Nextcloud to backup user-produced data - media, edited material, user-downloaded data. I use mostly self-hosted services so I do not need to backup related data on mobile devices since that is handled elsewhere. For every device I keep a complete TWRP backup which is not exactly up to date but can be used to re-create a working device which can be updated afterwards. As others have already replied I do not store anything on mobile devices - which includes laptops - that I can not afford to lose, such data is stored on my server which is backed up several times a day.
Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
31–40 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#32Termux with rsync installed. Then sync needed folders. For app data you need to be rooted. But you can basically rsync your entire phone to a lan ssh server. You can even schedule it with cron or other
Without root, most recent lineageos, which you can use not rooted, comes with a backup option to a Nextcloud of your choice
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#33What about Seedvault that does not require rooting your phone. It is recommended for those using GrapheneOS and Calyx, but should work for other degoogled Android phones. https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#34It is a shame Adb backup is being deprecated. Even twrp now only works on some devices. Titanium backup has not been updated in so long, it still requires root and doesn't backup full data for all apps anyway.
I have been trying out seedvault which is like google backup but you can back up to cloud or locally (although i see even that is am issue on your samsung as it won't load usb keys). And for full app data backup oandbackupx, which is excellent but still requires root for full backup.
Ultimately, the only solution here is to never buy samsung android devices.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#35Is it really necessary to have a proprietary backup solution on Android OS? Don’t get me wrong, this shall not be a buy-iPhone-be-happy-posting. But it really shocks me (well it’s also kind of amusing) to hear, that you are really talking about rooting your devices, to have a backup solution. So, back to topic: I’m really curious, doesn’t Android really ship with a working backup/restore-solution out of the box?
Related: I don’t think Windows has a built-in equivalent to Time Machine yet, either.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#36Sorry-- no one has mentioned Samsung Smart Switch.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#37What about Seedvault that does not require rooting your phone. It is recommended for those using GrapheneOS and Calyx, but should work for other degoogled Android phones. https://github.com/seedvault-app/seedvault
Does seedvault work for you? If yes, how did you get it to backup apps that tell Android not to allow backups (e.g., web browsers)?
I found that seedvault could/would only backup less than 40% of the applications on my phone (running rooted calyxos). That 40% is what it claims to have backed up. I haven't tried restoring using seedvault yet. But, since it uses official backup apis, like adb backup, I expect a good percentage of failed restores; I had a pretty terrible restore success rate using adb backup.
Titanium backup is not 100%, but it successfully backs up and restores the majority of my (non-system) applications. It fails on apps with lots of data like here maps offline maps, and antennapod podcasts. There are settings that get it to back up the data (the backups are massive), but the restores always fail to be usable.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#38I sync my photos via Dropbox and Google Photos, and I have a second phone which has a backup of my Google Authenticator (as well keeping separate backups of every QR code I add so I can re-add later).
Manually backup Signal messages.
I assume everything else is temporary. I've had too many Android phone fails where I assumed Google had some backup, but their 'backup' is basically just app installs and very little data seems to come through.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#39I usw the backupfunction in graphenos and then sync that via syncthing. Same for pictures etc.
I havent tried to restore from that so it might not work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you back up your Android phone?
#40Still waiting for a good backup solution for iPhones which isn’t iCloud
Backup to a Macbook/iMac. It's what I do when I get a new iPhone — much faster to restore than over iCloud or wireless transfer. Only issue is that, of course, it isn't automatic.
Is there some special settings to enable iphone sync with Mac computer instead of cloud?