Program to backup S4.

[samthesidecar]

Having had problems with mu S4, I backed up using KIES (USB, not wireless).

When I tried to restore the phone, I got my numbers back - I downloaded just them. When I tried to restore the rest of the phone, Kies froze, and now won't recognise phone, for manufacturer's software it seems a pile of poo.

So what sorfware do forum members use to back up thier S4s, and are there any they wouldn't recommend.

Ta,

Sam.

[jeffkinn]

Kies is well known for being rubbish. Your emails, calendar and contacts should be synced with an online service - gmail is the one that Android is designed to work with the best. You can also have a Samsung account and that will automatically backup your texts and call log. Music and photos can be stored on the external SD card and new photos taken with the camera can by uploaded to either Dropbox or Google+. If I'm going to perform a factory reset I copy the internal SD card to my PC. After the factory reset when you log into your Google account your apps should download automatically. It also backs up and restores certain settings like wifi. The same with the Samsung account and the call log and texts. Some apps have their own backup and restore routines. I use Handcent for texts and for a small charge I can use their cloud to backup texts and settings.

[drey_p]

Hi there

Kies isn't the greatest piece of software and I do try to avoid it where I can.  I tend not to try and do a full back up and restore of the device.  Things like my calendar and contacts are synced with my Gmail account so those are automatically being backed up.  If I need to, I use SMSBackup+ to back up my text messages.  It's a free app from the Play Store.

The rest I just reinstall and reconfigure as I need.  Most of the Apps will reinstall from the Play Store.  Part of the reason I don't do a full back up is that when you are having issues, sometimes restoring a full "copy" of everything on the handset can restore the glitch with it.

[thesoupdragon]

I use a combination of both the above but for clarity I will outline my personal protocol for backing up my phone.

1. Contacts & Calendar are sync'd to Gmail (no actual entries on the phone)
2. Call logs, SMS and MMS are saved to Gmail by using SMSbackup+ . I also have my Samsung account set to do this as well.
3. Wallpaper and Wifi settings are sync'd to Samsung Account.
4. Game saves - I copy the "Android" folder from the phone to my desktop.
5. photos are set to save on my external SDcard directly from the camera app.
6. Music is also on external SDcard.
7. Apps will auto download from Play Store.

It might sound like a hassle but there is actually very little to do as most of it is automated.
🙂

[Northern-dj]

Yes Kies is a Pain and just when they fix it they brake it again 

Now i use Google to back my contacts

and there are a phew good SMS back up apps out there as well 

were as Kies Air is a good bit of kit and you can back up just by copy and past 

[jeffkinn]

I forgot to say that I also use SMSBackup and CallLogbackup to the external SD card.  Lots of redundancy built in. 

[Gaqnnzvvf]

In my experience,I used Samsung Kies to help me manage and backup Samsung Galaxy S5 Contacts .But one time it did not work ,and I lost all contacts ,and can not extract contacts from Smasung kies backup....

Now I used Cooolmuster Android Assistant to help me backup my samsung phone data to computer .Works well !

[hrym]

Proprietary backup programs are always risky as they may suddenly stop supporting a particular model or OS or change file format since your past backup.

The best way to back contect up is, in the firts instance, to sync them with an online account such as Gmail.   You can also export them (it's usually under Manage Contacts in the Contacts app itself) to a Vcard file.   You can then store this on a cloud account (proferably including one other than the account they're sync'd with) and copy them to a pc.   I also store the file oni an external sd card in the device itself (as long as it'll take one).  Have plenty of backups!

A Vcard file can be imported into most address books, so you can restore it wherever you need to.   It's currently the lingua franca for contacts.