Android backup

[Erich Eckner]

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Hi,

I was wondering, if it was possible to back up an Android phone with
bareos. I searched the playstore, but couldn't find anything - but maybe,
there's some "inofficial" app/solution?

regards,
Erich

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[Spadajspadaj]

In general, Android backup is - to put it delicately - a completely
screwed up thing.

Especially if you don't have your phone rooted.

[Erich Eckner]

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On Tue, 6 Jul 2021, Spadajspadaj wrote:

> In general, Android backup is - to put it delicately - a completely screwed
> up thing.
>
> Especially if you don't have your phone rooted.

Yes, I imagined, it would be difficult/impossible to back up a complete
phone, when it's not rooted. However, I could imagine backing up "user
data" (images, address book, emails, etc.) with some pipe-like endpoint.

regards,
Erich

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[Erich Eckner]

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On Tue, 6 Jul 2021, Spadajspadaj wrote:

> In general, Android backup is - to put it delicately - a completely screwed
> up thing.
>
> Especially if you don't have your phone rooted.

Yes, I imagined, it would be difficult/impossible to back up a complete
phone, when it's not rooted. However, I could imagine backing up "user
data" (images, address book, emails, etc.) with some pipe-like endpoint.

regards,
Erich

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[Spadajspadaj]

On 10.07.2021 09:10, Erich Eckner wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 2021, Spadajspadaj wrote:
>
> > In general, Android backup is - to put it delicately - a completely
> screwed up thing.
>
> > Especially if you don't have your phone rooted.
>
> Yes, I imagined, it would be difficult/impossible to back up a
> complete phone, when it's not rooted. However, I could imagine backing
> up "user data" (images, address book, emails, etc.) with some
> pipe-like endpoint.
>

Not necessarily. Without root any access to other app's data is severly
limited (if not completely blocked). There is more access via USB with
debugging enabled and adb tool but still to back up the data this way
the app must permit it (there is a setting in app's manifest saying
whether adb backup will access this app's data or not). And thirdly -
even with root access there is a huge PITA with migrating system apps'
data (phonebook, text messages and so on) between different phones. Been
there, done that, ended up with manually decrypting and unpacking app
and converting contacts to CSV or ldif.

Mobile phones - their backups and/or migrations have "since always" been
a completely horrible experience for me.

[Erich Eckner]

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ok, I see. Thank you for your input!

regards,
Erich

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[Spadajspadaj]

On 10.07.2021 18:51, Erich Eckner wrote:
>
> >> > In general, Android backup is - to put it delicately - a
> completely screwed up thing.
> >>
> >> > Especially if you don't have your phone rooted.
> >>
> >> Yes, I imagined, it would be difficult/impossible to back up a
> complete phone, when it's not rooted. However, I could imagine backing
> up "user data" (images, address book, emails, etc.) with some
> pipe-like endpoint.
> >>
> > Not necessarily. Without root any access to other app's data is
> severly limited (if not completely blocked). There is more access via
> USB with debugging enabled and adb tool but still to back up the data
> this way the app must permit it (there is a setting in app's manifest
> saying whether adb backup will access this app's data or not). And
> thirdly - even with root access there is a huge PITA with migrating
> system apps' data (phonebook, text messages and so on) between
> different phones. Been there, done that, ended up with manually
> decrypting and unpacking app and converting contacts to CSV or ldif.
>
> > Mobile phones - their backups and/or migrations have "since always"
> been a completely horrible experience for me.
>
> ok, I see. Thank you for your input!

To give you an idea of how I backup my android device:

1) For text messages (and call logs) - app called SMS Backup and restore
- it creates a dump of text messages using Android API and stores it in
a XML file if I remember correctly. You can restore the backup with the
same app on another phone - tried it, does work.

2) For contacts - there is nothing reasonable really, except built-in
synchronization with external account. As I don't want to push my
contacts to gmail or another such services, I have my own CardDAV server
running radicale

3) For app data - I have a script that does a batch dump of app data for
every installed app (as I wrote before - it doesn't work for some apps
which don't allow it - mostly games or banking apps) using adb from
android tools (it does a separate dump of each app thus needs to
simulate entering password and "clicking" on screen with adb in order to
not require you to enter the password separately for each app). I simply
attach my phone with USB cable to my laptop and run this script from
time to time.

Unfortunately, I don't see any easier reliable way. Of course you may
try to synchronize your data with gmail account but - to be honest, I'm
not sure how well it works (especially with those apps which are set as
not-backuppable) and it does raise some privacy concerns for me.

HTH

PS: Since we're drifting from the main topic of this list PM me if you
want more details about the script.