Xperia Arc backup and restore and Android OS update questions?

[therealjohn1]

Hello.

I live in Ontario Canada and I have the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc from Rogers Wireless and I have had it since Saturday, May 21, 2011 and it works great... I have had no problems on it yet and everything works good on it and I have lots of apps on it.

So... I have not yet updated the phone's OS yet... it is still running Android 2.3.2 and I want to do the Update to Android 2.3.3 and I want to do the offical update with out rooting or hacking the phone at all.

I am going to do the update using Sony Ericsson's PC Companion Software for Windows BUT...

I need to know can you back up the apps and games on the phone with the PC Companion software or do I have to use a back up and restore app on my phone and back every thing up to the MicroSD card?

When I run the update from 2.3.2 to 2.3.3... Does it erase every thing on the internal memory?

Also when I backup the apps and games will it backup the data from the apps and games?  Like will it backup the saved game data so I can continue at the same level after the Android OS update?  If not is there a way I can find and back that data up myself?  Where is the data from apps saved and where is the game progress saved from games?

Thank You for your time to read this and Please help me with any of the questions above if you can and if there is anything else you think I should know... Please let me know?

[#2]

Better to use the Back Up and Restore Application

Please refer to the following post from Uliwooly

http://talk.sonyericsson.com/thread/19735

Stuff backed up to your MicroSD Card should remain.

Stuff on the internal memory generally will be lost since you are are updating the firmware.

It is always a good idea to make a separate backup that you can access if needed

The Backup and Restore app can back up the Bookmarks, Call Log, Contacts, Market Apps,  Multimedia messages, Phone settings & Text messages

[therealjohn1]

bump

[#4]

Have you managed to update your phone.?

Which method did you use,?

Apparently the Roger's version of 2.3.3 was made available just recently.

[therealjohn1]

No I have not done the update yet CUZ I am waiting for someone to answer all of the Questions I asked...

So who can help me with my Arc Questions Please?

[#6]

when I upgraded my Arc (Vodafone UK, official update, no root) I just left everything as it was and went for

it, and I lost nothing.

I've not seen or heard of anyway to backup/restore specific app/game data - I suspect this is probably saved

somewhere in the protected areas of the phone memory, which would require root access to restore data.

As for the apps themselves, I once used an app to back up all my other apps (i had an HTC phone and

updating it reset the thing to factory settings - very annoying) and it worked well. Until I realised that because

I had reinstalled them from a backup, I wasn't being notified of any updates from the Market!

Best thing to do in that situation is remember which apps you had, and reinstall them from the web interface

of the Market (http://market.android.com) - much quicker than searching for them on the phone!

good luck

[#7]

Here are answers to your questions.

Q1 : I need to know can you back up the apps and games on the phone with the  PC Companion software or do I have to use a back up and restore app on  my phone and back every thing up to the MicroSD card?

A1 : You can back up your apps and games on the phone to teh SD card using a back up and restore app. You can try to use  Mybackup https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rerware.android.MyBackup&feature=search_result

Note that your games progress levels may not be able to be backed up.

Q2 : When I run the update from 2.3.2 to 2.3.3... Does it erase every thing on the internal memory?

A2 : Yes, So use the Mybackup app to back up all the phone data, settings and apps that are on the phone's internal memory to the SD card.

Q3 : Also when I backup the apps and games will it backup the data from the  apps and games?  Like will it backup the saved game data so I can  continue at the same level after the Android OS update?  If not is there  a way I can find and back that data up myself?  Where is the data from  apps saved and where is the game progress saved from games?

A3 : Refer to Q1 & Q2.  If you have used the Mybackup app, the backups will be in the SD card under the rerware folder and specifically in the MyBackup sub folder

Just to be on the safe side, although the update should not affect the contents of the SD card, after you have performed the back up, do a manual transfer of all your data from the SD card to your PC or some other storage devices.

Also back up your contacts to an online service like Google Sync. If not you can also back up your contacts to your SD memory card (Contacts ---> Press the right silver key ---> Back up contacts ---> memory card --> Accept )

[#8]

Q2 : When I run the update from 2.3.2 to 2.3.3... Does it erase every thing on the internal memory?
A2 : Yes, So use the Mybackup app to back up all the phone data, settings and apps that are on the phone's internal memory to the SD card

really? hmmm. I've ran two updates on my phone, and neither of which touched anything on the internal memory.

at least, i assume it didn't, as I thought the internal memory was where all the settings for the home screen, call logs, sound profiles etc

are stored, and none of them were altered

to be fair, as long as my contacts are backed up (cheers Google!) everything else is just cosmetic. Yes, its irritating to replace 40 or 50

apps if the phone is wiped, but just being able to sign back into Google and have all your contacts reappear in a few seconds is just

superb

[#9]

Well I think it does but I could be mistaken. I did my 2.3.2 to 2.3.3 some months ago and using the manual method.

A colleague of mine did an update funnily enough today, through PC Companion and he complained that his phone settings were gone, had to download all the apps again and to make matters worse, the language after the update was in Chinese.

Luckily I used my phone as a reference and making a few educated guesses managed to figured out that the English option was around the 7th or 8th position in the language list.

Anyway if you are updating the phone by manually flashing the firmware with the wipe user data option ticked, it will certainly wipe the phone data.

Always good practice to back up stuff before doing updates/upgrades

[therealjohn1]

Hey mtlevy ?

You said...

really? hmmm. I've ran two updated on my phone, and neither of wich touched anything on the internal memory.
at least i assume it didn't, as I thought the internal memory was where all the settings for the home screen, call logs, sound profiles etc are stored, and non of them were altered

When you did the updates did you do it from PC Companion through the USB cable OR did U do it on the smart phone using WIFI ?

and a question to anyone that can answer it...

Does it make any difference if I update the phone from PC Companion using USB cable or if I update it through WIFI on the phone ?  Is it more likely to keep the phone's internal memory untouched if do the update on the phone with WIFI ??