How And Why To Back Up Your Android Data

Have you ever misplaced your Android Phone and thought it was gone for good? If you’d felt that jolt of panic, you’re not alone. There’s no doubt that your phone does a lot for you. It holds your contacts, pictures and emails, keeps you entertained on a long trip, acts as your mobile office when you’re away from work, and keeps you connected to friends and family. It’s not fun to think about what would happen if your phone got lost, stolen, or broken. It can be difficult to predict a disaster like this, but you can protect yourself by backing up your Android phone. Read on to learn how to back up your device so you’ll never lose your precious data.

Back Up With Google

You can easily sync and back up data from your Android phone with Google – in fact, Google will do this automatically unless you disable the setting. While this won’t back up everything on your phone, it will take care of apps, call history, device settings, contacts, and your calendar. Also, if you own a Pixel phone, Google will back up your photos, videos, and SMS text messages as well. To see your backup settings, follow the instructions below, but note that each model of phone running Android OS may be slightly different.

1. Head to your Settings menu, and tap “Backup and Reset”
2. You should see “Back up my data” with the ability to toggle on and off
3. From that menu, you can also choose the Google account you’d like to set as your backup account
4. You can also see and delete past backups in this menu

While in your Settings menu, you can also view and toggle items that sync with your Google account.

1. From your Settings menu, choose Accounts, and tap on your Google account
2. You should see an extensive list of sync options, like App data, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Drive Gmail, and tons more.
3. From this menu, you can see which services are set to automatically sync. You can turn them off or on, and see when they last synced.

Back Up Manually

When you plug your Android phone into a computer, you should be able to see it in when you open your file manager. This means that you can easily transfer files from your Android device to your computer, so if there are things that you’re unable to back up with Google (i.e. pictures and videos if you don’t own a Pixel phone), you can save them on your PC for safe keeping.

1. Start by plugging your phone into your computer via USB.
2. If your computer pops up with a menu asking what you’d like to do, choose an option to “view files” or “manage files.” If you own a Mac, you’ll need Android File Transfer
3. If your computer doesn’t recognize your device, make sure your device is in USB computer connection mode as a media device (MTP)
4. From your file manager, you can see individual files on your phone, and drag and drop them to where you’d like them on your computer.

Other Ways To Back Up

There are plenty of third party apps that will also back up your data, each with their own pros and cons. For most users, syncing with Google and backing up some files on your computer will be sufficient, but check out third party apps for more options.

But if your phone happens to break or stop working, and it isn’t backed up, it isn’t the end of the world! Data recovery services like Gadget Fix can help you when you’re in a bind. These Android pros can help to recover your lost data for a fee if you forgot to back up your information!

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