Hi, I’m looking for suggestions for how to back up data in Android. I’m using a non-rooted stock Pixel phone. I want to try Graphene OS but knowing I could restore everything to what I have now would make me feel more comfortable trying it out.

Ideally I would be able to do a full system backup so I could erase and restore everything to exactly how it was before, but I doubt that’s possible without a custom recovery. (I used to do this in my custom ROM hopping days, and it worked great!)

I’d like to at least be able to backup files/photos, app data for various apps, and messages from Google messages.

What backup solutions/tools would you recommend?

  • @[email protected]English
    3•10 months ago

    Files and photos can be backed up multiple ways. You could connect a USB flash drive, upload to the cloud, or transfer them using Nearby Share or other wireless file transfer app.

    SMS can be backed up using apps such as SMS Backup & Restore (by Synctech) or Super Backup and Restore. I don’t know if these apps also work for RCS chats though.

    App data is the hardest. If it doesn’t connect to the cloud (like games) or have a native backup method then you would have to hope the Google backup works for it or try ADB backup (again this won’t work for every app).