Any idea what is automatically backed up? Has anybody tried a complete restore?

[douglerner]

In this support page:

https://support.google.com/nexus/7/answer/2819582?p=settings_backup&hl=en&version=18&rd=1

it explains automatic backup and what happens during restore. But it doesn't really give any details about what is backed up, what the backup limits are, if you can check your backups to see when the latest backup was, and what happens after a restore.

Has anybody tried it? Does anybody know? Is it somewhat similar to an automatic iCloud backup of an iOS device?

The parts on are interested in or where it says:


Back up my data. If you check this option, a wide variety of your personal data is backed up automatically, such as app data, Wi-Fi passwords, and other settings.

Automatic restore. Check this option to restore settings and other data when you reinstall an app. This feature requires that you are backing up your data with your Google Account and that the app is using the backup service.

After resetting your device, you'll need to re-enter the same information requested when you first set up your device. If you've been backing up your data to a Google Account, an option during the setup process allows you to restore it.

Doug

 

[douglerner]

Ok, I decided to call Google Tech support and ask them and (1) had my first positive experience with Google Tech support and (2) this isn't as bad as I thought.

In Settings > Google you can get fairly complete detail on what is backed up for each Google account, and when the last backup was for each item. From there you can also force a manual resynch of everything or individual items, and these are restored if you need to do a full factory reset.

If you need a full factory reset you can go into Google Play > My Apps and get all your apps restored. You can also send apps to your device from your Mac or PC via Google Play from your computer, which is not something you can do with iTunes. I think that is an interesting feature.

The tech person also said he would send me a followup info summarizing all this, even though he was very clear.

This is fairly equivalent to iTunes iCloud backup. In addition iTunes offers a complete encrypted backup directly on your computer which does a 100% full restore of everything. The Nexus doesn't offer something as good as that. But I do feel this is roughly as good as an iTunes iCloud backup.

Some things are not as good - for example you have to do that one extra step to retrieve all your apps from Google Play. And if your app had special data like game scores stored those are not saved for all apps. It is for others, like Google Photos.

But in other cases it is better - like that feature where you can send apps directly from Google Play to your device, which is very convenient and interesting.

I am satisfied with this for now, and no longer feel like I would just be left "hanging there" if I needed to do a factory reset or exchange the device.

doug