How to Backup Android Phone

If your phone suddenly crashes or is stolen or lost somewhere, then you will not only lose an expensive phone, but you also lose your important and huge amount of data. Although you can buy a new phone, losing data will be painful for you. To avoid this, you should keep a cloud or other backup of your phone data. So that when you log in to your cloud account from your other phone, most of your data gets automatically transferred to it. However, you can't back up everything in this way, so it is important to regularly backup your phone.

There are several ways to backup your device's data; even if some misshapen occurs to your phone, you easily get your data, including documents, messages, contacts, photos, etc.

1. Using Google Services

Keeping backup of Android phone's data is very easy using Google service, and becoming easier over the years. There is no single way to backup Android smartphone with Google; it has different backup methods for different data types. Below are different methods to backup various types of data:

a. Photos and videos

Suppose you are not already using Google Photos, download and use the Google Photos app on your phone. Once it gets installed, its service automatically keeps back up each photo and video you take over the cloud. You don't need to do a manual job for backup media files again. To backup photos using Google Photos, follow the below steps:

• Launch the Google Photos app on your smartphone.
• Tap on the Avatar icon (or menu) and go to Photos Settings.
• Click on the Back up & sync
• Turn on the Back up & sync toggle button.

The best part of the Google Photos service is that we can upload as many files we want for free of cast. The photos and videos that can be uploaded have maximum quality of 1080p for the ultimate free option. This feature is good enough for most of the users. You can also keep your photos and videos' original quality if you want, but it goes against your Google Drive storage limits. Below are the steps to check the Google Photos upload quality:

• Launch the Google Photos app on your smartphone.
• Tap on the Avatar icon (or menu) and go to Settings.
• Click on the Back up & sync
• Click on Upload size.
• Select an option you like (a high quality that offers free unlimited storage, or original quality that may go against Google Drive storage limits).

Your Android device even stores more documents than just photos and videos in its storage. Below are the other ways to keep backups of other files.

b. Backup Music Files

Google provides several services to back up different types of files, including music. Using the Google Cloud storage service, you can upload your music to keep backup there. Backing up music files over Cloud storage helps you listen to music from any device. Use Google's product YouTube Music app or its web URL to upload up to 100,000 songs. The steps to upload and backup music songs over YouTube Music are given below:

Backup songs to YouTube Music

1. Open any one of your web browsers on your Android smartphone.
2. Visit the URL "https://music.youtube.com/" and click on your profile image at the top of the screen.
   
3. From the list of options, choose Upload music. It will allow you to browse songs from your device storage location.
   
4. Now, select the music you want to upload and click on the Open.
   

Once the songs are uploaded successfully, you can easily play them from the YouTube Music app or website. To listen to your songs on YouTube Music, visit the same URL, tap on the Library section, and then Uploads.

Google Music (or YouTube Music) is best accessible on Android devices. However, many other music streaming apps are available at the Google Play Store that you can download and use to keep a backup of your songs.

One of the limitations of using YouTube Music to back up your songs is that it allows you to upload 100,000 songs only. However, this quantity is not small; you can choose this method to keep your song back up.

c. Settings and Apps

To keep backs up of your phone's settings and apps, you will require an Android Backup Service. This service backs up the settings you selected in most of the Google apps and other apps of your device. It also makes it easy to restore those settings on your new phone. Follow the below-mentioned steps to activate your backup:

1. Launch your phone's Settings
2. Now, scroll down to the section Accounts and Backup and click on it.
3. Click on the backup and restore.
4. Activate the backup my data option and add your Google account, if not added earlier.

Now all the backups of your device will be stored in your Google account if you do not use any third-party backup facility.

d. Messages and Call logs (using SMS Backup+ app)

You can even backup your text messages and call logs easily over your Google account using a third-party app called SMS Backup+. To save your messages and call logs to your Google account using SMS Backup+, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Download and install the SMS Backup+ app on your Android phone.
2. Launch the app and enable the Connect
3. From the popup screen, select your Gmail account.
4. Now, allow permission to the SMS Backup+ app for accessing your Google account.
5. Go back to your app once again and tap on the backup. It will store your entire text messages to your Gmail account.
6. Login to your Gmail account using any browser, and you will see a label SMS at the left of the screen. Click on it to view your entire backed up text messages.
7. If you want to restore these messages, click on Restore in SMS Backup+ app.
8. Confirm the restore process by clicking OK on the popup screen.
9. It will popup a message to set the SMS Backup+ app as the default messaging app. Click on Yes; to restore messages.
10. App itself restores your entire messages and call logs to your smartphone. Once the restoration process gets finished, the app prompt to restore your default messaging app. Click on Yes.

e. Other Files

Google Drive is another cloud source where you can backups your Android phone. All the backups over Google Drive will be accessible from any connected device. To keep backups of the phone's files and folder manually, follow the below steps:

1. Download the Google Drive app from Google Play Store if you are not already using it.
2. Launch the app and press the "+"
3. Click on the Upload
4. Choose the file(s) and folder that you want to backup.

Backup your Android phone to Google One

Google Drive and Photos app from Google offer only to back up specific file types. But things get more complicated when you need to back up other essential data (such as settings, apps, SMS, call history, etc.) from your phone. Android's native cloud storage allows for the backup of such data and makes it easy to restore everything on a new phone.

Backup Android Phone Data to Google One

1. Go to the Settings app on your Android phone.
2. Tap on the Google option.
   
3. Look for the Backup option and tap on it.
   
4. Enable the switch button Backup by Google One.
   
5. Also, tap on the Google Account data to select the data type you want to sync. These data include Calendar, Docs, Google Fit, etc.
   
6. Go to the main Backup screen and tap the Back up now option.
   

2. Backup Android phone Data to your Computer

Instead of backing up your smartphone data into the phone itself or over cloud storage, you may choose your computer to backup your entire phone's data for easy access. It is one of the easiest ways to backup your phone. The backup process involves the same for both PC and Mac users. Mac users will have to do a lot of work, and they will have to download and install the Android File Transfer app on their phone. Below we have mentioned the steps to backup your Android phone to your computer:

1. Connect your Android smartphone and computer using a USB cable.
2. On Windows PC, visit My Computer and open your phone's storage space.
3. Mac users require opening the Android File Transfer
4. Create a folder in your computer and drag the Android phone files you want to backup into the created folder.

However, the Android File Transfer app sometimes does not work and can cause stress for you. If you like to copy files manually, it is better to go for another app such as Commander One that helps in your job.

3. Backup your Android phone's data to Chromebook

Like PC and Mac devices, you can back up your Android phone's data over your Chromebook device. Following are the steps on how you can backup Android phone's data over your Chromebook:

1. Connect your phone to a Chromebook device using a USB cable.
2. Pull down the notification shade and look for the notification option Android System showing like Charging device via USB.
3. Now, top for more options.
4. Select the File transfer It will allow you to transfer data from an Android phone to a Chromebook.
5. Now, the Files app opens on a Chromebook device.
6. Drag the file from Android to Chromebook you want to back up there.

4. Backing up Android phone data over Amazon Drive, OneDrive and others.

There are dozens of different cloud backup services available, and Google is not only giving the facility of storage. Microsoft also offers cloud storage called OneDrive, which is a good alternative. If you subscribe to Office 365, the company projects a 1TB of online storage space for free.

Another popular cloud storage is Amazon Drive that offers unlimited photo backup with a Prime subscription plan. Meanwhile, the unlimited backup storage is only available at $60 per year that is an affordable one. One of the disadvantages of wandering to Google's ecosystem is the manual activity required to ensure all your content is copied. All these services provide their browser app to copy your files, photos, and documents as you wish. You can also access your backup's data using a web browser or desktop app as well.

5. Other Backup Options

You will find lots of great apps on the Google Play Store that keeps your Android phone's backup. You can choose any of the apps which you prefer more.

a. Unrooted phones

You can use any of the best apps that keep everything backing your data; one such app is Super Backup & Restore. The Super Backup & Restore app gives the facility to backup every single item of your phone, including contacts, SMS, apps, calendars, voice calls and many more. You can schedule your automatic backup settings to cloud storage. Steps to backup your Android device data's using Super Backup & Restore app are mention-below:

1. Download and install the Super Backup & Restore app on your Android device.
2. Launch the app, and you will see the different categories of files (apps, SMS, contacts, call logs, pictures, etc.) that you want to backup.
3. Now, select the category of data that you want to backup.
4. Select the individual items from the specific category that you want to backup.
5. Click on the Backup button to backup your data.

b. Rooted phones

Most Android phone users don't want to root their phone to backup; however, rooting your phone allows you to backup even more information. The root device can backup everything of the phone, including system data, app settings, and even Wi-Fi network passwords. The widely used app for backing root phones is the Titanium Backup app. Steps to backup your Android device's files using Titanium Backup are mention-below:

1. Download and install the Titanium Backup app on your Android device.
2. Launch the app, click on the menu button present at the top-right of the screen, and select batch actions.
3. Now, select all the files you want to backup. If you are backing device data the first time, you have to select at least "backup all user apps" and "backup all system data."
4. You can select the backup destination of your files, either Google Drive or Dropbox.
5. The app also offers to create a recovery .zip file of backup.

6. Backup Samsung Phone Data using Samsung Smart Switch

Samsung smartphone has its backup and restores service to Samsung Cloud, and it is a bit more reliable than Google's cloud backup. Ensure your Samsung's backup service is enabled. Check it by launching the device Settings app and go to Accounts and backup > Backup and restore. Here, you will find the settings of Samsung cloud backup as well as Google backup.

Keep backup on both settings (Samsung and Google), and this will create two backups of your device's data. Even if you switch to a non-Samsung phone in the future, you can access and restore backups from Google cloud service.

To back up data over the Samsung account, click on Backup data and checkmark the categories of data you want to backup. To perform a manual backup, select the Backup button available at the bottom of the screen.

If you want to backup over Google account, enable the toggle button to backup my data under Google account. Selecting a Google account, open the same backup settings screen discussed in the above section, and view your backup status.

Some frequently asked questions

Some of the FAQs that many people ask about data backup, deletion, and restoring them are:

Which is the best way to back up an Android phone?

Backing up Android data to any cloud storage is the best way to keep a backup of device data. It is one of the easiest methods that you can choose to back up. One of the key benefits is that you can access your backup data from any device from anywhere if you have Internet connectivity. However, it has a storage limitation if you have lots of data to upload.

People also prefer backing up data to their PCs and external hard drives to access them locally when needed.

What happens if I don't backup my files, and they get deleted?

If you don't keep the backup of your data from your Android phone and it got deleted for your device, don't lose hope. There are still changes that you can find them. You need to follow some recovery methods to recover your deleted data. For a complete guide to retrieving deleted data again, look out for our article, Android Data Recovery.