Local backup possible?

[Russ Huffman]

I saw a post by Rukbad in the "Google One" that made me think about backing up my phone locally.

I'm using a 2TB backup drive, and it's not enough.

Just for grins, I plugged in my P4 using USB to see if it would just mount as a drive. It did, but with no content, so no luck with that.

If it is possible to backup on a local drive, how is that done? Third party app, or something I just don't know to look for. If I could do that, I wouldn't be so worried about deleting large files (videos and pictures) from my phone. But with backups only in Google cloud, I don't want to depend on that as my only backup, and don't want to try to download everything using the cloud web page.

Suggestions?

 

[B. Diddy]

Did you connect directly to an external drive, or did you connect it to a PC? If the latter, after you connect, swipe down the notification panel and tap the USB notification. Make sure MTP (or File Transfer) is selected. The phone's user-accessible directories should now be accessible on your computer's file manager.

 

[Russ Huffman]

I plugged the P4XL into my computer USB jack.

All I get is "Pixel 4 XL" mounted like it was a special folder (Downloads, Pictures, etc), with no option to control how it mounted.

I should have said, Win10.

Went to "Device Manager/Portable Devices/Pixel 4 XL". Checked the driver, and even reloaded it from Windows/INF. It says "MTP USB Device", but there are no files or folders visible in the File Manager. It mounts like a library, so can't browse from cmd prompt. Even tried "view hidden", nothing there.

Clearly I'm missing something here.

 

[Russ Huffman]

Also now have tried manually installing [URL="https://forums.androidcentral.com/e?link=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Fdeeplink%3Fid%3DkXQk6%252AivFEQ%26mid%3D24542%26u1%3DUUacUvbUpU6704833%26murl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.microsoft.com%252Fen-us%252Fdownload%252Fdetails.aspx%253Fid%253D19153%252522&token=07h4UBkM]MTP Porting Kit[/URL], manually messing around with the different ways to get different drivers loaded, rebooting, nothing successful so far.

 

[B. Diddy]

So are you saying that when you plug the phone into your PC and swipe down the phone's notification panel, you don't see a USB notification? From what you said, it sounds like you're only looking on the computer screen. On my 3 XL, when I connect to a Surface Pro 3, I get a USB notification telling me it's currently charging via USB, and to tap the notification for more options. The options that show up after tapping include MTP/File Transfer.

 

[Russ Huffman]

It's a full regular desktop, no touch screen, so no swipe down.

When I bring up the notification panel (should be the same thing?), it doesn't show anything about the phone, MTP, or anything else related (some pending updates, defender news, etc). All I see is the "how do you want to use this" prompt, and choosing "file" (or whatever it said) gets me back to the empty "library" in File Explorer.

 

[holz75]

You can also make sure it's set to file transfer automatically in developer settings: Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options > Default USB Configuration > File Transfer/Android Auto

 

[Russ Huffman]

Never mind, I'm an *****.

For some reason, since I read your first response, I thought you were talking about the host. On your last reply it dawned on me, you said "phone's notification panel". Oops.

Thank you, problem solved... loose nut behind the keyboard...

 

[B. Diddy]

LOL, glad you figured it out!

 

[gnahc79]

I saw a post by Rukbad in the "Google One" that made me think about backing up my phone locally.



Just for grins, I plugged in my P4 using USB to see if it would just mount as a drive. It did, but with no content, so no luck with that.

If it is possible to backup on a local drive, how is that done? Third party app, or something I just don't know to look for. If I could do that, I wouldn't be so worried about deleting large files (videos and pictures) from my phone. But with backups only in Google cloud, I don't want to depend on that as my only backup, and don't want to try to download everything using the cloud web page.

Suggestions?

What's your goal with a local backup? If it's to backup and restore app data you should look into Helium (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup&hl=en) . I haven't used it in years so I have no idea if it works for Android 10 or not. A simple copy/paste from your phone to your PC won't do it. Phone to computer will work for backing up photos & videos though, which I do for the remote chance that my backup in google photos online is wiped out.

 

[B. Diddy]

If it's to backup and restore app data you should look into Helium (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...a.backup&hl=en) . I haven't used it in years so I have no idea if it works for Android 10 or not.

I've heard from others that it hasn't worked well for the past couple of Android versions or so ...

 

[Russ Huffman]

Mostly I just want to backup pictures and videos. I love the Google cloud backup (pics/drive/etc), but don't trust such things long term. I have an internal 2 TB I use for backups of most current stuff, and an external 3TB I copy current to about once a month in case the internal dies (and it holds stuff no longer on internal). I simply want to take my phone into that rotation before something happens to the online store.

I'm not concerned about losing cloud backups of apps and such, that's too easy to recreate if lost.

 

[Ten Four]

You can also use Google Takeout to download everything for local storage if you want to. I periodically do that for my photos, which are stored on a PC and also backed up to a portable hard drive.

 

[Rukbat]

You can also use Google Takeout

If you can read Korean, you can actually go to the site and figure out what it does. I can't understand it, so I can't see what it's supposed to do, so I won't use it. (A good developer makes sure that there's an English version of the site if he's developing an English version of the app - which it seems is the only version on Play.)

Since Helium doesn't work any longer, there's no TWRP for the Pixel 4 yet, CWM is dead, about the only option for a full backup is probably Titanium, which requires root. (Fortunately, rooting a Pixel 1-4 with Magisk is trivial, and Google doesn't even care. [I had to send them a debug dump once, and the phone was rooted when I took the dump. The developer didn't want to wade through all the extra junk, so he asked me to unroot and do another dump. No nonsense about a voided warranty.])

 

[Ten Four]

If you can read Korean, you can actually go to the site and figure out what it does.

Not sure what you are looking at, but if you go here you can read in English about how to download your data using Google Takeout: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en

 

[Russ Huffman]

Just for reference, the ideal solution I wanted is mounting the phone as a file system. And that's working now that I realized the setting I need to specify is on the phone, not the host computer. No third party app (risk) required.