The one thing that kills Android for me

[spinedoc77]

If you have a Google account all Google applications are automatically backed up. You can buy any phone, switch any phone, switch to any tablet and your Google apps are exactly where you left them. No need to plug into a computer and wait an hour or two to get a backup.

Now, if you aren't rooted and want to back up all your sms, call logs, data and apps there is the app Helium. Same slow backup and restore as itunes.

If rooted, it is no contest. Apple is slow, clunky, and antiquated compared to backing up on Android. This is one of the main reasons to root your phone. You can back up single apps, multiple apps or the entire phone. Between Titanium Backup and ROM manager, you can be up and running from old phone to new phone in less than 10 minutes.

Hmm, how do you enable apps to be already installed, have all user settings saved, game saves, etc? I don't think it snapshots these, but I'm not sure as I haven't used it much.

I don't see how Apple is slow or clunky, it's invisible, seamless. Titanium is fairly complex, ROM manager is very complex if you are talking about flashing and adjusting entire ROM's. We are talking about the unwashed masses here, not about you or me who can figure that stuff out, or even care to figure it out. The ability to not think EVER about backing up your phone is what consumers want, that is streamlined and modern IMO.

 

[jrswizzle]

Uh, yeah. Most launchers have a backup feature to do exactly this. Nova launcher for example. And it only takes 1 second to restore the look of the phone. jrswizzle doesn't have much of a clue when it comes to Android, so you may want to look elsewhere for info.

Ha, I've actually already addressed this. Completely aware there are backup options within each app itself. My desire for a central, complete "one-stop shop" still goes without an option (save for rooting, which I have neither the time nor patience for).

Not sure what is so antiquated about Apple's implementation? If it takes so long, maybe try getting off that dial-up internet you have?

Takes a matter of minutes for me - save for the 1GB+ games - which I'm fine with letting them download. But really, ANY cloud-based, over the air backup solution is only as fast as the internet connection you have so.....

Oh and best part, this was all setup in the first 5 minutes of me having my first iCloud enabled phone. Simply log into iCloud and voila. Really can't get much simpler and I never have to think about backing anything up....it all happens quietly in the background.

Troll harder.

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Hmm, how do you enable apps to be already installed, have all user settings saved, game saves, etc? I don't think it snapshots these, but I'm not sure as I haven't used it much.

I don't see how Apple is slow or clunky, it's invisible, seamless. Titanium is fairly complex, ROM manager is very complex if you are talking about flashing and adjusting entire ROM's. We are talking about the unwashed masses here, not about you or me who can figure that stuff out, or even care to figure it out. The ability to not think EVER about backing up your phone is what consumers want, that is streamlined and modern IMO.

Assault looks for any way to bash Apple (most of the time, he completely makes stuff up). I think perhaps Apple did something to one of his family members....really the only thing I can think of that would explain the hatred this guy has for a corporate entity.

 

[eclipse01]

Uh, yeah. Most launchers have a backup feature to do exactly this. Nova launcher for example. And it only takes 1 second to restore the look of the phone. jrswizzle doesn't have much of a clue when it comes to Android, so you may want to look elsewhere for info.

I don't really know what these are? I do know I did try Helium backup on my Nexus and as promised I didn't have to root my device for a backup, but I did have to do like 5 things to my Nexus to get it to sync with my PC, even after I was done, I was unable to store the image file on my computer (it had to stay on the device) which defeated the purpose for me.

I could see this being an ok option if I had an SD card in my device. But even then, what if I lose it?

 

[Assault]

Hmm, how do you enable apps to be already installed, have all user settings saved, game saves, etc? I don't think it snapshots these, but I'm not sure as I haven't used it much.

I don't see how Apple is slow or clunky, it's invisible, seamless. Titanium is fairly complex, ROM manager is very complex if you are talking about flashing and adjusting entire ROM's. We are talking about the unwashed masses here, not about you or me who can figure that stuff out, or even care to figure it out. The ability to not think EVER about backing up your phone is what consumers want, that is streamlined and modern IMO.

Titanium is complex? Open app, click on app you wnt to back up, click 'backup'. Not very difficult. Want to back up all apps, click Menu, ensure all apps are checked and hit start. Not difficult.
ROM Manager is even easier. Open app, click backup. The entire phone at that very second is saved as a snapshot. Just like iTunes does with an iPhone. Want to restore to that point. Open app, click restore. Not sure where the difficulty you see is?
Not rooted, download Helium. Click backup. It will take a while, but all data is saved to the cloud. Want your apps back. Open app and restore.

And if you are using TiBU or ROM Manager, you have already rooted your phone, which is so simple, I see 5 year olds doing it these days.

 

[jrswizzle]

Titanium is complex? Open app, click on app you wnt to back up, click 'backup'. Not very difficult. Want to back up all apps, click Menu, ensure all apps are checked and hit start. Not difficult.
ROM Manager is even easier. Open app, click backup. The entire phone at that very second is saved as a snapshot. Just like iTunes does with an iPhone. Want to restore to that point. Open app, click restore. Not sure where the difficulty you see is?
Not rooted, download Helium. Click backup. It will take a while, but all data is saved to the cloud. Want your apps back. Open app and restore.

And if you are using TiBU or ROM Manager, you have already rooted your phone, which is so simple, I see 5 year olds doing it these days.

This is a difference in thinking. One camp says that a phone not coming with functionality is OK because of all these options and ways you can do things. The other camp says I want functionality out of the box so I don't have to think about it later.

There's great things about each camp. I still don't think the non-rooted options are anywhere near as clean and easy as iCloud backups. When I tried Helium I had to purchase it to use the cloud backups.....rather not have to pay for a functionality I get for free on my iPhone.

Anyhow - the launcher backup and Google's backup work enough for now I guess.....I STILL would love for Google to implement a complete backup option on their stock devices (Nexus/GE). I don't see why they couldn't. I also don't see why I need to use a social networking site to backup all my photos.....especially since I don't ever use that site.

God, there are way too many things to keep up with.....I guess I'm in the dwindling minority of people who want things simple, clean and efficient yet powerful.

 

[Assault]

I don't really know what these are? I do know I did try Helium backup on my Nexus and as promised I didn't have to root my device for a backup, but I did have to do like 5 things to my Nexus to get it to sync with my PC, even after I was done, I was unable to store the image file on my computer (it had to stay on the device) which defeated the purpose for me.

I could see this being an ok option if I had an SD card in my device. But even then, what if I lose it?

Go to Play Store and download Nova Launcher. Set up all your homescreens like you want. Go to Nova Launcher settings and click Backup. Now you can make any changes you want to your homescreens and if you hate them, go back into Nova Launcher settings and click restore. Your screens will go back to how they were when you clicked backup. Simple.

As for connecting to a PC, let me ask you this. Did you just plug your iPhone into a PC and expect it to connect? Or did you have to download iTunes, set it up, connect your iPhone, wait for it to check for updates, then download all your data (if it didn't delete your phones data first!) and then you could use it? Wow, look at all those steps involved?

 

[spinedoc77]

Takes a matter of minutes for me - save for the 1GB+ games - which I'm fine with letting them download. But really, ANY cloud-based, over the air backup solution is only as fast as the internet connection you have so.....

The nice part about Apple's backup is when you restore it doesn't restore all your apps right away, just your core stuff so it's literally a matter of minutes. Then when you boot into iOS for the first time it downloads all your apps and they install with their old settings, saves, etc. Quite nice IMO.

From my limited knowledge I don't Googles backup does that at all. Plus if you are literally backing up the apps you are creating a pretty large backup, which might be unwieldy if you want to transfer it, or get it onto the cloud.

 

[jrswizzle]

The nice part about Apple's backup is when you restore it doesn't restore all your apps right away, just your core stuff so it's literally a matter of minutes. Then when you boot into iOS for the first time it downloads all your apps and they install with their old settings, saves, etc. Quite nice IMO.

From my limited knowledge I don't Googles backup does that at all. Plus if you are literally backing up the apps you are creating a pretty large backup, which might be unwieldy if you want to transfer it, or get it onto the cloud.

Yup - usually I tend to restore on my home wifi though so I know everything will download as quickly as possible without interruption.

Makes me feel better I guess.

 

[spinedoc77]

Titanium is complex? Open app, click on app you wnt to back up, click 'backup'. Not very difficult. Want to back up all apps, click Menu, ensure all apps are checked and hit start. Not difficult.
ROM Manager is even easier. Open app, click backup. The entire phone at that very second is saved as a snapshot. Just like iTunes does with an iPhone. Want to restore to that point. Open app, click restore. Not sure where the difficulty you see is?
Not rooted, download Helium. Click backup. It will take a while, but all data is saved to the cloud. Want your apps back. Open app and restore.

And if you are using TiBU or ROM Manager, you have already rooted your phone, which is so simple, I see 5 year olds doing it these days.

Don't forget you have to root your phone, a process which is complex IMO. Not complex to me, but what about grandma? Or soccer mom? Maybe you deal with 5 year olds from the Mensa Institute, but if I gave my Android phone to my mom and told her to root it, install titanium backup, etc all hell would break loose. No it's not difficult for you and me, it's a bit tedious though. But the vast majority of consumers don't think this way, they like simplicity. Heck even some highly tech users want it like this. Yeah give my mom TiBU or ROM manager, lol.

BTW when going into my Titanium backup/restore checklist I have a ridiculous amount of programs I can check off, including dozens of com.android.xxx.xxx files as one example, does mom check these off or not? How about system services? How about carrier services? Heck even Titanium backup has its own list in there of backup options to backup, lol.

Once again this is from the perspective of the soccer mom, not you or me. With iOS they just enable one function, and never ever have to hit a checklist or even open an app to backup, ever.

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Go to Play Store and download Nova Launcher. Set up all your homescreens like you want. Go to Nova Launcher settings and click Backup. Now you can make any changes you want to your homescreens and if you hate them, go back into Nova Launcher settings and click restore. Your screens will go back to how they were when you clicked backup. Simple.

As for connecting to a PC, let me ask you this. Did you just plug your iPhone into a PC and expect it to connect? Or did you have to download iTunes, set it up, connect your iPhone, wait for it to check for updates, then download all your data (if it didn't delete your phones data first!) and then you could use it? Wow, look at all those steps involved?

Actually no. I hit backup to the cloud option on the phone itself and that's it, one step.

 

[jrswizzle]

Don't forget you have to root your phone, a process which is complex IMO. Not complex to me, but what about grandma? Or soccer mom? Maybe you deal with 5 year olds from the Mensa Institute, but if I gave my Android phone to my mom and told her to root it, install titanium backup, etc all hell would break loose. No it's not difficult for you and me, it's a bit tedious though. But the vast majority of consumers don't think this way, they like simplicity. Heck even some highly tech users want it like this. Yeah give my mom TiBU or ROM manager, lol.

BTW when going into my Titanium backup/restore checklist I have a ridiculous amount of programs I can check off, including dozens of com.android.xxx.xxx files as one example, does mom check these off or not? How about system services? How about carrier services? Heck even Titanium backup has its own list in there of backup options to backup, lol.

Once again this is from the perspective of the soccer mom, not you or me. With iOS they just enable one function, and never ever have to hit a checklist or even open an app to backup, ever.

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Actually no. I hit backup to the cloud option on the phone itself and that's it, one step.

I want to point out that you could use me in your example instead of a soccer mom. I'm fully capable of rooting, have jailbroken numerous times on my iPhones and am generally relatively knowledgeable about tech and really enjoy it (Assault will disagree on the "knowledgeable" part - I don't know everything, that's true).

That all being said, I prefer the implementation that gives me complete backup functionality I only have to set up once and never have to think about again unless I need to. Also helps that it works quickly, seamlessly and its free (unless you want to store multiple devices' stuff). It's also all in one place which I prefer.

Not just soccer moms and old people. There are plenty of us tech enthusiasts who like the simpler, more elegant option. I've toyed with the idea of rooting my Androids for fun, but never got around to it.....I guess there's other things I'd rather do with my time.

 

[eclipse01]

Go to Play Store and download Nova Launcher. Set up all your homescreens like you want. Go to Nova Launcher settings and click Backup. Now you can make any changes you want to your homescreens and if you hate them, go back into Nova Launcher settings and click restore. Your screens will go back to how they were when you clicked backup. Simple.

As for connecting to a PC, let me ask you this. Did you just plug your iPhone into a PC and expect it to connect? Or did you have to download iTunes, set it up, connect your iPhone, wait for it to check for updates, then download all your data (if it didn't delete your phones data first!) and then you could use it? Wow, look at all those steps involved?

At least it didn't involve me putting my device into camera mode, install special drivers for my device onto my pc, putting my device into developer mode, making me impossible to use my device in explorer mode unless I uninstalled the drivers and took them out of that mode.

its a pain in the butt, and more hassle then it was worth!

 

[spinedoc77]

I want to point out that you could use me in your example instead of a soccer mom. I'm fully capable of rooting, have jailbroken numerous times on my iPhones and am generally relatively knowledgeable about tech and really enjoy it (Assault will disagree on the "knowledgeable" part - I don't know everything, that's true).

That all being said, I prefer the implementation that gives me complete backup functionality I only have to set up once and never have to think about again unless I need to. Also helps that it works quickly, seamlessly and its free (unless you want to store multiple devices' stuff). It's also all in one place which I prefer.

Not just soccer moms and old people. There are plenty of us tech enthusiasts who like the simpler, more elegant option. I've toyed with the idea of rooting my Androids for fun, but never got around to it.....I guess there's other things I'd rather do with my time.

Just to clarify, I don't mean soccer mom or grandma in any kind of derogatory way. I am an excellent example, I used to tinker for hours on end. But I'm married now, with an 18month old daughter and a career that requires 60-70 hours of work. I don't have the time or inclination sometimes to tinker with things, especially things which SHOULD work seamlessly and out of the box IMO. I'd rather tinker with things that are fun, or not tinker at all (or rant on an internet forum when I should be preparing patient reports...hehe).

 

[scott craft]

I hate resetting non-rooted android phones. I've never had much luck getting anything besides contacts to sync. I guess I should spend the money to get the paid version of helium since using it to back up to my computer hasn't worked that well for me. In my opinion backup and restore is one thing Apple does better.

 

[Apollo 13]

Never installed quicktime on my PC and and everything works fine.

 

[gotluck]

Well fwiw I do not spend very much time customizing my phone. There was a few hours learning curve on ADB and the fastboot process on my device. Otherwise my phone is stock rooted for a couple of root apps I can't live without. Its not like I'm day in and out tweaking this. I even use the stock Google launcher for gods sake.

I can see valid complaints from those rooting devices with multi step processes, but realize phones with unlocked bootloaders (non carrier phones+ T-Mobile) are very easy to deal with and in many cases can fully revert the root for warranty service.

Unfortunally having root access makes android way better. Backups included. But at least in my case, all I'm doing with the root access is installing apps that use it. Its not like I'm editing system files by hand.

 

[alphaod]

For advanced users android has the best backup for mobile devices there is: nandroids are full system images

That said, I Dont really care about backups. Contacts are autosynced with gmail and I manually move my pictures or use drop box or something. Game data is the most painful to save.

Even though I consider myself an "advanced user" by normal standards, I switch phones way too often to concern myself having to wait for a root, and going through the process of losing all my stuff and having to install stuff again... just so I can backup properly? And more than often I find I can't restore to a different phone due to some compatibility issue.

Overall I enjoy the Android experience, but having the simplicity in basic tasks in iOS is why I like it so much.

No that's the problem, I DO have to use it. When I install iTunes it forces me to install quicktime. Now when I open many videos on websites, for example, they default to quicktime and there is no way to change that. You can't uninstall quicktime without messing up itunes.

Now I haven't used iTunes in at least a year so what I said may have changed, if so great. I know there were some ways around it also, but they involved tweaking and things no regular consumer would ever do.

But as you say, yeah it's MUCH clunkier for windows. For OSx it all melds in like it's supposed to.

I just reinstalled iTunes on my ThinkPad to check and it didn't force me to install QuickTime.

 

[spinedoc77]

Even though I consider myself an "advanced user" by normal standards, I switch phones way too often to concern myself having to wait for a root, and going through the process of losing all my stuff and having to install stuff again... just so I can backup properly? And more than often I find I can't restore to a different phone due to some compatibility issue.

Overall I enjoy the Android experience, but having the simplicity in basic tasks in iOS is why I like it so much.



I just reinstalled iTunes on my ThinkPad to check and it didn't force me to install QuickTime.

Looks like around 10.5 they stopped forcing the quicktime install. That's how long it's been since I've used it.

 

[gotluck]

Even though I consider myself an "advanced user" by normal standards, I switch phones way too often to concern myself having to wait for a root, and going through the process of losing all my stuff and having to install stuff again... just so I can backup properly? And more than often I find I can't restore to a different phone due to some compatibility issue.

Overall I enjoy the Android experience, but having the simplicity in basic tasks in iOS is why I like it so much.

I hear you and fair enough, however that is the reason i will not buy an android device that doesn't support fastboot. Rooting is trivial and data does not need wiping with fastboot rooting process.

 

[cynics]

The one thing that kills Android for me

Not a fan of Apples back up solution.

One, it's too mysterious. Until you do it you really have no idea how it works albeit simple.

Two, no access to individual files without fumbling through files using 3rd party programs and at this point Android back up is just as easy.

Three and this stems off two. Apple and everyone goes on about how great their back up system is. Yet the slightest problem and Apple will tell you to restore from new since the software glitch will likely be stuck in your back up.

Point in case. Between iOS 6.0 and 6.1 their was a message app bug. What happened to tons of people is when you deleted messages they would disappear however the physical space would not be recovered. If you didn't delete many or any messages during the time of this bug then you were uneffected.

Since message data travels with back ups this space is never recoverable unless you restore from new without using a back up, or using a program like ibackupbot manually modify the back up file and restore the phone to that.

I unfortunately deleted 1.7gb in messages during that time. So I'm screwed by apples fantastic back up method.

 

[Tarzanman]

Google's cloud backup is limited in part because they allow the installation of 3rd party apps.

There are homegrown/3rd party solutions (like Titanium, or custom ROMs or recoverys that let you do full system backups), but these all work through the device interface and not an external desktop/laptop (except for offloading the backup).

As for itunes, it is bloated, clunky and a big turnoff for me.

 

[Apollo 13]

I don't understand this itunes is bloated and clunky. Plz explain how? You don't have to install quicktime so I don't see how it's bloated. As for clunky what makes it clunky? Maybe I don't see anything wrong with itunes because the only thing I use it for is install new updates and update the apps that are backed up on my PC. I buy my music from the itune store on my phone.

 

[coldjeanzzz]

I don't understand the argument of Itunes working like garbage on windows machines, I have never has an issue on my 3-4 year old machine.

I guess it just boils down to whether you have a slow computer or not, but either way I've used iTunes on both Windows and Mac and it's definitely smoother and faster on my Mac. It feels like a lightweight app, it opens instantly and syncs with zero issues.

 

[Sensamic]

I must agree.

I wish we had some PC/Mac backup program. I'm still hoping Google will announce something like this for 4.4.

Don't they see we need it?

 

[onthecouchagain]

Not a fan of Apples back up solution.

One, it's too mysterious. Until you do it you really have no idea how it works albeit simple.

Two, no access to individual files without fumbling through files using 3rd party programs and at this point Android back up is just as easy.

Three and this stems off two. Apple and everyone goes on about how great their back up system is. Yet the slightest problem and Apple will tell you to restore from new since the software glitch will likely be stuck in your back up.

Point in case. Between iOS 6.0 and 6.1 their was a message app bug. What happened to tons of people is when you deleted messages they would disappear however the physical space would not be recovered. If you didn't delete many or any messages during the time of this bug then you were uneffected.

Since message data travels with back ups this space is never recoverable unless you restore from new without using a back up, or using a program like ibackupbot manually modify the back up file and restore the phone to that.

I unfortunately deleted 1.7gb in messages during that time. So I'm screwed by apples fantastic back up method.

I'm glad someone finally said it -- I was too lazy to point these things out myself.

Another problem with the "snapshot" back up is that it doesn't preserve anything you saved or did after that snapshot. So, for example, I once restored my iPhone 5 and I lost photos that I took after the restore point.

Having said that, it was indeed awfully simple and easy to do, but then again, iOS is an awfully simple OS to capture a moment in time with. As others have pointed out, the same thing with Android -- with all its customizations, with all its third party apps set as default, etc. -- would be a bit more complicated.

Besides, Google services backs up everything important that I need already (contacts, downloaded apps, bookmarks, etc.).

Wish there was a way to transfer app data and I mean across any platform. I'd love to see this feature. In general, I'm, of course, for Google providing an even more robust backup system, but I really don't want any "iTunes-equivalent." Just don't think it's necessary.

 

[jrswizzle]

I'm glad someone finally said it -- I was too lazy to point these things out myself.

Another problem with the "snapshot" back up is that it doesn't preserve anything you saved or did after that snapshot. So, for example, I once restored my iPhone 5 and I lost photos that I took after the restore point.

Having said that, it was indeed awfully simple and easy to do, but then again, iOS is an awfully simple OS to capture a moment in time with. As others have pointed out, the same thing with Android -- with all its customizations, with all its third party apps set as default, etc. -- would be a bit more complicated.

Besides, Google services backs up everything important that I need already (contacts, downloaded apps, bookmarks, etc.).

Wish there was a way to transfer app data and I mean across any platform. I'd love to see this feature. In general, I'm, of course, for Google providing an even more robust backup system, but I really don't want any "iTunes-equivalent." Just don't think it's necessary.

Nowadays, there wouldn't be any need for an iTunes-like program for Google to implement the same type of "snapshot" backups through. If you don't want to, you don't have to ever open iTunes at this point.

I understand the issues raised in the quoted post (except for #1 - its explained and set up within the first 5 minutes of you having your first iCloud enabled iPhone and then it's done). I've never had the "bug saved in my backup" so I can't speak to that. I don't deny that some have.

I'm a big fan of the "auto backup" every time I'm plugged in and connected to wifi. Generally that means my iPhone is backed up every night. I don't think I've ever "lost" anything in having to do a restore.

I still would like to see Google offer a more robust back up solution for its Nexus line of phones. You wouldn't be dealing with any OEM skins or software tweaks, it would be completely optional of course (so those who root and use other backup means still can obviously) - but for those of us who simply like to use stock as is but want a quick, easy, seamless way to backup the entirety of our device, I think it would be worthwhile for Google to do.