I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work and
are trustworthy.

nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:

> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
> dead,

Do you know which of your apps do/don't already backup to google's cloud?

Does your phone have an SD card?

On 27/07/2023 16:28, Andy Burns wrote:
> nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>
>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>> connector is dead,
>
> Do you know which of your apps do/don't already backup to google's cloud?
>
> Does your phone have an SD card?
>
The usual Google apps (calendar, gmail, contacts) are in the cloud but
nothing else (AFAIK).

It's a dual-SIM model so can (but currently doesn't) take an SD card

On 27/07/2023 16:46, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> On 27/07/2023 16:28, Andy Burns wrote:
>> nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>
>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>>> connector is dead,
>>
>> Do you know which of your apps do/don't already backup to google's cloud?
>>
>> Does your phone have an SD card?
>>
> The usual Google apps (calendar, gmail, contacts) are in the cloud but
> nothing else (AFAIK).
>
> It's a dual-SIM model so can (but currently doesn't) take an SD card

Hmmm! I'd forgotten about the SD card capability. I need to do some more
digging. Thanks for the prompt.

On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
> dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
> Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
> to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
> useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work and
> are trustworthy.

A fair amount of stuff can backup to the google cloud if you give it a
google account - that will take care of contacts etc and SMS if you
want. You can also do photos etc that way. You may find 4/5G data will
be faster than your broadband if that is an option (i.e. still works etc).

To backup locally, then many of the file manager apps can write to a
network share. I find Cx File Explorer quite good - it can do CIFS/SMB
shares (without needing a paid for license) and also things like
dropbox, OneDrive etc.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer

Assuming you have wifi on your router and the phone can connect to it,
and you have not tweaked the options on the router to disable the
ability for wifi devices to talk to wired ones and other wifi devices,
then that will be all you need.

If you want wifi data to local storage, then you have a few options. One
would be to share a folder on your computer[1], and connect to that
share using the file manager on the phone and copy whatever you need over.

[1] In theory easy enough - but it is easy to get confused by the file
share permissions... Telling windows that it is ok for anything to have
write access to the share is not enough unless the share is on a FAT
disk partition (not usually the case these days). If it is on a NTFS
partition, then you will also need to set NTFS permissions on the folder
to allow "Everyone" write access.

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
> dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
> Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
> to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
> useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work and
> are trustworthy.

Another easy one I forgot to mention is that many phones can use their
USB port for talking to a range of devices - not just charging. So if
you plug in a mouse, keyboard etc, it will work as expected. It should
also work to access a USB thumb drive.

I just tried it on mine, and found that if I plug in a USB drive
directly (using a USB A to USB C adaptor) it works directly. I found I
could also plug my KVM switch into it instead. That includes a USB port
with a external hub connected to it. Not only do I get full mouse and
keyboard support, I can also see other peripheral devices on the USB
port of the KVM switch including thumb drives etc.

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

John Rumm wrote:

> that many phones can use their USB port for talking to a range of
> devices - not just charging. So if you plug in a mouse, keyboard etc, it
> will work as expected. It should also work to access a USB thumb drive.

But not with a b0rked USB port!

A long time ago I used Titanium Backup, which can backup the entire
phone, but it requires root, which you probably don't want to do, and
might be difficult without USB anyway.

On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
> dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
> Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
> to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
> useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work and
> are trustworthy.

To quote google:

On your Android phone, open the Google One app .
At the bottom, tap Storage.
Scroll to the device backup section. If this is your first phone
backup: Tap Set up data backup. ...
To find your backup settings, tap Manage backup. To back up the
data on your phone, turn on Device data. ...
Tap Back up now.

On my phone when I do that I see a message which says:
"Your device backsup automatically over Wifi after it has been idel and
charging for atleast two hours."

--
Michael Chare

On 27/07/2023 17:45, Andy Burns wrote:
> John Rumm wrote:
>
>> that many phones can use their USB port for talking to a range of
>> devices - not just charging. So if you plug in a mouse, keyboard etc,
>> it will work as expected. It should also work to access a USB thumb
>> drive.
>
> But not with a b0rked USB port!

Yes, good point and well made - I had forgotten about that bit of the
requirement :-)

> A long time ago I used Titanium Backup, which can backup the entire
> phone, but it requires root, which you probably don't want to do, and
> might be difficult without USB anyway.

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 18:06:30 +0100, Michael Chare wrote:

> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
>> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
>> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
>> dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
>> Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
>> to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
>> useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work
>> and are trustworthy.
>
> To quote google:
>
> On your Android phone, open the Google One app .
> At the bottom, tap Storage.
> Scroll to the device backup section. If this is your first phone
> backup: Tap Set up data backup. ...
> To find your backup settings, tap Manage backup. To back up the
> data on your phone, turn on Device data. ...
> Tap Back up now.
>
> On my phone when I do that I see a message which says:
> "Your device backsup automatically over Wifi after it has been idel and
> charging for atleast two hours."

Been there, done that when I backed my phone up before a factory reset.

Then when I logged back into my Google account it said "no backups
available"

And that was that.

Luckily I had a "Samsung phone" backup. But all that did was restore the
bare apps without config. That was a wet afternoon signing each one in
again.

On 27/07/2023 21:00, Jethro_uk wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 18:06:30 +0100, Michael Chare wrote:
>
>> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
>>> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
>>> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
>>> dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet string", and
>>> Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a direct wifi link
>>> to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options but it would be
>>> useful to get recommendations from anyone here about which apps work
>>> and are trustworthy.
>>
>> To quote google:
>>
>> On your Android phone, open the Google One app .
>> At the bottom, tap Storage.
>> Scroll to the device backup section. If this is your first phone
>> backup: Tap Set up data backup. ...
>> To find your backup settings, tap Manage backup. To back up the
>> data on your phone, turn on Device data. ...
>> Tap Back up now.
>>
>> On my phone when I do that I see a message which says:
>> "Your device backsup automatically over Wifi after it has been idel and
>> charging for atleast two hours."
>
> Been there, done that when I backed my phone up before a factory reset.
>
> Then when I logged back into my Google account it said "no backups
> available"
>

Did you turn off backups before reseting. This will clear all backups.
If you go into your google account,

https://one.google.com/storage

you can scroll down and see exactly what is available...

> And that was that.
>
> Luckily I had a "Samsung phone" backup. But all that did was restore the
> bare apps without config. That was a wet afternoon signing each one in
> again.

Last time I did this all went well....

Dave

Normally most phones do cloud backups in the background. I phones do this
and I seem to recall Samsungs do, it all depends on the choices you made.
After all people change their phones all the time and do not have to
reinstall their stuff, though obviously you may need to verify its actually
you to get the data back again. I don't know about the sd angle as I've
never owned a phone with that facility. If the usb is broken how are you
charging the phone at the moment?. I'd have thought that now might just be
the time to get a new phone and trade in the old one. I'm assuming you are
also going to erase the phone before repair?
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Andy Burns" <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote in message
news:kifgpnFduluU1@mid.individual.net...
> nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>
>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
>> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
>> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is dead,
>
> Do you know which of your apps do/don't already backup to google's cloud?
>
> Does your phone have an SD card?
>

Assuming a reputable fixer, and some security on the phone, your data should
be safe, after all all they are doing is putting in a new usb connector,
unless of course you suspect they will be actually changing the main board.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
<nothanks@aolbin.com> wrote in message
news:kifhr7Fdci6U2@mid.individual.net...
> On 27/07/2023 16:28, Andy Burns wrote:
>> nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>
>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job, hence
>>> not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to factory
>>> defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB connector is
>>> dead,
>>
>> Do you know which of your apps do/don't already backup to google's cloud?
>>
>> Does your phone have an SD card?
>>
> The usual Google apps (calendar, gmail, contacts) are in the cloud but
> nothing else (AFAIK).
>
> It's a dual-SIM model so can (but currently doesn't) take an SD card

On Fri, 28 Jul 2023 09:18:15 +0100, David Wade wrote:

> On 27/07/2023 21:00, Jethro_uk wrote:
>> On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 18:06:30 +0100, Michael Chare wrote:
>>
>>> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>>>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>>>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>>>> connector is dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet
>>>> string", and Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a
>>>> direct wifi link to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options
>>>> but it would be useful to get recommendations from anyone here about
>>>> which apps work and are trustworthy.
>>>
>>> To quote google:
>>>
>>> On your Android phone, open the Google One app .
>>> At the bottom, tap Storage.
>>> Scroll to the device backup section. If this is your first phone
>>> backup: Tap Set up data backup. ...
>>> To find your backup settings, tap Manage backup. To back up the
>>> data on your phone, turn on Device data. ...
>>> Tap Back up now.
>>>
>>> On my phone when I do that I see a message which says:
>>> "Your device backsup automatically over Wifi after it has been idel
>>> and charging for atleast two hours."
>>
>> Been there, done that when I backed my phone up before a factory reset.
>>
>> Then when I logged back into my Google account it said "no backups
>> available"
>>
>>
>
> Did you turn off backups before reseting. This will clear all backups.
> If you go into your google account,
>
> https://one.google.com/storage
>
> you can scroll down and see exactly what is available...

Yes. From the old phone. And my account on a desktop

>
>> And that was that.
>>
>> Luckily I had a "Samsung phone" backup. But all that did was restore
>> the bare apps without config. That was a wet afternoon signing each one
>> in again.
>
> Last time I did this all went well....

As I said when the "new" phone connected and signed in, it showed nada.
Despite the desktop showing it as available. The decision was then to try
and research (bearing in mind this "doesn't happen"), post in vain on one
of Goggles community forums (tumbleweed everytime I have tried) or bite
the bullet.

Android is slowly going the way of Windows. By trying to appease a
spectrum of manufacturers, Google has allowed it to sprawl at the expense
of reliability and consistency. It's guaranteed that if I want to do
something regarding settings, it's a lucky dip into whichever guide pops
up on top of a search. My wifes Alcatel - same "version" of Android has
completely different settings to my Samsung.

On 27/07/2023 17:00, John Rumm wrote:
> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>> connector is dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet
>> string", and Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a
>> direct wifi link to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options
>> but it would be useful to get recommendations from anyone here about
>> which apps work and are trustworthy.
>
> A fair amount of stuff can backup to the google cloud if you give it a
> google account - that will take care of contacts etc and SMS if you
> want. You can also do photos etc that way. You may find 4/5G data will
> be faster than your broadband if that is an option (i.e. still works etc).
>
> To backup locally, then many of the file manager apps can write to a
> network share. I find Cx File Explorer quite good - it can do CIFS/SMB
> shares (without needing a paid for license) and also things like
> dropbox, OneDrive etc.
>
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer
>
> Assuming you have wifi on your router and the phone can connect to it,
> and you have not tweaked the options on the router to disable the
> ability for wifi devices to talk to wired ones and other wifi devices,
> then that will be all you need.
>
> If you want wifi data to local storage, then you have a few options. One
> would be to share a folder on your computer[1], and connect to that
> share using the file manager on the phone and copy whatever you need over.
>
> [1] In theory easy enough - but it is easy to get confused by the file
> share permissions... Telling windows that it is ok for anything to have
> write access to the share is not enough unless the share is on a FAT
> disk partition (not usually the case these days). If it is on a NTFS
> partition, then you will also need to set NTFS permissions on the folder
> to allow "Everyone" write access.
>
>
What I'm hoping to be able to do is a full backup (to a single backup
file or folder, rather than piecemeal) in the same way as I've done with
PCs, the aim being to simply reverse the process to restore the phone to
its current condition once it's fixed. Despite having an Android phone
for a looong time I've never bothered with backups, so this is new
territory for me. "Andy Burns" has reminded me about the SD card option
and that may be the simplest approach if I can find a suitable app.

On Fri, 28 Jul 2023 09:40:27 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

> Normally most phones do cloud backups in the background. I phones do
> this and I seem to recall Samsungs do, it all depends on the choices you
> made.
> After all people change their phones all the time and do not have to
> reinstall their stuff, though obviously you may need to verify it

Things is, if you follow good security with 2FA and random passwords, it
can be a few hours to re*activate* your apps.

And when I had to reset my Samsung, Googles 2FA wasn't cloud-backed up
(it is now). So loosing my Google Authenticator was a real PITA. So much
so that I revised our procedures at work to have a printed QR code
stashed in a safe to recover the 2FA for key accounts. I can strongly
recommend it if you have any dealings with Amazon - especially Amazon US
- who are twitchy about account security.

On 28/07/2023 11:23, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
> On 27/07/2023 17:00, John Rumm wrote:
>> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>>> connector is dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet
>>> string", and Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a
>>> direct wifi link to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options
>>> but it would be useful to get recommendations from anyone here about
>>> which apps work and are trustworthy.
>>
>> A fair amount of stuff can backup to the google cloud if you give it a
>> google account - that will take care of contacts etc and SMS if you
>> want. You can also do photos etc that way. You may find 4/5G data will
>> be faster than your broadband if that is an option (i.e. still works
>> etc).
>>
>> To backup locally, then many of the file manager apps can write to a
>> network share. I find Cx File Explorer quite good - it can do CIFS/SMB
>> shares (without needing a paid for license) and also things like
>> dropbox, OneDrive etc.
>>
>> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer
>>
>> Assuming you have wifi on your router and the phone can connect to it,
>> and you have not tweaked the options on the router to disable the
>> ability for wifi devices to talk to wired ones and other wifi devices,
>> then that will be all you need.
>>
>> If you want wifi data to local storage, then you have a few options.
>> One would be to share a folder on your computer[1], and connect to
>> that share using the file manager on the phone and copy whatever you
>> need over.
>>
>> [1] In theory easy enough - but it is easy to get confused by the file
>> share permissions... Telling windows that it is ok for anything to
>> have write access to the share is not enough unless the share is on a
>> FAT disk partition (not usually the case these days). If it is on a
>> NTFS partition, then you will also need to set NTFS permissions on the
>> folder to allow "Everyone" write access.
>>
>>
> What I'm hoping to be able to do is a full backup (to a single backup
> file or folder, rather than piecemeal) in the same way as I've done with
> PCs, the aim being to simply reverse the process to restore the phone to
> its current condition once it's fixed. Despite having an Android phone
> for a looong time I've never bothered with backups, so this is new
> territory for me. "Andy Burns" has reminded me about the SD card option
> and that may be the simplest approach if I can find a suitable app.

I simply added a password to mine. When the dude replaced the battery.
Anyone who keeps any important data on one needs their head examining.
Too easy to steal or lose or get smashed.

--
"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign,
that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Jonathan Swift.

On Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:23:21 +0100, nothanks wrote:

> On 27/07/2023 17:00, John Rumm wrote:
>> On 27/07/2023 16:16, nothanks@aolbin.com wrote:
>>> I need to send my Android phone to be repaired (an insurance job,
>>> hence not DIY) so first will need to back-up, wipe and return it to
>>> factory defaults. Unfortunately this is tricky because the USB
>>> connector is dead, our broadband is better described as "a slow wet
>>> string", and Bluetooth would be too slow. I presume I need to use a
>>> direct wifi link to the PC and Mr Google has suggested a few options
>>> but it would be useful to get recommendations from anyone here about
>>> which apps work and are trustworthy.
>>
>> A fair amount of stuff can backup to the google cloud if you give it a
>> google account - that will take care of contacts etc and SMS if you
>> want. You can also do photos etc that way. You may find 4/5G data will
>> be faster than your broadband if that is an option (i.e. still works
>> etc).
>>
>> To backup locally, then many of the file manager apps can write to a
>> network share. I find Cx File Explorer quite good - it can do CIFS/SMB
>> shares (without needing a paid for license) and also things like
>> dropbox, OneDrive etc.
>>
>> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?
id=com.cxinventor.file.explorer
>>
>> Assuming you have wifi on your router and the phone can connect to it,
>> and you have not tweaked the options on the router to disable the
>> ability for wifi devices to talk to wired ones and other wifi devices,
>> then that will be all you need.
>>
>> If you want wifi data to local storage, then you have a few options.
>> One would be to share a folder on your computer[1], and connect to that
>> share using the file manager on the phone and copy whatever you need
>> over.
>>
>> [1] In theory easy enough - but it is easy to get confused by the file
>> share permissions... Telling windows that it is ok for anything to have
>> write access to the share is not enough unless the share is on a FAT
>> disk partition (not usually the case these days). If it is on a NTFS
>> partition, then you will also need to set NTFS permissions on the
>> folder to allow "Everyone" write access.
>>
>>
> What I'm hoping to be able to do is a full backup (to a single backup
> file or folder, rather than piecemeal) in the same way as I've done with
> PCs, the aim being to simply reverse the process to restore the phone to
> its current condition once it's fixed. Despite having an Android phone
> for a looong time I've never bothered with backups, so this is new
> territory for me. "Andy Burns" has reminded me about the SD card option
> and that may be the simplest approach if I can find a suitable app.

I doubt that is possible - certainly if you want to keep all you apps
logged in.

If you have a chance, you may wish to prepare for an afternoon of mass
logging in. Otherwise you know it will be a wet Sunday when you go to
open a parking app and it suddenly needs not only a password and 2FA, but
your card details too.