Losing your mobile phone or tablet is a terrible feeling, let alone losing the valuable data from your Android device.
So the best thing you can do is back up your important information and files, so that if you ever need to, you can easily restore your data to a new device.
Taking a backup of your data is actually very easy. While there are many applications that you can download, install and will help you create backups of your data. Here are the easiest ones:
With the help of Google
The simplest and easiest way to back up your Android device is through Google using its built-in feature, Android Backup Service.
To enable it, go to Settings –> Backup and make sure “Back up my data” is turned on. These are the instructions for Google Nexus devices, but you can usually find the setting in more or less the same place within the Settings app depending on your device.
With Android Backup Service, the following settings will be saved to Google Drive for you to use in a future restore: Google Calendar, Wi-Fi networks and passwords, home screen wallpapers, Gmail, apps installed through Google Play, display settings, language and input settings, date & time, and settings for third-party apps and data.
Samsung backup
Samsung devices come with their own backup service. To back up your phone or tablet through Samsung, you'll need to sign up for a Samsung account.
Once you have it, go to Settings –> General –> Backup & Reset –> Back up my data, then sign in.
Inside, you'll see options for all the services you can back up data for. Choose settings for Accessibility, Clock, Contacts, Email, Messaging, and Phone. You can also enable Auto Backup ,which starts an hour after the device is charged, connected to Wi-Fi, and the screen is off.
LG backup
LG also has its own built-in backup feature on its devices, which backs up “data such as LG Home screen, settings, apps, and contacts” to the phone’s storage, a microSD card, or LG Cloud. If you get a new LG device, you can easily restore these settings without having to set up your phone from scratch.
To access your LG device's backup, go to Settings –> General –> Backup & Restore –> LG Backup.
Manual backup
If you don't trust the cloud to store your data, you can always back up your files the old-fashioned way: locally on your computer.
To transfer files like music, photos, videos, and documents to your computer, first connect your device to a computer using either a microUSB or USB Type-C cable (on newer devices). In Windows, your Android device will appear as an external drive, and all you need to do is drag the files you want and transfer them to your computer's hard drive.
Mac users will need to download and install Android File Transfer for your computer so it can recognize your Android device. Again, it's a drag-and-drop process to transfer files from Android to Mac.
Back up photos
There must be at least 101 ways to back up your photos. You can use any free or paid cloud service like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, Flickr, Box, and Amazon Photos (for Prime subscribers). Each has its own pros and cons.
Our favorite is Google Photos, which lets you store an unlimited amount of photos (up to 16 megapixels each) and videos (up to 1080p resolution).
Backing up all your photos to Google Photos is easy, and all you have to do is download the app to your device and let it upload everything to the cloud.
Good luck!
