Backup Options

[sjamie]

There seems to be a lot of backup options out there with Titanium Backup and My Backup Pro leading the pack.

What are the differences between these apps? Is there anything that will allow you create a complete backup image of your entire phone like Acronis True Image or Ghost for a PC?

I have root access.

 

[sjamie]

Now that I have root access, I know my potential to destroy my phone is greater. Therefore, I want something that would allow me to fully restore it to the point right before I messed things up. On my PC, I always make an image of it before I try something risky. Being able to restore the backed up image has saved my butt on many occasions. I want the same functionality for my Photon.

Any recommendations?

 

[Gator352]

I use backup pro. I can't attest to completely destroying my phone to the point of completely restoring, but it works good enough to restore everything to the way it was before a full wipe!! :-!

 

[sjamie]

I use backup pro. I can't attest to completely destroying my phone to the point of completely restoring, but it works good enough to restore everything to the way it was before a full wipe!! :-!

That's good to know. How well does it work in transferring apps and settings from one phone to the next? Does it do anything that Titanium doesn't do?

 

[Gator352]

I never have tried titanium. But Backup Pro transfrerred everything from Evo 4g to evo 3d to evo 3d to evo 3d to photon wihtout a hitch.

 

[VDub2174]

That's good to know. How well does it work in transferring apps and settings from one phone to the next? Does it do anything that Titanium doesn't do?

I used MyBackup Pro when I got my MoPho and transferred all my apps from my EVO 4G without a problem.

 

[sjamie]

I used MyBackup Pro when I got my MoPho and transferred all my apps from my EVO 4G without a problem.

Great! Did your game status (ie. Angry Birds progress) and system settings (ie. selected ringtone for email account) transfer too?

I'm trying to decide between MyBackup Pro and Titanium Backup. I thought I read somewhere that it was recommended to get both because they specialize in different functions. So, I'm curious to see if one does something than the other or if they are in fact equal and it just comes down to personal preference like Acronis True Image vs. Norton Ghost.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Any suggestions for the unrooted phone? It seems like it ought to be safer not to root, and there's nothing other than backups that I really want that I'd need to root for.

 

[Mike77]

Rooting is pretty safe TBH, but if you really do not need to do it, no sense doing it. I rooted mainly to get the newer version of Swype, its so much better then the one pre-loaded but you have to root in order to fully delete the old one.

 

[dullgeek]

Two offtopic questions

1. Is the purpose of rooting to get access non-standard apps?

2. What makes the newer swype so much better?

 

[ljbad4life]

I have an unrooted photon and motorola media manager does a complete back up on my computer.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Two offtopic questions

1. Is the purpose of rooting to get access non-standard apps?

2. What makes the newer swype so much better?

1. Pretty much. Advantages of rooting include being able to do wifi tethering without paying extra, being able to read and write system files (as you might for a backup) being able to circumvent getting ads on ad-supported software, and being able to load custom ROMs (which may not have been written yet for this phone, but in general they let you do stuff like overclocking.) I'm surprised you can't load some keyboard without rooting, as there are many keyboards you can load. Maybe it's because the newer swype is still beta or somesuch.

Can't help you with 2, as I've never used it. This swype seems to work okay for me, as "guess what I typed" software goes.

 

[Mike77]

1. Pretty much. Advantages of rooting include being able to do wifi tethering without paying extra, being able to read and write system files (as you might for a backup) being able to circumvent getting ads on ad-supported software, and being able to load custom ROMs (which may not have been written yet for this phone, but in general they let you do stuff like overclocking.) I'm surprised you can't load some keyboard without rooting, as there are many keyboards you can load. Maybe it's because the newer swype is still beta or somesuch.

Can't help you with 2, as I've never used it. This swype seems to work okay for me, as "guess what I typed" software goes.

Anytime Swype comes with a phone out of the box, it is not really an app, but part of the OS itself in a way. If you go to the Swype beta, it specifically tells you if your phone came installed with Swype, the beta will not work. You can delete the Swype (version 2.7 I believe) from your Photon but that will cause crashes when you install the beta (version 3.25) if you don't delete a certain file after you remove the pre-installed Swype. You need to root to perform both actions. Delete that file, install Swype beta, and its all good.

3.25 doesn't feel like a beta, it is a huge improvement over 2.7. The word prediction is much better, the word popup is in a much better location and it is easier to add words to the dictionary.

 

[VDub2174]

Great! Did your game status (ie. Angry Birds progress) and system settings (ie. selected ringtone for email account) transfer too?

I'm trying to decide between MyBackup Pro and Titanium Backup. I thought I read somewhere that it was recommended to get both because they specialize in different functions. So, I'm curious to see if one does something than the other or if they are in fact equal and it just comes down to personal preference like Acronis True Image vs. Norton Ghost.

My Angry Birds progress shows as 0% right now and as for ringtones, I started new. I formatted my SD Card when I put it in my MoPho.

Keep in mind though something weird happened when I restored my apps using MBP. Once all apps were on my phone they still didn't show up in the "My Apps" section in the market. I had to go through and "re-download" them so they were recognized but I think there was a fix in the MBP thread over at XDA.

 

[VDub2174]

1. Is the purpose of rooting to get access non-standard apps?

I did it to get free wifi tethering.

 

[eq0120]

I used MyBackup Pro when I got my MoPho and transferred all my apps from my EVO 4G without a problem.

i need some help, im trying to do the same with my backup pro and it keeps telling me no app available, how do i go by getting this working

 

[sjamie]

My Angry Birds progress shows as 0% right now and as for ringtones, I started new. I formatted my SD Card when I put it in my MoPho.

Keep in mind though something weird happened when I restored my apps using MBP. Once all apps were on my phone they still didn't show up in the "My Apps" section in the market. I had to go through and "re-download" them so they were recognized but I think there was a fix in the MBP thread over at XDA.

Thanks! I've decided to use both TB and MB to cover my bases and I'll attempt to restore using TB due to your post.