Backup the SD Card Automatically

[Shepherd Jim]

Hi All!

I have the HanDBase app moved onto my Motorola (Verizon) Droid's SD card. There are a few databases on the phone which I add to and/or change many times a day. Meanwhile, I will have the phone USB'ed onto my laptop at least once a day to charge its battery but I do not necessarily think to, want to or need to sync HDB on the phone with the HDB Desktop. Even if I do mount the SD card as a disk -- maybe to access some photos on the phone -- I do not remember that I should backup data on the SD card to the computer.

I've just been googling "backup Droid's SD card" and have discovered MyBackup Pro by RERWare http://www.rerware.com/android-backup/default.aspx and Titanium Backup http://matrixrewriter.com/android/. Titanium Backup apparently requires my phone be rooted (it is not) while MyBackup Pro does not require rooting but its abilities are somewhat limited without rooting.

Does anyone out there have the best solution to this? For the time being I guess I'll I set up a daily "ToDo" in Google Tasks and manually make sure either that I copy my HDB pdbs from the SD to the laptop OR do an HDB sync.

[Brian_Houghton]

I've used both programs. Titanium's is great, but does require root. The other is pretty slow, at least in my testing. Aside from that, I suspect a small utility to copy the databases might be able to be developed.

[Shepherd Jim]

...<snip>Titanium's is great, but does require root. The other is pretty slow...<snip>...

I've been using MyBackup for a few days now -- climbing the SOP learning curve. It it slow when it comes to backing up the .apk's (you know better than me what these are) of all (or whichever I designate in pref's) of the Apps on my Droid.

MyBackup offers backing up of two divisions of what's on your phone:

"Applications and Media" -- the aforementioned apk's (install) files and your photos (Media) and
"Data" -- Contacts, Call Log, Bookmarks, SMS, MMS, System Settings, Android Home and Alarms

Unfortunately I'm now noticing that my HDB pdb's are NOT included. It seems that MyBackup's primary goal is to ease/speed the restoration of a phone after factory re-set, loss and subsequent replacement phone and the like. As I learn and understand more I now realize that RerWare's statement, "Application install files (If phone has root access, this includes APK+Data and Market Links)" is telling me that if my phone is NOT rooted, I will only back up the APK's, not the apps' data.

The RerWare folks are actively soliciting https://www.rerware.com/Android-Backup/Integration.aspx that app developers "integrate" their apps with them --

Developers: Get paid for integrating with us!

Why Integrate?

Not only will you give your customers the ability to backup their data, but they will also be able to do it automatically on a schedule and have the ability to send it to our Online Secure Servers.

Also, you will get more visibility in the market by integrating with MyBackup. We will list you as a known integrated application on our website, and link your application directly to the Android Market from the MyBackup application.
...<snip>...

Hey DDH! This sounds like a WIN/WIN and I bet there's not much time and effort in integrating -- you'd be giving us Android users an immediate benefit.

IOn the meantime I guess I have to go look more specifically -- for an app that automatically backs up the contents of my SD card

[kronhead]

This is off topic for Handbase, but I just wanted to mention, if allowed:

I use My Backup Pro, and, at least AFTER you buy it, it's pretty clear what it backs and what it doesn't - as the previous poster says, it's APK files, and a bunch of data from std apps, but not custom apps, generally. What I wanted to add specifically is: I have done 2 full restores - and one part of the restore is VERY SLOW - at least on my phone. I have an HTC EVO 4G, and the restore of HTC Home - which is, I think, the home screens setup - took an hour or two. Very frustrating when your phone is dead, and you are trying to get back online.

And a couple of points about APK restores: on the scheduled backups, you can tell it to keep multiple versions. I set it to 5. It will not do multiple versions of DATA, which is not clear. But - on the first restore I did, I told it to restore everything - and it did all 5 versions of the APKs - with, I think, one or more prompts for each one. (My Backup Pro restores it, and then launches Install, which asks "do you want to install this?") It's probably better to expand the list of things it will restore, and just select the latest version of each APK. Or set the option to one version during backup. Also, it does not install them in a way that the Market knows about, so you will not get notified of new versions, until you RE-INSTALL from the market. I do use an app called ChangeLog that manages updates well - it lets you skip an update you don't need (like the latest translation of some app to Croatian or Swahili) - and Changelog will let you know when the NEXT update is available ...

I think that's it. If anyone has any questions about My Backup Pro, or recommendations about backup / recovery, let me know.

Dan

[Brian_Houghton]

I know that in my experiences with MyBackup Pro, it has been pretty slow, even at the initial backup of APK files. Titanium Backup exceeds the speed of Rerware's solution there, by far. If you have root access, which is required by MyBackup Pro in order to backup the APK files, I'd encourage you to go for Titanium Backup. You can configure it to backup the HanDBase databases on the internal storage card, as well.

[Shepherd Jim]

...<snip>... I'd encourage you to go for Titanium Backup. You can configure it to backup the HanDBase databases on the internal storage card, as well.

I've so far avoided rooting my Droid. No one has ever said anything that has convinced me that any benefits of rooting outweigh the complications and dangers. Believe me, I'm enough of a geek to feel a mite throttled by not having FULL access to all my phone's inner info -- my history goes all the way back to MSDOS; when it was possible to know the name and purpose of every file on your C:\ drive.

But, over the years I have learned to relax and mostly let go. If a program tells me it wants to keep its data in \Username\MyDocuments\PrgData\ I just obediently click "NEXT". My life is so much simpler when that program is able to find its files without me having to browse to them every time I run it.

My two-year commitment to my Droid winds up at the end of this month. Having seen HanDBase on my iPad2 I'm having a tough time NOT making the switch over to an iPhone.

[Shepherd Jim]

I hope some of you are subscribed to this thread.

I have purchased a program called Second Copy http://www.secondcopy.com/ by Centered Systems. My main reason for acquiring Second Copy was to accomplish very simple/basic backing up of my laptop's \My Documents\ and \App Data\ folders to a network-linked Drobo/NAS appliance.

I set up Second Copy Profiles relative to my new Droid RAZR MAXX's internal memory and SD card data storage. Whenever I mount the phone via USB to my laptop Second Copy now pops open a window and asks if I want to run those profiles. Answering "Yes" copies all data in the phone to backup folders I'd designated in the Profiles (in this case to that Drobo). It's not the same as syncing but I am safeguarding the phone's HDB pdb's without having to open the HDB Desktop, etc.

Jim -- would still love to hear from anyone using Dropbox and HanDBase together effectively!