What good is backup assistant?

[recDNA]

I know backup assistant backs up contacts but Google does that anyway....so what good is it? Can it be disabled?

 

[FrankXS]

Only thing I have heard is that it helps to creat duplicate contacts if you ever restore.

I like My Backup Pro (for non-rooted phones) from the Market. ~$4.99 or so. I can't remember exactly.

-Frank

 

[recDNA]

But again....doesn't Google already do that? You load gmail and all the contacts.come with it.

What does.backup pro do for you?

 

[FrankXS]

But again....doesn't Google already do that? You load gmail and all the contacts.come with it.

What does.backup pro do for you?

My Backup Pro on non-rooted phones:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rerware.android.MyBackupPro&feature=search_result

-Frank

 

[Cyber Warrior]

I know backup assistant backs up contacts but Google does that anyway....so what good is it? Can it be disabled?

There's no real way of actually deleting it from the phone unless you are rooted but there is a workaround.
One... would be a factory reset and skip the activation of Backup Assistant during the setup.

An easier way without going through all that trouble:
Go to Menu.. Settings.. Applications.. Manage Applications.. All.. Scroll down to Backup Assistant and clear the data and cache.

This will stop it from running in the background and bring you back to the activation screen. If you click on the app you will notice that it will ask for you to activate it... DON'T... or you're back to where you started.

 

[recDNA]

When you say it brings me back to the activation screen...does that mean I have to reinstall everything?

 

[Cyber Warrior]

When you say it brings me back to the activation screen...does that mean I have to reinstall everything?

No.. it brings you back to the Backup Assistant activation screen... if you don't want it running and are using Google for your contacts.. (which I recommend doing) .. then don't agree to activate it.... just back out of the app.

 

[recDNA]

I did as you said. I was able to clear data but clear cache was grayed out. It never went to.activation screen. I hit force stop but nothing.
I the.did.settings>sync and checked and backup assistant is.still set to.sync in the morning. Clearing data doesn't appear.to do anything.

 

[wildman]

I did as you said. I was able to clear data but clear cache was grayed out. It never went to.activation screen. I hit force stop but nothing.
I the.did.settings>sync and checked and backup assistant is.still set to.sync in the morning. Clearing data doesn't appear.to do anything.

This is because the correct directly is Go to Menu.. Settings.. Applications.. Manage Applications.. All.. Scroll down to Sync Services and clear the data and cache.

 

[recDNA]

But then gmail and touchdown won't sync either! I only want to dump backup assistant.

 

[wildman]

But then gmail and touchdown won't sync either! I only want to dump backup assistant.

Ive clear that plenty of times when I got tired of using BA and I never had any issues with Google.. Also that has nothing to do with Touchdown.

 

[recDNA]

I did as you said and cleared data in backup assistant but it never took me to any startup screen. No big deal. Just figured one less thing running in the background.

I wish we could.just get the bare bones Android.setup and customize phones ourselves without the need to root. I thought that was the idea of Android. It's getting to be just as locked up as iPhone.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

I did as you said. I was able to clear data but clear cache was grayed out. It never went to.activation screen. I hit force stop but nothing.
I the.did.settings>sync and checked and backup assistant is.still set to.sync in the morning. Clearing data doesn't appear.to do anything.

Sorry.. I skipped a few steps.. It's been a while since I had to do this, I always root my phones right away.
Anyhow.. here's the complete list of instructions:

1) Be sure to have all your contacts backed up to your Gmail account. Check online before proceeding to step 2.

2) Log into your My Verizon account. Go to the contacts tab, sort by list view and select all contacts. Delete the entire list. There's a deleted contacts tab as well. Select that and delete anything that's in there.

3) Go into your Thunderbolt settings tab, select applications, manage applications. Do not sort or filter, allow list to populate. Select Sync Service, (icon resembles backup assistant icon) select clear data.

4) Also in manage applications scroll down to backup assistant, select clear data.

5) To verify backup assistant is now disabled, select settings, accounts and sync, then under manage accounts, select backup assistant. You should be looking at a license agreement screen.

No more backup assistant, no factory reset.

 

[wildman]

I did as you said and cleared data in backup assistant but it never took me to any startup screen. No big deal. Just figured one less thing running in the background.

I wish we could.just get the bare bones Android.setup and customize phones ourselves without the need to root. I thought that was the idea of Android. It's getting to be just as locked up as iPhone.

When they said it would show the start up screen is when you go to open BA it will prompt you to put info in again to use app.. But I learned clearing BA data doesn't clear BA info for log on... If you try to open BA and it doesnt ask for info again it wasn't cleared and still running in background..

 

[Comineeyeaha]

I wish we could.just get the bare bones Android.setup and customize phones ourselves without the need to root. I thought that was the idea of Android. It's getting to be just as locked up as iPhone.

Yeah, that would be nice, but it was never really intended by Google to be a platform which was completely open to the customer, but rather to the manufacturer/carrier. Some give us more liberties than others, but people forget (or don't realize) that we're getting what Google intended.

 

[recDNA]

I didn't know that.

 

[recDNA]

Sorry.. I skipped a few steps.. It's been a while since I had to do this, I always root my phones right away.
Anyhow.. here's the complete list of instructions:

1) Be sure to have all your contacts backed up to your Gmail account. Check online before proceeding to step 2.

2) Log into your My Verizon account. Go to the contacts tab, sort by list view and select all contacts. Delete the entire list. There's a deleted contacts tab as well. Select that and delete anything that's in there.

3) Go into your Thunderbolt settings tab, select applications, manage applications. Do not sort or filter, allow list to populate. Select Sync Service, (icon resembles backup assistant icon) select clear data.

4) Also in manage applications scroll down to backup assistant, select clear data.

5) To verify backup assistant is now disabled, select settings, accounts and sync, then under manage accounts, select backup assistant. You should be looking at a license agreement screen.

No more backup assistant, no factory reset.

First - Thanks for all the help!

Oddly, when I went to Backup Assistant in myverizon the only thing in it was the data# etc., none of my personal gmail contacts were there. I was surprised because my phone would actually show Backup Assistant syncing. What was it syncing to? Backup Assistant wasn't really set up in myverizon until I selected it. ANyway..

This time I did get the licence screen and backed out as you instructed but it still shows an active green circle with the arrows indicating a service that still syncs so I guess it is running in the background.

With my luck I'll have duplicate contacts now.

 

[Mortiel]

The only need for BUA is if you go to a non-Google compatible device, which is pretty much basic phones at this point... And most Android devices have some kind of contact linking so duplicates are less obnoxious.

I personally never set up BUA because all my contacts are synced to my Outlook, and thus my Google and Live accounts, which covers the Androids and WP7s I use.

Sent over the most advanced 4G network in America: Verizon LTE.

 

[FrankXS]

The only need for BUA is if you go to a non-Google compatible device, which is pretty much basic phones at this point...

Exactly. I used to use Backup Assistant when I had a flip phone. But not since I started with smartphones. All smartphones have much better alternatives.

-Frank

 

[anon(394005)]

I only used backup assistant once to transfer contacts from an old feature phone to the Thunderbolt. Since then, I've flashed the phone a few times (leaked and official MR2) and have never used it again (also deleted them off my Verizon account). To backup contacts now, I export them to the SD card, then copy off the file to my network attached storage. I don't trust Google with much more than my e-mail, so contacts are NOT synced to them. I don't trust "Cloud" stuff much anyway, instead prefer my own local storage that I have complete control over. A little paranoid security.