Had a chance to try out the new Auto Backup for Apps feature in MM. TLDR: it's pretty much useless.
After "upgrading" to MM and everything seemed stable I went ahead and unlocked my bootloader so I could root the phone. When unlocking the bootloader, the device is wiped so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the new app backup feature.
After the wipe...just about everything was gone. What about the new app back up feature? Why didn't it work? Well, basically the app developers need to utilize the Google's new API 23. And the vast majority do not. Out of my hundreds of apps...only 20 are managed backups and most of those apps are ones like Clock, Digital Personalizations, Google App, Google Keyboard, NFC Services, Setup, User Dictionary, etc... The only third party apps that that were backed up were GPS Status and Sudoku Free. Glad those were backed up. All text messages through the stock Messaging app were gone, Phone logs gone, Bluetooth settings gone, etc... All the things that I really wanted backed up were not. When you have 15 Bluetooth devices...it's a real pain having to pair everything over again. Why is Bluetooth, an integral part of Android, not backed up??
If you want to see what is backed up you need to go into Settings in Goggle Drive and look under "Manage backup". Why it's not under "Backup & reset" under the phone settings is a real mystery to me. Not intuitive at all. I only found it after trying to figure out why nothing was backed up. You can read about it here: Where to view your backed-up apps on Android 6.0 Marshmallow - CNET
Yes, eventually app developers will get onboard and this feature will be more useful but right now it's useless and the fact that this feature isn't really fully explained will cause many users undue grief. ARS Technica has good article about the implementation of this feature: Android 6.0 has a great auto backup system that no one is using (yet) | Ars Technica
If you want a real backup solution you need to be rooted so you can use Titanium BackUp which does an excellent job. You can set up schedules, pick what to backup. You can save many, many backups so that when an app is "improved" and breaks functionality you can go back to an older version of the app. It's everything you want in a backup solution.
So, why does Google leave their non-rooted users to flounder with poorly implemented features? Because they are obsessed with streamlining, simplicity and form. They have seemingly forgotten about function. I do bash Google regularly for Android. That's because I really don't like the direction they have taken since Jellybean to become more iOS-like. If I wanted iOS I would buy an iPhone (which is an excellent product if you like simplicity). I wish I didn't have to root my phones to get them to behave the way I want.
After "upgrading" to MM and everything seemed stable I went ahead and unlocked my bootloader so I could root the phone. When unlocking the bootloader, the device is wiped so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the new app backup feature.
After the wipe...just about everything was gone. What about the new app back up feature? Why didn't it work? Well, basically the app developers need to utilize the Google's new API 23. And the vast majority do not. Out of my hundreds of apps...only 20 are managed backups and most of those apps are ones like Clock, Digital Personalizations, Google App, Google Keyboard, NFC Services, Setup, User Dictionary, etc... The only third party apps that that were backed up were GPS Status and Sudoku Free. Glad those were backed up. All text messages through the stock Messaging app were gone, Phone logs gone, Bluetooth settings gone, etc... All the things that I really wanted backed up were not. When you have 15 Bluetooth devices...it's a real pain having to pair everything over again. Why is Bluetooth, an integral part of Android, not backed up??
If you want to see what is backed up you need to go into Settings in Goggle Drive and look under "Manage backup". Why it's not under "Backup & reset" under the phone settings is a real mystery to me. Not intuitive at all. I only found it after trying to figure out why nothing was backed up. You can read about it here: Where to view your backed-up apps on Android 6.0 Marshmallow - CNET
Yes, eventually app developers will get onboard and this feature will be more useful but right now it's useless and the fact that this feature isn't really fully explained will cause many users undue grief. ARS Technica has good article about the implementation of this feature: Android 6.0 has a great auto backup system that no one is using (yet) | Ars Technica
If you want a real backup solution you need to be rooted so you can use Titanium BackUp which does an excellent job. You can set up schedules, pick what to backup. You can save many, many backups so that when an app is "improved" and breaks functionality you can go back to an older version of the app. It's everything you want in a backup solution.
So, why does Google leave their non-rooted users to flounder with poorly implemented features? Because they are obsessed with streamlining, simplicity and form. They have seemingly forgotten about function. I do bash Google regularly for Android. That's because I really don't like the direction they have taken since Jellybean to become more iOS-like. If I wanted iOS I would buy an iPhone (which is an excellent product if you like simplicity). I wish I didn't have to root my phones to get them to behave the way I want.
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