There are people who never backup their Android phone data and end up losing everything when their device is lost. Sometimes people even need to factory reset their smartphones when it is locked. Put simply, your phone is a machine and anything can happen at any time. If your data is important, then you will need to activate the backup option, in order not to lose anything.

Many people use Google services which makes it easy to back up all data to its cloud storage. The software giant also allows you to delete all data from your Android phone when you lose it. Now let’s see how to backup all the data on your phone, so that you can easily access it whenever you switch to a new device.

How to Easily Backup All Data on Your Android Phone

Photos, videos, files

People can store their photos and videos on the Google Photos app. All you need to do is activate the backup feature, which is visible in the profile section of the app. Just tap on the profile icon and tap on the ‘Enable Backup’ option again.

Google will display different image quality options and users are advised to select “Original Quality” to preserve the way they were captured. The storage saver option will save space, but degrade the quality of your images / videos.

Moreover, if you do not have access to Wi-Fi all the time, you should also enable the cellular data option for data backup. You are ready then. The screen will then indicate that Google has started backing up your photos / videos.

Since you store everything in the cloud, you will be able to access your photos and videos on all devices. To do this, all you have to do is connect to your Google account and you can view all your photos. The search giant gives an option to download the media. You can also turn off the backup feature at any time.

All files and documents on your device are saved to Google Drive. But, for that, make sure that the backup function is activated. People can go to the app> tap on the hamburger icon> tap on Backups to check the status.

One can also visit the settings section of the phone> tap Google> tap Backup to check the status of the number of photos or videos backed up.

Another way to store photos or videos

If you do not want your data stored on a third party service, you can use your laptop for this. Just use your smartphone’s charging cable to connect it to the laptop. Remember to select file transfer on your mobile, then you can transfer photos / files / videos to your laptop. Those with a Mac can download the Android File Transfer app.

WhatsApp chats

WhatsApp offers a feature to back up all your chats and media to Google Drive. If you haven’t seen this feature yet, go to Settings> Chats> scroll down and tap Chat backup. You can then activate it. The messaging app also lets you enable end-to-end encryption, so no one can access your chats, which include both WhatsApp and Google.

It is important to note that when you set up WhatsApp on a new device, you will be asked to enter the security PIN code in case you have enabled two-step verification on your old phone.

SMS, applications, contacts, call history

Your Google account automatically backs up all the apps and text messages you have on your smartphone. This only happens if you have enabled the backup option. For that, you just have to go to the settings and press on Google. Here you will notice a backup option, which will take you to a page where it shows all the data being backed up to your Google account. This basically includes your call history, SMS, apps, photos, videos, device settings, and contacts present on your device.

Those who have not enabled the backup feature will see an option to enable it. Google says that “the backups are securely encrypted and uploaded to your account. Some data is also encrypted using your phone lock.

So when you change your phone or lose your old device, you will be able to access it after the setup is complete on your last device. Users are advised not to avoid the “Complete setup” notification from Google when setting up a new device, as this feature will help you restore all your old data at once. You will not have to download the apps again. However, you will have to start the login process again. Call history, contacts, and everything in between are automatically added to your new device.

It should be noted that Google does not allow you to restore your data if you cannot remember your old phone’s lock screen PIN or lock pattern.

How to check if your contacts are saved in your Google account?

You can simply visit the “People and Sharing” section of your Google account. Here you will see a “Contacts” section, where you can enable or disable the backup function. You can also check the number of contacts you have on your smartphone. The search giant displays a comprehensive list of contacts with names and phone numbers.

Another way to store SMS

If you notice that Google does not store your SMS data, you can install the “Backup & Restore” app from the Play Store. (You can check the status by going to Settings> Google> Backup.)

Step 1: Once the app is downloaded, open it and allow it to access your photos, contacts, phone calls and other apps.

It should be noted that this app can be used to backup everything. But, we just need to store SMS, so we are going to use it for that.

Step 2: You will see a “Configure Backup” option on the screen, just tap on it. You can then turn off the call logs and turn on the Messages option to save SMS.

Step 3: After that, just activate Google Drive and log into your Gmail account to save all messages to the cloud. Once this process is complete, you are good to go. (Users can always choose to back up their data to other services as well).

If you want to restore, you can just tap on restore option visible in the hamburger menu. Now select Google Drive to restore your messages.