Backup and restore

[philliplavelle]

Hi folks.

So, after experiencing what I feel is subpar battery life, I've decided that I will have to bite the bullet and do a full factory reset on my fairly new Note 8.

I've been very reluctant to do this because it took me quite a while to get everything set up the way I liked it, and I don't really have the time or the patience to do it all again. But I'm wondering if it is as hard as it sounds?

Bear in mind that the last time I did a full backup and restore was on an old Galaxy S2 which was rooted and Android was a much clunky and less polished operating system back then. I've been using iPhones for several years and their restore from iCloud is pretty good, it copies all of the apps and the settings so all you really have to do is sign it again.

What I'm wondering is how it is with Android these days? If I set my phone up with a full factory reset, will I have to install everything manually again one by one and tweak every setting or does Samsung copy everything across or just Samsung apps? Does Google back it up and restore everything including settings and things like ringtones or just apps? Does Nova back it up? Or do I use a third-party app?

What I really want to do is to just wipe my phone, factory reset it, and then have everything appear as it was before but hopefully with the battery now much better..

One other question is that I have run out of new devices that I can add to Google Play Music, and I am past the limit where you can delete devices so I can't actually add a new phone to my account until Google sorts out for me, I sent them a request but I don't know how long that will take. If I set this up as a new phone, will Google recognize it as the same phone that is already on my account or will it think it is a new device? This is imperative because I use Android auto in my car streaming Google play music on a daily basis.

I'm hopeful that this was sort out the battery life, as I have read multiple people saying that it actually tends to do a lot of good. The phone is only 2 weeks old, but maybe I just set it up in a bad way, or it was affected by the facts that I did I failed smart-switch attempt at the beginning. Who knows.

All advice appreciated. I'm not rooted

 

[chanchan05]

No idea on the Play Music, but for your backup and restore just use Smart Switch to make a backup on your SD card. It will reinstall all apps that weren't locked down by the developer to deny backups. Also app data needs to be backed up accordingly per app. Just don't restore the settings since it may have something to do with the battery.

 

[Telstar1948]

I just did a reset of my Note 8. I used Smart Switch to my desktop computer. I considered the Samsung backup but they've quit backing up everything. Anyway, it reset just fine...but...there was much I had to redo. I expected all my settings etc would be as they were, but no. Your Google Play apps will reinstall as will those from Samsung, but it's a process. Maybe there's a turnkey way to reset a phone and have everything back the way it was, but my experience was not like that, and I couldn't imagine why a full backup using Smart Switch wouldn't have delivered that.

 

[philliplavelle]

I just did a reset of my Note 8. I used Smart Switch to my desktop computer. I considered the Samsung backup but they've quit backing up everything. Anyway, it reset just fine...but...there was much I had to redo. I expected all my settings etc would be as they were, but no. Your Google Play apps will reinstall as will those from Samsung, but it's a process. Maybe there's a turnkey way to reset a phone and have everything back the way it was, but my experience was not like that, and I couldn't imagine why a full backup using Smart Switch wouldn't have delivered that.

Thanks guys - I'm actually trying to avoid using Smart Switch. It's been suggested to me that SS could be the root cause of the battery drain in the first place during the initial setup, while bringing stuff across from my iPhone

 

[kixfan]

This post really makes me miss Titanium Backup. That was the perfect backup/restore method. It was the only reason I considered rooting my last phone even though I decided not to. The V10 was buggy enough without rooting it. LOL

 

[b.grdner]

Thanks guys - I'm actually trying to avoid using Smart Switch. It's been suggested to me that SS could be the root cause of the battery drain in the first place during the initial setup, while bringing stuff across from my iPhone

I had a problem with battery drain on my last Note (5) but found a post on this forum that linked an article that stated that Touchwiz was terrible on battery life. I downloaded and installed Nova launcher and, sure enough, my battery life improved by 50%!

And, since you mentioned backup and recovery, Nova launcher has a backup/recovery feature that saves your launcher settings so you don't have to set it all up again after restoring.

 

[chanchan05]

I just did a reset of my Note 8. I used Smart Switch to my desktop computer. I considered the Samsung backup but they've quit backing up everything. Anyway, it reset just fine...but...there was much I had to redo. I expected all my settings etc would be as they were, but no. Your Google Play apps will reinstall as will those from Samsung, but it's a process. Maybe there's a turnkey way to reset a phone and have everything back the way it was, but my experience was not like that, and I couldn't imagine why a full backup using Smart Switch wouldn't have delivered that.

If you mean app data/settings and setup, as I already said, Smart Switch doesn't do that. It just reinstalls everything.

 

[chanchan05]

Thanks guys - I'm actually trying to avoid using Smart Switch. It's been suggested to me that SS could be the root cause of the battery drain in the first place during the initial setup, while bringing stuff across from my iPhone

Doubt it really since Smart Switch isn't actively running. However due to inherent differences in the OS, some of your settings in iOS may be causing a bigger drain when applied to Android.

 

[amyf27]

I did a factory reset on my originalNote 8 when I was having issues, shortly before I had it replaced under warranty. In my case, during the rebooting process, I counted at least 20 times it went to the Samsung screen over and over and over again, before it finally booted back up. Restore wise, in my case it restored a good bit, but several apps were missing or not setup all the way.

All depends. Not sure factory resetting will do much on the battery - take a look at the usage, etc. Some apps are battery hogs - I've heard from people that Facebook app is a major culprit of battery issues.