Advice Request How do you restore your android settings after resetting?

Please provide comments and solutions that are helpful to the author of this topic.

Thales

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Nov 26, 2017
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Do you use something like macrium on PC?

Edit: Wallpaper, apps, wifi passwords etc. Whatever you think it is necessary.
 
Last edited:

Ink

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Jan 8, 2011
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Settings > System > Backup.


Google Backup is limited to App data, SMS text messages, Device settings, Call history and Contacts - connects to Google Drive.

Your phone manufacturer may provide their own Backup services, and desktop application for a full device backup.

Android version needs to be the same.

Recommendation - Use a combination of local and cloud backup. Check you can backup/sync your accounts in your Authenticator Apps, as some are device-only.
 

roger_m

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Dec 4, 2014
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Well, I would like to restore my downloaded apps and settings like wallpaper, wifi passwords etc. because after resetting my phone it takes time to make the OS as was it before.
With recent versions of Android, when setting up a phone, you are given the option to restore your apps and settings from a cloud backup. You can restore all previous apps, or just some. However, many apps will be restored without their app data. This means that you will need to sign in to a lot of apps again and additionally, for apps which store their data locally on your phone, rather than in the cloud, you may lose any saved data. Sadly, unlike for iPhones, Android does not have decent native backup solution.

If you actually want to backup and restore all your apps, along with their app data, it is possible, but not straightforward. You need to root your phone to give system level access to backup apps - which is a security risk and can be difficult to do on some devices and then root it again after resetting your phone, in order to restore the backup.

There are apps such as Titanium Backup which let you backup app data along with apps, so that when an app is restored, you will retain the settings for that app. Because restoring app data can finicky on some devices, ideally you will make backups with two different root backup apps, in case the first backup app fails to restore the data. However, once you find a backup app that works on your device, in the future you can just use the one backup app.
 

Protomartyr

Level 7
Sep 23, 2019
314
I wish Android had a backup ability as seamless and effective as it is on iOS. I recently got a Pixel 3a XL. I love the phone. However, when setting it up, I encountered a bug where the built-in Backup option was stuck on "Waiting to backup". A common workaround is to disable all security on the phone and it might proceed to backup. There was also another option where you could use ADB to trigger a backup manually. However I believe Google has depreciated that ability. So now I'm stuck without an online backup option currently.

It seems this is a common bug for many phones across different manufacturers:
Sources: 1 | 2 | 3

As others have mentioned in the thread, there's no reliable way to make a full backup of everything for an Android phone unless you have root.
 

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