Backup app running on, and backing up to a hard drive

[Ted Kurkowski]

Help! I'm a senior manager in an IT firm that does a lot of cyber security work. For that reason we've always used Blackberries since RIM understood corporate cyber needs. But the BB OS10 is so bad that it makes Windoze look good so we've switched to Samsung G4s and now G5s.

One of the things RIM did well was a desktop app that did a backup to the local hard drive. I can't find anything like that for an Android OS - all of them run on the phone and want to back up to the microUSB "external" card or to the cloud. In my world, storing data in the cloud,especially a Google cloud, ain't gonna happen. So I'm asking if anyone knows of a Windoze desktop app that will allow our staff to backup their Samsung G4 and G5 handhelds.

Thanks!!!

 

[Rukbat]

Samsung Smart Switch will do what you need. Run it from the PC and set the folder it backs up to (it will back up to the PC).

 

[scottcruss]

As someone who has defined Corp policy for backing up the Blackberries in the past, I can honestly say unless your Android phones are rooted, there is no 100% solid backup solution for Android the same as what RIM offered or what iPhones can do. As much as I am not an Apple fan, both Apple and RIM offered easy to use backup and restore features for their devices. Android does not for some reason. The best way to backup all Google related contacts, email, and calendar are via the Google cloud services. Those are rock solid but not a corp solution. All other backup solutions are 3rd party products including Samsung that are hit or miss if you are not rooted. They do NOT backup and restore all account info, device settings and data. They mostly backup and restore but you never know. You find out when you restore what you are missing. Helium is a good product but not user friendly or 100%. Samsung Smart Switch / Kies is pretty good but not perfect either. It works better when upgrading/transferring to a new device. It will definitely miss things for just backup. I guess the best comparison is like trying to backup a server that has open files without an open file agent running.