday I bought galaxy a5 which I don't want root ri8 now. The main problem is I want restore my WhatsApp data. Because I was using my wp on my very old number and now I couldn't able to do verification of wp again. So I had this problem many time but now because of new phone it's very difficult to restore because tb ask for root access. I want to use my wp on my old number so please help me. Hw can I restore my tb data in my new phone which is not yet root..?
I made a back up of my smasung phone using smartswitch, the samsung phone stopped working recently and i have got a new android phone which isnt samsung and i cannot seem to connect to smartswitch to restore the backup to the new phone. I have seen software that claim to do it, but they are not free and look like malware. is there a reputable software that i can use to restore the backup i made?
I am comfortable with rooting the phone and stuff, was thinking of changing the build.prop to a samsung phone but not sure if that will work to connect to smartswitch app.
the most important thing is the wifi settings, the file is saved as the .ebk format and searching online shows its a ebook format, which doesnt make sense.
any help will be appreciated
thanks.