Wow that is a lot of useful information. Thanks
Couple of questions though.
What do you recommend for backing up the tablet?
I have Helium backup but it has serious issues and the publisher does not respond to support. I can backup/restore to the same device. But when I tried to backup the apps from my phone and restore them to the tablet, helium crashes. I have checked the apps I attempted to restore and they are compatible with both devices.
I do agree about the minimum storage 16GB vs 32GB. However, I have not been able to find a Galaxy Tab S 10.5 in 32GB that is affordable.
Plus I couldn't argue with the price I paid $150 and the tablet is mint. Not a scratch and everything works perfectly.
I may get a 32GB model at some point if I could find one that is affordable. But for now, this one works great and with all the tips you gave, I am sure it will work great.
Thanks
First off, I don't rely on the cloud for backups, or apps like Helium. I've heard good things about Helium, but also bad things like it can mess up your device by causing the OS to think it's rooted. I can't really remember what it does that makes the device think it's been rooted, but I've heard/read about it here on the forum. I also have no experience with what Helium actually does as far as how it backs stuff up.
Since you're on a Samsung device, you could try Smart Switch or Kies to backup your data. Sorry, I can't tell you how to use those programs either as I don't use them. Do some research on them to find out what they do and how to use them. I'm also not sure how these programs store the data. Some programs store data in database form rather than actual individual file backups... which means that if the database gets corrupted, there's no means to access the data. An old program called Zoombrowser (Canon) used to use database for backing up photos. So many people on DPReview lost all their photos when their database got corrupted... thousands of photos! If you try smart switch or kies, check to see if the files you backup are actual files and not database.
I back everything up manually to my PC, and if it's important, like my contacts, I have 3 or 4 backups... two on the PC, one on internal memory of my devices, and one on my SD. If for some reason my contacts on my phone become corrupted, all I have to do is restore them. Note that I don't use social media and I also don't sync my contacts to Google or any other place. If you have Google contacts, Facebook, Whatsapp, or any other contacts, I can't tell you how to back them up.
All my photos and videos are also backed up to my PC... in more than one place and on separate harddrives. My apps are also backed up to PC, to include older versions of the app in case the developer has messed something up in their updates. I use
Appsaver to backup all my apps and then sideload the apps if/when I need to. If you don't know what sideloading is, it simply means you take an app and install it as an unknown source... or you can search Google about it. Appsaver will backup the apps to the internal memory of the phone, so you need to move the backups to your SD, or move them directly to your PC when you connect your device to your computer. Appsaver works really well.
Backing up my data manually to my PC probably takes a little more time, but I'm in "total" control, and I don't have to worry if some app messes something up, or some cloud database loses my stuff due to something happening with my account, or whatevers. If you read how many people have lost all their data to the cloud, it's astonishing that so many people endorse using it. This site is just full of unfortunate souls! I could totally lose my phone right now to a crash and my data would all be safe and ready to be placed on another phone or tablet. Of course, my computer could crash and hose my backups! Anyways, a bit off topic.
As for the 32gb recommendation, it's just food for thought. I realize that not everyone can or will front the cash to get something like that. At least your tablet isn't 8gb!