There’s always a chance that you’ll lose your phone or drop it in water and lose everything. There are a lot of ways to back up Android phones, so even if your phone gets broken, you won’t lose all the embarrassing pictures of your kids you were going to show at their 21st birthday party.
Google, a third-party app, or your computer are all ways to back up your phone so that you don’t lose any of your important files.
Note: With a Pixel 4a with 5G running Android 12, this article shows how to do everything. A custom PC running Windows 11 was used to do all of the steps. Remember that the steps might be different depending on your device and software.
How to back up your Android phone with Google
Google has made it a lot easier to back up most of your data, and the process has grown much easier over the last few years. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t offer a one-stop shop for backing up Android phones.. To back up various kinds of data, you’ll have to use separate Google services..
Photos and videos
It’s a good idea to use Google Photos even if you aren’t already. Service: Every picture and video you take is automatically stored in the cloud. You’ll never have to back up your media again by hand! If you don’t already have the Photos app on your phone, you can get it from the store. You’ll need to make sure that Photos is set up to back up your files automatically after it’s been put in place.
How to sync your images to Google Photos:
1. Launch the Google Photos app.
2. Tap on the person’s picture in the upper right corner.
3. Choose Photos settings.
4. Turn on Back up and sync.
5. Also, make sure that you go to Upload size and choose the upload settings that work best for you.
Make sure you keep in mind that uploading photos to Google Photos isn’t free any more. The free 15GB of storage that comes with every Google account will start to run out on June 1, 2021. Any new photos and videos you upload will count toward that. The answer is, of course.
The good news is that any high-quality photos or videos you uploaded before June 1, 2021, will not count toward your Google storage and will still be free and not count against your storage space limit.
Music
If you want to save your music to the cloud and then listen to it on any device, Google has a great tool. You can use YouTube Music, which lets you put up to 100,000 songs on it.
How to upload songs to YouTube Music:
1. Open your web browser and visit to music.youtube.com.
2. Click on your picture in the upper-right corner.
3. Select Upload music and then click on it.
4. Then, choose the songs you want to upload and click Open to start the process.
5. You can now listen to the songs on the YouTube Music app or on the YouTube Music site. Navigate to Library > Songs > Uploads.
Other files
Google Drive lets you store all of your other files in the cloud, which means they can be accessed from any device that has a web connection to them.
How to store your files in Google Drive:
1. First, download the Google Drive app on your Android phone.
2. Open Google Drive app, tap the “+” icon.
3. Tap on Upload.
4. Select the files you want to back up.
It’s done!
Settings, apps, SMS, call history, and much more!
Google Drive and Photos make Google’s backup solutions a lot more complicated than they need to be. All other important data, on the other hand, is very easy to back up. Android’s built-in cloud backup service can back up settings, apps, SMS messages, and even your call history. This makes it easy to put everything back on a new phone.
How to back up Android to Google One:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Select Google.
3. Go into Backup.
4. Turn on Backup by Google One.
5. You can also go to your Google Account data and choose what other data you want to sync. Among them are the calendar, Docs, Google Fit and Keep, and a lot more.
6. Go back to the main Backup settings.
7. Press on Back up now.
How to back up your Android phone with Amazon Photos, OneDrive, and others?
Cloud services are easy to find, and Google isn’t the only one with a lot of space. Microsoft’s OneDrive is a very good option. If you sign up for Office 365, the company gives you 1TB of online storage.
Amazon Photos, on the other hand, gives you unlimited photo storage and 5GB of video storage with a Prime subscription. Meanwhile, 100GB of storage costs $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year, making it a cheap, but not as tightly integrated, option. Other cloud storage options are out there, so click on the link below to see what else they have to offer!
The biggest problem with leaving Google’s ecosystem is how much work it takes to make sure all of your content is copied or synced. These aren’t as integrated with Android as they should be, so they need a little more work to get them to work right.
People don’t have to think very hard about how to use these apps. During the process of setting things up, you have to download them and follow the instructions that come with them.
Backing up to your computer
Using Android File Transfer
For example, instead of backing up your device to the cloud or to the phone itself, you might want to back up all of your files to your computer so that you can find them later. Mac and PC users both have the same steps to follow in order to do this. Mac users, on the other hand, will need to download and install the Android File Transfer app to use it.
How to back up your Android device to a computer:
1. Plug your USB cable into your computer and connect your phone to your computer so it can talk to your computer.
2. On Windows, navigate to This PC and open the phone’s storage.
3. On Mac, go to Android File Transfer.
4. Back up your data by dragging them to a designated folder on your computer.
Android File Transfer is a clumsy software that often fails to accomplish its job. You might consider investing in a better software if transferring files by hand is your preferred method. With Commander One, you can accomplish just that. Oliver Craig of Android Authority shares his expertise on the best methods for moving data between an Android phone and a Mac.
Wireless sync with Syncthing
What if you could back up all of your photos and information to a PC or NAS disk without the need for a cable? Sync utilities can help with this.
Using Syncthing, you can be certain that all of your digital photos and other information are saved to your computer. The premise is simple; install an app on your phone and select a folder to keep an eye on constantly. Meanwhile, a client runs on your computer, allowing you to link up with your phone.
Whenever the program on the phone notices a modification or addition to a monitored folder, it quickly transmits a duplicate to the computer. Simple and reliable. It’s a no-brainer. It’s possible to use it as a conventional sync program, but I like to have all of my stuff transported to the computer in one go so that I have a backup even if I delete something from my phone.
How do you set up Syncthing:
1. Install the Syncthing app on your Android Phone.
2. Install the Syncthing app on your PC or Mac.
3. First, you need link a device with your computer. To add a new device, go to the Devices section and press the + icon.
4. You may either type in the name of the device or scan the QR code to create a device pair.
5. It’s done. Tap the + symbol on the Folders tab to create a new folder.
6. Choose the folder type, give it a name, and then proceed through the rest of the configuration options. If you wish to get material from your PC to your phone, you may even set the folder to receive data.
7. Synchronization will begin in a few of minutes once you confirm the pair on your PC.
Other options to back up Android phone
Although Google’s services are wonderful, you may need to utilize a third-party software if you’re seeking for a more complete solution — one that backs up everything at once.
Unrooted phone
Super Backup & Restore is one of the greatest tools for backing up your data. Apps, contact lists, SMS, calendars and voice conversations may all be backed up individually. In addition to online storage, you can schedule automatic backups to keep your data safe and accessible.
How to back up Android using Super Backup & Restore:
1. Install Super Backup & Restore on Android phone.
2. There is a list of categories from which you can back up your purchases (Pictures, Apps, etc.).
3. Pick and choose the files you want to keep as a backup.
4. Every time you make a selection, tap on Backup or Backup All to back it up.
Rooted phones
Rooting your phone isn’t necessary for most people, but it can let you back up a few additional items. Just nearly everything on your phone may be restored after rooting, including app settings and system data. Titanium Backup is a popular tool for backing up a rooted phone. Titanium Backup may appear a touch antiquated, but it’s still a really useful software. Using Titanium Backup, here’s how to do it:
1. Install Titanium Backup on Android phone.
2. In the top-right corner, tap the Menu button and select Batch actions.
3. Everything you wish to back up should be selected.
If this is the first time you’ve backed up your device, you’ll at least want to choose to back up all user apps and all system data at the very least.
4. Choose to back up the files to a cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive if you lose your phone. You might want to do this if your phone gets stolen.
5. You can also choose to make a recovery-friendly.zip backup file.
This means that even if your phone’s system files become corrupt or something else happens that stops you from being able to start your phone, you’ll be able to restore your phone from a backup and start again.
See more: How to use Titanium Backup
If you want to back up your Android phone so that you can move all of your files to another Android phone, we have a guide for that. It will give you better directions, and it might save you some time and trouble with this guide.
