Google adds the ability to automatically store & manage device backups through Google One (via subscription)

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:51:55 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

Google One app

Can someone who cares about backups let us know how well this new feature
works for you - where I've been doing all my full backups to Linux (for
iOS) and to Windows 10 (for Android) over USB and WiFi.

Apparently the new automatic full backup will restore an existing phone
o And it will apparently fully populate a brand new Android phone

"To begin with the new experience, all you need is to subscribe to the
Google One membership and install the Google One app on your Android
device. The app has the Device Backup option that you need to turn on to
begin automatic phone backups."

"The new feature is notably available to all Google One members in the
subscription. This means if you have other family members in your
subscription, they'll also be able to avail the automatic phone backup on
their devices."

"Google One comes with the ability to share your storage with up to
five family members and each Google One plan can be used for storing
content from Gmail and Google Photos in addition to a regular cloud storage
access for storing usual stuff, such as documents, photos, and videos"

Personally, I do my own backups on both iOS (using Linux) & Android (using
Windows). Backing up all my data on Android is trivial compared to iOS,
which is why I use Linux for iOS, since Apple restricts what you can back
up on Windows without using the iTunes abomination, which even Apple (thank
God) finally deprecated recently.

The problem with the iOS cloud backup is that the free storage is
infitesimally puny (only 5GB of basic storage - where you have to play all
sorts of silly games to get more than that which most people don't bother
with since it's more complicated than it needs to be for something so
simple).

The problem is similar, just not as bad, with Google cloud backup since you
get three times the free basic storage with a Google Account on your
Android phone.

While Apple FORCES you to have an account (where they tag every app you
download with that account - even free apps - and where Apple forces you to
have an advertiser ID, etc.), at least Android phones work perfectly fine
sans a Google Account (where apps aren't tagged - and there is no
advertiser ID, etc.).

Given I don't have a Google account on any of my Android phones, I'll never
test out this new supposedly "automatic" full backup.

But many others DO have a Google account - and they might want to test out
this reputedly new full automatic backup feature on Android phones.

Here are some references:
o Back up or restore data on your Android device
https://support.google.com/android/answer/2819582

o Manage & restore your device backups in Google Drive
https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6305834?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

o XDA: Google One can now backup and restore your photos, videos, and MMS
https://www.xda-developers.com/google-one-backup-restore-photos-videos-mms/

o AndroidPolice: Google One subscribers receiving automatic Android backup with broad content support
https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/09/13/google-one-android-backup/

o BeeBom: Google One Now Has Automatic Phone Backups for Android
https://beebom.com/google-one-automatic-phone-backups-android/

o BGR: Google One now supports automatic backup for Android smartphones
https://www.bgr.in/news/google-one-now-supports-automatic-backup-for-android-smartphones/

o MEMEBurn: You can now back up your Android phone from the Google One app
https://memeburn.com/2019/09/google-one-android-backups/

Apparently:
o You use the "Google One" cloud storage service
o You need the "Google One" app running on Android
o The backup will be "full" & "automatic"

While you already get 15GB of free "Google Cloud" storage,
that's puny compared to the storage on modern cellphones,
where Google One provides between 100GB & 3TB of cloud storage.

Can someone who cares about backups let us know how well this new feature
works to automatically back up and restore an old phone back to an old
phone or to a brand new phone?

On 16/09/2019 18.58, Arlen Holder wrote:
On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:51:55 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

Google One app

Can someone who cares about backups let us know how well this new feature
works for you - where I've been doing all my full backups to Linux (for
iOS) and to Windows 10 (for Android) over USB and WiFi.

This is not related at all to Linux or Windows. Please drop those groups
from the thread.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 19:10:06 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

This is not related at all to Linux or Windows. Please drop those groups
from the thread.

Hi Carlos,

This topic _is_ very tightly related to Linux _and_ Windows, in that the
_only_ way to back up and restore all of your iOS data without using the
iTunes abomination (which even Apple deprecated) or the ridiculously puny
iCloud free storage (which doesn't handle all your data), is to use Linux
(Windows does NOT have the required drivers, AFAIK).

I repeat: Windows does NOT have the required drivers; only Linux does.

And, while Linux will work to back up Android, almost anything will work to
back up Android, where Windows works just fine sans any proprietary
software abomination, using standard MTP over USB (or FTP over NetBIOS).

I repeat: Windows handles full Android backup & restore over USB or WiFi.

However, it's fair enough to say that all Windows users and all Linux users
likely already know how to fully back up and restore their Android devices
to either Windows or Linux.

While the necessary drives to read the entire visible file system on iOS
are native on Linux (at least on Ubuntu they are), almost nobody knows how
to to WRITE BACK to the iOS file system from Linux, to restore the backup.

Nonetheless, this is my last post to the linux & iOS newsgroup on this
thread, in keeping with your stated wishes.

F'up set to comp.mobile.android as per your wishes.

Arlen Holder wrote:
On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 19:10:06 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

This is not related at all to Linux or Windows. Please drop those groups
from the thread.

Hi Carlos,

This topic _is_ very tightly related to Linux _and_ Windows, in that the
_only_ way to back up and restore all of your iOS data without using the
iTunes abomination (which even Apple deprecated) or the ridiculously puny
iCloud free storage (which doesn't handle all your data), is to use Linux
(Windows does NOT have the required drivers, AFAIK).

No dilbert dumbass, iTunes is not required to backup an iPhone/ipad. I
don’t even run iTunes and do it just fine.


--
Lloyd