I wanted to back up everything on my phone: call logs, messages, whatsapp texts, photos, videos, screenshots, screen video captures, recordings, app data... and everything else, before selling my phone. So, basically, data-wise, I wan't to create a clone of the (entire) current state of my phone. I don't necessarily wan't to restore all of it on my new phone, but I want to be able to access the stuff that I backed-up on my computer later, when needed...I saw a few answers on this site, but they don't answer my questions fully.  Is the command line adb backup -apk -shared -all -f &lt;filename&gt; well-suited to my purpose? My phone has 32G capacity, but the backup file generated is only 5.3G. How do I know that the backup completed properly and contains all the data I wanted? Are there ways to do the backup over a network (WAN) using ADB, instead of having to depend on the USB debugging mode.
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I know I'm asking for the close-to-impossible -- as a real full-backup certainly requires root permissions. But still there are many folks around not wanting to root their devices -- afraid of voiding their warranties or bricking their devices, or just not having their devices supported by any rooting method.  I also know there were a lot of questions asked already on this topic, and I checked all of them having the backup tag -- none covers the entire topic, all just have pieces, and especially people new to Android (but other non-power-users as well) would have a hard time figuring out the best way.  So I want a detailed canonical answer to the question:  Not involving root-solutions, how to achieve a backup as close as possible to a full backup?  Please do not give simple one-liner answers like "Use app xyz [full-stop]." If mentioning an app (and I doubt a single app would be the answer here), include what parts are covered by it -- as well as ideas on how to fill the gaps it leaves. (And to make it absolutely clear: I know the first thing coming to mind is Titanium Backup -- I use it myself, but this does not apply here: This question is strictly about methods for non-rooted devices!) Moreover, the answer should be as generic as possible in terms of applying to a wide range of devices (i.e. it should not be restricted to one device or manufacturer).  I already mentioned having investigated all questions here tagged backup. These will certainly be helpful providing details for answers here, so I will list up the topmost ones concerning my question:            All these provide some details for my question (so feel free to get inspired by them) -- but I feel there are still details missing. Also it would be helpful to have a summary -- say, an answer including the full description of "the maximum possible".  A last criterium: While I'd consider cloud-based solutions legit, I'd favour local solutions. If you can provide both: all the better. But some people value privacy quite high (I'm one of them), and thus would not trust their data to some cloud service.    Thanks to Ryan, we now have a solution for a really complete backup of all apps and their data -- which I didn't dare to hope for! The only disadvantage: His solution only works for less than 10% of all Android users; namely those whose devices are running at least with Android 4.x.  So again, I ask the close-to-impossible: Any solutions applicable at least on Gingerbread (2.3.x) or, better, even Froyo (2.2.x) -- so they cover the majority of current devices? These solutions may involve multiple tools (try to keep it as simple as possible though; think of your mother to follow your instructions ;)  And keep in mind: NO ROOT!    To further motivate high-quality answers (and hopefully avoid low-quality ones), I will be a harsh one here: As I rarely do, I will down-vote answers not fitting the mentioned criteria on one end -- but on the other end, I will setup a bounty for the best answer (which cannot be done immediately, but earliest after 2 days).
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The screen of my phone is physically broken, so it doesn't display anything, but the touch aspect does seem to be working, as I can unlock my phone, and get haptic feedback.  Before I go to get it replaced, I'd like to back up some personal data from the built-in memory to the SD card. I'm fairly certain that if I can get adb to recognize the device, then I can use  to see where I am touching the screen and do what I need to do. Problem is, when I plug it in, it's not recognized, while my emulator is.  I suspect that I might not have USB debugging enabled, which I think is necessary for adb to work. If this is the case, can someone give me screenshots of their Droid X (running 2.3.X) going from the home screen, through all the menus, to activating debug mode? Hopefully I can do it by dead reckoning and adb from there.  Edit: I haven't changed anything about the ROM or launcher; it's all stock.
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After the phone restarts, there is a LOST.DIR folder created on the external SD card. Is it possible not to create this folder if nothing is lost?
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I just deleted a file on my Nexus S that I really need back. (It was actually part of an app using a sqlite database that did a drop table when upgrading to a new version.)  Presumably I need to root the phone first (which I hear is easy on Nexus phones) but am I in a catch-22 here? Namely, does rooting the phone mean wiping/overwriting the partition where the data lives?  If not, what do you recommend for data recovery tools? Presumably the file was just unlinked and not actively overwritten (per usual when "deleting" a file) so technically the data must be there...
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I have critical low storage level and can't understand what takes much of it and how that's possible that the installed applications can use 7 GB? I only use a few social media clients without any games or soft like Photoshop. Also on the second screenshot it indicates that the apps are using just 1.13 GB and so I can't understand the situation. Also what is the "Other"?
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I'm trying to do some debugging in Android and I am running a live logcat in the Terminal, but the problem is that there is too much information generated so that when I am finished and try to copy all the information received by choosing "Select All" and then "Copy" a lot of the early output which is produced isn't copied. I was aware of history, but that just provides a list of commands that have previously been entered, not the output.  Can I see a history of all the output that the terminal gives, or perhaps can I have the terminal save as a text file all the output that it is producing?
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Is there a way, that I could backup all my programs, all apps, put them in a directory or something, so that I could install them quickly next time, without having to manually going over the app center, downloading them from terminal, etc?  Note that I might import them from a distro other than the one I exported them on. So, say I'm in Ubuntu, exported some stuff, and then installed BT and wanted to import them from there.
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I recently tried to backup my Motorola Moto G2 XT1068 phone running Lollipop 5.0.1 and after connecting it over USB with usb-debugging ON and I ran the adb backup command to backup my device completely and this question  and  guided me. However running the following adb command,  adb backup -apk -shared -all -system -f D:/backup.ab   din't work in my case. The command instructed me to Unlock my device and confirm the backup operation. However doing so displayed the Backup started and Backup completed toast message back to back in just one second duration. And obviously the backup.ab file generated too was an empty 0kb file.  Removing and changing the parameter din't help either.
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I have a shared network drive full of files I want to access from my phone over wifi.  Is there a easy way to mount it on my phone?  I have a rooted Motorola Milestone.
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I ran into a serious SMS bug, which knowledgeable users seem to be saying means the SMS message database is corrupt (, ).  This is consistent with my current experience.  In my case I lost all ~1000 messages and still have some issues after that.  So I want to factory reset my phone.  While I have not rooted my phone, I have performed significant customization, and have somewhere around 150 apps installed, including a few paid apps (UltimateJuice, ...).  What things do I need to explicitly backup?  What can I do to minimize the pain?  I don't care about save points in games.  Surprisingly, I cannot find any good documentation of this using any obvious Google search terms.  (I am aware of , which doesn't really offer an answer to my question.)  For Google cloud things such as contacts, do I need to backup the cloud version just in case, so the phone doesn't wipe them from the cloud?  Fortunately, most of my personal notes are stored in cloud applications like Catch and Evernote.  I presume these should be unaffected.         As far as I can tell the BackupMySettings option is not available for my phone (Samsung Epic running 2.1).  My paid apps come back from Market anyway, right?  I guess I could pay $4 for MyBackupPro if it really made things simpler, but there would need to be some way to NOT backup the corrupted SMS database files.  Also I am assuming carrier-bundled apps such as Swype will automatically work.    P.S.  I have Marigold Android Backup and backed up to the SD card (except SMS/MMS).  I also have mIQ but I'm not sure I trust that to do a restore.  Factory resetting the phone will not affect the SD card, correct?  P.P.S.  I have AppBrain.  Is that automatically remembering all apps I have on the phone, so it will suggest installing all of them if I just install AppBrain?  Or will it only do that for apps installed through AppBrain?
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I rooted my Dream/G1 last night and finally gave up on modding it (not for good mind you, but for the moment) and opted instead to just restore it to factory settings via Settings &gt; SD card &amp; phone storage &gt; Factory data reset, which did solve all the problems I was having with multitasking (and not being able to answer it, etc.)  Curiously, I still seem to have root on the phone, despite having reset it. I'd love to understand how that is possible! Superuser Permissions is the only non-stock app still on the phone, and I'm still able to use su to gain root privileges from adb shell. Is this because BusyBox installs to my SD Card?  My phone works just fine, so this is hardly critical, but the whole exercise was/is about knowing my phone better and this is most def. a mystery. Thanks!
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I've been looking all over for a proper explanation of how to delete photos from the device (nexus 5) to reclaim some space, while being sure that the pictures are still in the Google+ backup. Unfortunatley i have not found one, other than "wild claims" it works somehow, while other say it does not. Plus deleting photos via the Pictures app actually warns you (now?) that it will delete the backed up copies too. Do i have to delete them in the Gallery app?  I did delete some photos recently, and i was quite sure they ware still backed up (still showed up on the Google+ website) but looking now i see they are in the trash in the device.  Is there really no way to be able to know for sure if the pictures are backed up savely while i can delete them from the device?  Alternatively i'm also open for alternative solutions to this problem, or i just go back to the "good old copy and paste when plugging the phone".
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What is a good and cheap solution for online backup of over 100Gb, probably growing to 200+ in about a year, and then no doubt more after that.  I am looking for something that can work in the background on a mac. I am using Aperture 3. The cost is the limiting factor. I have thought about an external HDD, but I want my data in another place to keep it safe.
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My phone doesn't have enough space to store backup files so I wonder if there is a way to do Nandroid backup and restore with files stored on pc.
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This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here.  While you are encouraged to help maintain its answers, please understand that "big list" questions are not generally allowed on Ask Ubuntu and will be closed per the .   Backup is incredibly important. Obviously there's no best backup tool, but a comparison of the options would be very interesting.   Graphical Interface? Command line? Incremental backups? Automatic backups? Install method: In standard repositories? PPA?
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I used to do a full factory wipe then flashed a stock firmware with Odin, that helped me get back to having access to my mobile network then I flashed to Resurrection Remix 5.5.3 and lost access to my mobile network (Emergency Calls Only) I checked my IMEI and it appears to be valid. I didn't backup my /efs I didn't do anything to it. What seems to be the solution? I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (I-9300)
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I know this is a shot in the dark, but I had a phone call yesterday that I really want to retrieve it.  Can I phone up my provider (Vodafone) and ask for the recording? How do I go about doing this? Or is the conversation stored locally on my Galaxy S3?