Question Can I Back up my Samsung S24 to a desktop or external drive?

[mboessen]

Hi, All:
71 year old new owner of a Samsung Galaxy S24. My antique Galaxy Sol2 had an SD card, so I could keep all my personal stuff on that and it was easy to backup to a folder on my Desktop. Sadly, the S24 doesn't have that. Is there any way to back my S24 up to my Desktop PC? I have people saying to just "back it up to the cloud". 1: I have no idea how to do that. 2: It worries me what the "cloud" is getting when I do this. I'm sure they aren't providing this service from the goodness of their heart. I worry about what they are doing with my data, and the risk of it getting hacked there.
Thanks!
Mike

 

[mustang7757]

You can back up smart switch to external USBC drive or on PC Smart switch

 

[mboessen]

Hi, Mustang 7757:
Both of those options sound great. I have both a solid state USBC drive, and a USBC connector on my desktop. I plugged the SS drive into the phone. The phone alerted me that a USB device had been connected. I went to smart switch and launched it, but it would only offer me the option to backup to a different phone. I tried to "see" the USB drive from the "my files" button but couldn't. Can you be of any further assistance? Is there maybe a link to some online video/instructions that might help me? I'm old and very poor at this sort of thing.
Thanks!
Mike

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, Mustang 7757:
Both of those options sound great. I have both a solid state USBC drive, and a USBC connector on my desktop. I plugged the SS drive into the phone. The phone alerted me that a USB device had been connected. I went to smart switch and launched it, but it would only offer me the option to backup to a different phone. I tried to "see" the USB drive from the "my files" button but couldn't. Can you be of any further assistance? Is there maybe a link to some online video/instructions that might help me? I'm old and very poor at this sort of thing.
Thanks!
Mike

So go to settings>account and back up>smart switch external storage transfer

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Just be aware that Samsung backs up most, not all of your phone. Some apps for example will lose the data folder.

That said its still worlds better than what other phones offer but I've encountered it in the past

 

[mboessen]

Hi, mustang7757.

I connected my T-Force M200 SSD with the cable that came with that. I started the backup. It went well until about 27%. Then I got an alert tone and it said the device had been disconnected. I power cycled the phone, connected the SSD to the desktop and deleted the backup folder. Then I reconnected the SSD and launched it again. This time it went to about 30% and did the same thing. Powered off the phone and applied some DeOxit gold to all the connections on both ends and tried again. This time it went to about 50% and the same error.

Next I tried connecting it to the desktop. After tapping "allow" I can see everything on the phone, but when I try to do the backup it says "no usb device connected".
Do you think there is a problem with the connector on my phone? It is a brand new SSD and cable. The cable looks to be of very good quality and connects to the Desktop reliably.

Sigh. It's never easy.

Best

Mike

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, mustang7757.

I connected my T-Force M200 SSD with the cable that came with that. I started the backup. It went well until about 27%. Then I got an alert tone and it said the device had been disconnected. I power cycled the phone, connected the SSD to the desktop and deleted the backup folder. Then I reconnected the SSD and launched it again. This time it went to about 30% and did the same thing. Powered off the phone and applied some DeOxit gold to all the connections on both ends and tried again. This time it went to about 50% and the same error.

Next I tried connecting it to the desktop. After tapping "allow" I can see everything on the phone, but when I try to do the backup it says "no usb device connected".
Do you think there is a problem with the connector on my phone? It is a brand new SSD and cable. The cable looks to be of very good quality and connects to the Desktop reliably.

Sigh. It's never easy.

Best

Mike

If you have another cable try it just clear our minds I know the one you have is new

 

[mustang7757]

I heard about the connector problem on reviews for the T Force M200

 

[mboessen]

Hi, All:
Thank you for doing the research and finding that bad news for my T-Force SSD. Bummer. It was a "top pick" on New Egg. That said, I back up my Desktop pc on it with the same cable. This is like an hour backup, and it works every time. I smell some sort of compatibility issue with Android/Samsung and T-Force here. Maybe the drive requires more power than the phone can supply?

Dumb question: Twice when I plugged the USB drive into the phone, the phone reported "charging USB device". There isn't a battery in the USB drive is there? If so, the battery going dead in the middle of a backup would explain a lot.....

Lastly, after a failed backup, the phone doesn't see the USB drive any more. Also, the phone tells me I need to restart, which I have been doing. When I plug the USB drive into the desktop, it reports that there is a problem and the drive has to be scanned. I run the scan, and windows reports finding no errors, but after that, the phone sees the drive again, for one more attempt. FWIW, phone battery currently down to 33%. 48% when I started all of this.

I don't have another mini USBC both ends cable. I'll pick one up next time I'm in town, but, in view of the fact that it backs up the desktop, I don't think it is going to fix the problem. I'll leave the USB drive plugged into the desktop while I go get some lunch. I'll try the backup again and see what happens.

Again, thanks for the efforts to help!

Mike

 

[mustang7757]

Hi, All:
Thank you for doing the research and finding that bad news for my T-Force SSD. Bummer. It was a "top pick" on New Egg. That said, I back up my Desktop pc on it with the same cable. This is like an hour backup, and it works every time. I smell some sort of compatibility issue with Android/Samsung and T-Force here. Maybe the drive requires more power than the phone can supply?

Dumb question: Twice when I plugged the USB drive into the phone, the phone reported "charging USB device". There isn't a battery in the USB drive is there? If so, the battery going dead in the middle of a backup would explain a lot.....

Lastly, after a failed backup, the phone doesn't see the USB drive any more. Also, the phone tells me I need to restart, which I have been doing. When I plug the USB drive into the desktop, it reports that there is a problem and the drive has to be scanned. I run the scan, and windows reports finding no errors, but after that, the phone sees the drive again, for one more attempt. FWIW, phone battery currently down to 33%. 48% when I started all of this.

I don't have another mini USBC both ends cable. I'll pick one up next time I'm in town, but, in view of the fact that it backs up the desktop, I don't think it is going to fix the problem. I'll leave the USB drive plugged into the desktop while I go get some lunch. I'll try the backup again and see what happens.

Again, thanks for the efforts to help!

Mike

They don't have batteries in them but wiggle the connection while backing up it probably doesn't stay connected at certain times and reason it doesn't pick up a issue more intermittent

 

[mboessen]

It's as good a theory as any, but I never touched the setup once the backup started. Again, same drive and cable do the backup on my desktop, which takes over an hour. That indicates that if there is a connector problem, it has to be the one in the phone. All that said, I might run the 25 miles into town and get a cable tomorrow. Not optimistic about that given the one I have works on the desktop.

 

[mboessen]

To another aspect of this, I could back it up to the desktop, but when I hook it to that it says there is no USB device connected, even though I can see the whole file system on the phone from the desktop gui. Would this be relevant info? Sure is a strange problem.

 

[mustang7757]

It's as good a theory as any, but I never touched the setup once the backup started. Again, same drive and cable do the backup on my desktop, which takes over an hour. That indicates that if there is a connector problem, it has to be the one in the phone. All that said, I might run the 25 miles into town and get a cable tomorrow. Not optimistic about that given the one I have works on the desktop.

In the reviews I posted it said the connector on the SSD drive had faulty connector

 

[mboessen]

Well, again, I've backed up my desktop 3 times using that cable and drive, and never had any problems. I might see if I have a friend with a different brand SSD to try. I'll report my findings here. May take a few days.

 

[mustang7757]

Well, again, I've backed up my desktop 3 times using that cable and drive, and never had any problems. I might see if I have a friend with a different brand SSD to try. I'll report my findings here. May take a few days.

Ok

 

[Laura Knotek]

Is Windows putting the USB ports to sleep when the PC goes to sleep? https://www.microcenter.com/tech_ce...ows-10-from-turning-off-usb-ports-when-asleep

 

[mboessen]

HI, Laura: Don't think so, but this is trying to back the phone up to a portable Solid State Drive. I did try the backup to the desktop, but the Samsung S24 doesn't see the desktop, so that doesn't work either.

 

[mustang7757]

HI, Laura: Don't think so, but this is trying to back the phone up to a portable Solid State Drive. I did try the backup to the desktop, but the Samsung S24 doesn't see the desktop, so that doesn't work either.

So if the s24 doesn't see the desktop the usual suspects are cables / allow PC permissions to see the s24/USB port on the s24 settings on pull down notification panel

 

[Laura Knotek]

HI, Laura: Don't think so, but this is trying to back the phone up to a portable Solid State Drive. I did try the backup to the desktop, but the Samsung S24 doesn't see the desktop, so that doesn't work either.

What about trying a different USB port on your PC, like on the back instead of on the front?

 

[mboessen]

HI, Laura: Thanks for hanging in there with me. I don't know how far back you read, but earlier in the thread I reported that I can connect the phone to the desktop using the cable that came with the SSD, press "allow" and I can see all the files on the S24. I can copy the folders (which I have done) from the internal storage to the desktop, and they are there. I also have a brand new, very expensive USB3 to USBC cable that I ran from both the blue jacks and white jacks on the desktop to the phone. In all cases the computer can see the phone, but when I try to do a backup to the desktop, the phone reports that there is no storage device connected. I need to find a different brand SSD to try on the phone.

Again, thanks. I'm pretty sure we just have a compatibility issue between Samsung/Android and the T-Force SSD.

Best

Mike