How To Properly Back Up My Data

There's e'er the possibility that you lot'll misplace your phone or drop it in water and lose everything. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to back up Android devices, ensuring that even if something happens to your phone, you won't lose all those embarrassing photos of your kids you were going to show at their 21st altogether.

Whether through Google, a 3rd-party app, or your computer, there are multiple ways to back upward phones to make certain y'all never find yourself in a situation where you end upwardly with lost data.

Also read: The all-time Android fill-in apps

QUICK Respond

Back up Android devices using Google One past going to Settings > Google > Backup and toggling on Backup past Google One. You likewise tap on Back up now if you don't want to wait for your phone to update automatically.

Spring TO KEY SECTIONS

How to back up your Android phone with Google
How to back up your Android phone with Amazon Photos, OneDrive, and others?
Bankroll upward to your computer
Other options

Editor's note: All steps in this article were put together using a Pixel 4a with 5G running Android 12 and a custom PC running Windows 11. Remember, steps might differ depending on your device and software.

How to back up your Android phone with Google

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority

Bankroll upward nearly of your information is pretty easy with Google, and information technology has gotten far easier over the past few years. Unfortunately, there isn't withal a one-stop backup method for Android phones through Google. Yous'll accept to use different Google services to back up different information types.

Photos and videos

Edgar Cervantes / Android Dominance

If you're not already using Google Photos, you should exist. The service automatically backs up every photo and video you lot have to the deject, so you'll never take to dorsum upward your media manually. If the Photos app isn't already on your phone, you can download it. One time it's installed, you'll need to make sure Photos is set to back upwards your files automatically.

How to sync your images to Google Photos:

Open the Google Photos app.
Tap on the profile image in the top-right corner.
Select Photos settings.
Go into Support & sync.
Toggle on Back up & sync.
As well, make certain to go into Upload size and choose your preferred upload settings.

Worry not, as whatsoever photos or videos you may have uploaded in high-quality before June 1, 2021, will not count toward your Google storage and will still be considered free and exempt from the storage limit.

Music

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Google has a great way to backup your music to the cloud, and then mind to it from any device. You tin apply YouTube Music, which allows you to upload upward to 100,000 songs.

How to upload songs to YouTube Music:

Open your browser and go to music.youtube.com.
Click on your profile image in the tiptop-right corner.
Select Upload music.
Pick the songs you want to upload and select Open.
You can at present play the songs from the YouTube Music app or website. Go to Library > Songs > Uploads.

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Google Drive lets you store your other files in the cloud, which means they'll be accessible from any connected device.

How to store your files in Google Drive:

Download the Google Drive app, if yous don't take it already.
In the app, printing the + button.
Press Upload.
Select the file(s) you'd like to back up.
That's it!

See also: How to use Google Bulldoze: Everything y'all need to know

Settings, apps, SMS, call history, and much more than!

Google Drive and Photos make Google's fill-in solutions fragmented, only things become much more seamless with all other essential data. Android'southward native deject fill-in solution tin store settings, apps, SMS messages, and even your call history. This makes it piece of cake to restore everything on a new phone.

How to back up Android to Google One:

Open up the Settings app on your Android phone.
Tap on Google.
Get into Backup.
Toggle on Backup by Google One.
Yous can likewise go into Google Account data and select other information yous can sync. This includes the Calendar, Docs, Google Fit, Keep, etc.
Go back to the main Backup settings.
Tap on Support at present.

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Cloud services are a dime and a dozen, and Google isn't the only 1 offering oodles of storage. Microsoft'due south OneDrive is a very competent alternative. If you subscribe to Office 365, the company tosses in 1TB of online storage.

Elsewhere, Amazon Photos offers unlimited photo storage plus 5GB of video storage with a Prime subscription. Meanwhile, 100GB storage is a mere $1.99/month or $19.99/yr, making information technology an affordable, albeit not as tightly integrated alternative. There are plenty of other cloud storage solutions out there; check them out by clicking on the link below.

Also read: The best cloud storage services and apps for Android

The biggest downside of straying from Google's ecosystem is the endeavor required to make sure all your content is copied or synced. These aren't equally tightly integrated to Android, so they need a bit more than work.

The process of using these apps is relatively simple. Yous have to download them and follow the instructions during the setup process.

Backing up to your computer

Edgar Cervantes / Android Dominance

Manually transfer files to Windows

Sometimes it's best to do everything yourself, manually. If you lot experience more comfortable moving all your files to your Windows calculator, the process is super simple.

How to transfer files from Android to Windows:

Plug your Android telephone into your estimator using a USB cable.
On your Android telephone, slide down the notification bill of fare, and you lot should encounter an Android Organisation message saying Charging this device via USB. Tap on it.
Under Use USB for, select File transfer / Android Auto.
On your Windows PC, open up This PC in your folders or explorer.
Look for your phone and double-click on it.
Look for the files y'all want to transfer. Highlight them, right-click on them, and select Copy.
Create a folder where you want to shop your files and open it.
Correct-click on any empty space and select Paste.

Using Android File Transfer for Mac

Instead of backing up your device to the deject or the phone itself, yous might desire to back up all your files to your computer for easy access later. Luckily, this is pretty easy to do, and the process is pretty much the same whether yous're a Mac or PC user. Mac users volition demand to download and install the Android File Transfer app, though.

How to support your Android device to a computer:

Plug your phone into your reckoner with your USB cable.
On Windows, go to My Computer and open the phone's storage.
On Mac, open Android File Transfer.
Elevate the files you want to back up to a folder on your computer.

Aye, the Android File Transfer app is quite clunky and doesn't always exercise the job. If manually copying over files is your preferred pick, it might exist a good idea to invest in a better app. Commander One is an excellent app that lets you do just that. Android Authority's Oliver Craig gives united states of america all the information on the all-time way to transfer files between an Android phone and Mac.

Related: How to transfer files from Android to Mac

Wireless sync with Syncthing

Syncthing phone sync - How to back up android

What if you could automatically back up all your images and files to your reckoner or NAS drive without having to connect a cable? That'due south where sync utilities come into action.

Syncthing is a great utility to ensure all your photographs and additional files are downloaded to the computer. The premise is simple; install an app on your phone and select a folder to keep an center on constantly. Meanwhile, a client runs on your calculator, assuasive you lot to link upward with your phone.

Now, whenever the app on the phone detects a modify or file improver in a watched folder, it immediately sends over a copy to the computer. Uncomplicated and reliable. It merely works. Of course, you lot tin can utilise it every bit a standard sync utility likewise, but I prefer to have all my files sent 1 way to the computer to have a copy bachelor even if I delete something from my telephone.

How do you fix Syncthing:

Install the Syncthing app from the Play Shop.
Install the Syncthing app on your PC or Mac.
Follow instructions to ready Syncthing on both your Android device and your computer.
You'll demand to create a connection betwixt your Android device and your estimator. On your PC, select Add together Remote Device.
On your Android phone, open Syncthing and tap on the three-line menu push. Hit Show device ID.
Enter the device ID on your computer, proper name the device, and select Save.
Get to the Windows Syncthing app and hitting Actions. Then choose Evidence ID.
On your phone app, tap on the Devices tab. Then select the + icon. Enter the Device ID from your computer and tap on the checkmark.
On your phone, go back to the Folders tab. Select the folder you want to share or create a new one and move files to it. When done, go into the binder and toggle on your PC.
Go dorsum to Syncthing on Windows, and you should come across a request to sync the folder. Select Add and hit Relieve.
The folder should sync. Now you lot can go to wherever y'all're syncing your Syncthing files, and everything will be at that place!

Other options to back up Android phone

Google Play Store on smartphone stock photo 1 - How to back up android

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Google's services are excellent, but if you're looking for a more comprehensive solution — 1 that backs up everything at in one case, that is — yous might demand to utilize a tertiary-party app.

There are many great apps for backing up your data, and one of the best is Super Backup & Restore. It allows you to back up individual items on your phone, such as apps, contacts, SMS, calendars, voice calls, and more. Users can define where the backups go for easy locating later, and you lot can also schedule automatic backups along with backing up to cloud storage.

How to back up Android using Super Fill-in & Restore:

Download Super Fill-in & Restore.
Select the path you lot want to back up your files to. This could be an SD menu, or you can back up to your internal storage and transfer the files wherever you lot desire. Yous can also use the Cloud Fill-in part in the principal carte du jour.
You will see a list of item categories that you lot can support (Pictures, Apps, etc.).
Select the individual items you'd like to include in your backup.
Tap on Backup or Backup all for every selection.

Yes, it does. The but exception is with YouTube Music uploads, which has its own limit of 100,000 songs.

Which is the best fashion to backup my Android phone?

Backing up to whatever deject service will probably be the easiest method, merely it may come with some storage limitations, which can exist a trouble if you have a lot of telephone files. Additionally, you lot'll demand plenty of data to upload all your files. Those who similar keeping control of their files locally might prefer backing up to a PC or an external hard drive.

What if I didn't fill-in my files, and they got deleted?