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Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#181

Post by Neonlicht »

Tainnor wrote: post #169

Having switched phones a couple of months ago, there didn't seem to be a good option. Either you need to have root - which means that most banking apps won't work anymore -, you need to backup to the cloud which a) not every app supports and b) I don't want to do for more private data, or you need to use the backup API that however some apps also don't support. It's a mess and I don't understand that Google hasn't fi…

Going from a Samsung to a new Samsung is easy. But if you switch between brands yeah it gets difficult.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#182

Post by scarface_74 »

dismalaf wrote: post #41
aucisson_masque wrote: post #17

You don't. Google backup is partial and very limited compared to what apple does, plus privacy issues and you don't get access to app folder without root. (I know about adb but then you can't push the files back there). So it's a shitshow as usual with Android, it all depends on the app. My weight lifting app it can backup on Google cloud. Great. My 2Fa on the other hand it only backup to the 'external' storage, need…

Last time I had an Apple device the only way to backup was plugging it into a desktop with iTunes. How do you figure Google's backup (which backs up contacts, messages, photos, mail, and remembers which apps you have installed) is bad? What more could it do or should it do in your opinion? Also Google Authenticator now backs up to your account and you can recover it through a logged in browser.

> Last time I had an Apple device the only way to backup was plugging it into a desktop with iTunes.

That hasn’t been true since 2011 with iOS 5.

I remember it well. I upgraded my iPhone 4 on AT&T with iOS 5 using iTunes. Shortly afterwards, I had an iPhone 4s shipped to me from Verizon.

I logged into my Apple account on my iPhone 4s and after it restored everything, it looked and worked just like my iPhone 4 with all of the settings and app icon positions bring in the same place.

There is also internal app data that gets backed up

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#183

Post by wdfx »

I use syncthing to sync all my photos and a few other bits and bobs to my local NAS. Works wonderfully.

I also took that setup to allow me to sync some selected media back from the NAS to my phone.

This way I am not reliant on cloud services as the primary store of my personal data, and I don't have to use their export tools to get my data back. I back up the original sources directly from the phone to my own infrastructure.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#184

Post by Tainnor »

scarface_74 wrote: post #177
Tainnor wrote: post #169

Having switched phones a couple of months ago, there didn't seem to be a good option. Either you need to have root - which means that most banking apps won't work anymore -, you need to backup to the cloud which a) not every app supports and b) I don't want to do for more private data, or you need to use the backup API that however some apps also don't support. It's a mess and I don't understand that Google hasn't fi…

What’s wrong with their built in support? https://support.google.com/android/answer/2819582?hl=en It doesn’t work like iCloud where everything is backed up - even private app data?

It doesn't work for every app. Not sure if it's opt-in or opt-out.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#185

Post by prmoustache »

npteljes wrote: post #160
prmoustache wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important to note: unless backups are implemented on the nextcloud server itself, this is sync, not backup.

I see your point, but from the perspective of the Android phone, this is already a backup. This is because if I lose the phone, I can restore the important parts of its state from the copy on the server - which is the definition of a backup, according to Wikipedia for example. Now, of course, we can look at more stringent approaches to backing up data, which I already do, but for some reason I didn't elaborate on the…

>I see your point, but from the perspective of the Android phone, this is already a backup. This is because if I lose the phone, I can restore the important parts of its state from the copy on the server - which is the definition of a backup, according to Wikipedia for example.

I am not familiar enough with nextcloud but what happens if - excluding your home server setup - you modify a picture on your smartphone and overwrite it? I guess it is synchronized to the nextcloud server in modified form and replace the original file, right[1]? If so what if you were to realize you screwed up and should not have overwritten it? Hence the reason I am saying it is not exactly a backup.

[1] that would be the behavior I expect of a syncing mechanism, I use syncthing-fork myself for that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you backup your Android?

#190

Post by arkaic »

palata wrote: post #187

Genuine question: what do you feel the need to backup other than photos?

I echo this. Having gone through several phones over the past few years, configuration settings just feel ephemeral, and there are headaches involved in porting them to different systems. And anything that's even remotely important gets backed up on a cloud.
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