How to Back Up Your Android Phone

Published in

Backupology

3 min readNov 4, 2022

We all know that our smartphone is the guardian of our digital life. You’ve put in the time to get it the way you want it, and irreplaceable memories are on board.

There’s that video of your child’s first words, that heart-warming message from your meaningful other that never fails to exhilarate you, and the latest rescue from your favorite mobile game. Spending a few minutes on a backup is a small price to ensure you don’t lose everything.

I will demonstrate to you how to back up your Android phone in several ways, so choose the one that suits you.

Google Backup

The simplest and easiest backup option is Google’s cloud service, which is built into Android.

Manage backups and additional storage

You can find your backups in the Google Drive app by tapping the menu at the top left and selecting Backup.

Staying under the free 15GB of Google Drive space can be challenging, so consider signing up for a Google One plan. You can get 100GB for $2 per month or $20 per year, 200GB for $3 per month or $30 per year, and 2TB for $10 per month or $100 per year. You can share this space with up to six family members.

Backing up your Windows computer

If you want something like iTunes to manage this process or an app to manage wireless phone-to-PC Backup, you can find various premium options online, though we don’t recommend any.

If you’re trying to send files from your Android phone to a computer, try using Microsoft’s free Your Phone app.

Backing up your Chromebook

Here’s how to back up files from your Android phone to a Chromebook:

Plug your phone into a USB port on the Chromebook.
Pull down the notification shade and look for a notification from the Android system that says something like Charging this device via USB; tap for more options and tap it.
Look for an option that says File Transfer and select it.
The Files app will open on your Chromebook, and you can drag and drop any files you want to copy.

Backing up to another cloud service

You may run out of Google storage or prefer another cloud service. There are Android apps for Dropbox, Microsoft’s OneDrive, MEGA, Box, and others. Most of them offer some cloud storage for free, but what you can back up and how you do it varies from app to app.

We’ve covered how to back up mobile photos on a few of these before, and you can usually set it to be automatic, although other files often have to be backed up manually.

There are specific versions for Dropbox, OneDrive, MEGA, and Box. If you want to automatically sync photos and other files across devices using one of these services, then check out the Autosync app.

Backing up Samsung

If you have a Samsung phone, then you have additional backup options. We recommend sticking with Google because Samsung backups can only be restored on Samsung phones, but if you want a second backup or plan to stay with Samsung, here’s how to use Samsung’s cloud service:

Go to Settings, Accounts, and Backup, then Backup and restore.
Under your Samsung account, tap Back up data (the option to back up via your Google account is also listed here). You’ll need to create and sign in to your Samsung account if you haven’t already.
Tick everything you want to back up and tap Backup at the bottom.