topic Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way? in XPERIA archive

PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:22:12 GMT

I ended up having to do a reinstall with SUS last night and backed everything up with PCC.

I didn't realise I'd lose all my downloaded apps when restoring from a backup created by PCC. Is there a better way to back up that keeps everything intact?

It didn't restore all of my media either - there are some photos missing. Took an age to restore as well (about an hour) and kept hanging (I'm on Windows 7) - I don't even have that much stuff on the internal storage, it's less than half full. Is this normal?

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:35:43 GMT

Normally,a backup can only save settings,accounts,messages,contacts.The media files should be copied to another device or computer.You can redownload the apps,they should be in google play at your account.If you restore,all the apps should be normal.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 12:45:27 GMT

PCC does back up the media. Just doesn't restore it all consistently. And it takes forever. It took 3 restore attempts to get my contacts back. Making a backup is supposed to keep stuff safe, but it's not much use if restoring is so flaky.

My question being - is there a better way to backup than PCC? Ideally something that will mirror the phones complete state.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:16:18 GMT

You can always use 3rd party apps for backing up.You have another option of backing up:settings-backup and restore.They are stored on google servers.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:44:57 GMT

Anyone know a 3rd party app? I'm really after something that's equivalent to Nero BackItUp or TimeMachine that will take an image of the whole phone.

I'll probably sign up to a cloud based backup for contact info, but something that will quickly and reliably backup/restore the whole shebang would be great.

Also is it normal for PCC to behave as described?

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 13:47:53 GMT

It should not behave like this.I backed up some stuff about months ago,but it needed one restore and it was ok.

http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Ion/Alternatives-on-How-to-backup-Xperias/m-p/161240#M170

This topic might help you.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:10:40 GMT

There's a few interesting alternatives there. I see that the Play Store does keep a list of everything you've ever installed, which is handy.

I did find something called Super Backup which will also backup your apps (there are a few others, but they mostly seem to require root access). Still don't see anything that will backup the lot on one go, though.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:15:21 GMT

Yes,it is better to backup settings and contacts with messages with a specific program,while the media files are copied,you get a better overall performance,because media files are a lot bigger.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:46:39 GMT

Aha! Finally - there is a way to do this!

There's a command line developer tool called adb (Android Debug Bridge) that comes with the SDK. adb does require root to do some things, but backing up isn't one of them. Hooray.

This isn't something intended for consumers, so if you're not comfortable with setting up the SDK/using command line interfaces it's probably not for you.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:48:25 GMT

I have not encountered too big issues with my xperia p until now,but I can adapt to many conditions,be sure of that.Good thing you sorted it out.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:10:57 GMT

This works brilliantly. Just what I wanted.

If you're up for it, download the SDK and give it a go. It's a bit of an ask for your typical end user, but it's really not that hard. As a bonus you'll be set up to try your hand at app development.

Get the SDK here:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

This tells you all you need to know regards usage:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1420351

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

_alexdon_ — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:20:22 GMT

I am not that interesed in app development,but maybe I will have a look.

Re: PCC Backup and Restore - a better way?

blackbox — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 17:34:56 GMT

adb does a ton of other things, but the backup/restore are worth the price of admission.

I can create a couple of .bat files to kick off the backup and restore processes with a single click. Job done. No more PCC hanging, caning my processor for an hour at at time and not actually backing everything up.