Android 6.0.1 Data Backup (Preparation for Replacing a Phone’s ROM)

This blog post is about performing a data backup on a phone running Android 6.0.1, as part of preparation for replacing the phone’s ROM.

Warning: This blog post is only based upon what I did. I’m only covering some ‘basic’ data backup. The type of data and/or how you do a backup might need to be different. Do not hold me responsible for any files you download and use, any data you lose or any problems. You use these instructions at your own peril! 

Introduction

This is probably my worse blog post in ages! I could’ve blogged about various methods not covered in this blog post. I tend to only blog about my actions, so that’s mainly what’s covered here.

There were some games that I couldn’t transfer to allow continuation of progress within the game, without using Facebook, but my fiancée doesn’t want to link the games to Facebook. My fiancée isn’t using any games that save progress another way.

My fiancée’s phone was moving to a different ROM and she only uses a small selection of applications and the main focus was contacts, calendar, memos and photos.

I didn’t need to overcomplicate the process and the important aspect was writing a list to make sure I did a backup of everything required and to make a small list of applications to download.

It’s October 2020 and Android 6 is long outdated and within the next few days I plan on updating my fiancée’s Samsung S5 G900F phone to LineageOS 17. I think the upgrade is worth the effort for both security and features and I think the G900F is still a very good phone.

I thought I would blog about the experience and provide some ‘how to’ instructions.

Using Helium to backup application data

Note: These instructions are intended for Windows 10 users.

1. If not already installed, install the ADB drivers and reboot.
2. Install Helium on a PC and on the mobile phone. *
3. Enable debugging mode on the phone. **
4. Run the application on the PC first, then the phone next.
5. Then you can assess what you can backup and perform a backup. ***
6. As a precaution, after the backup, you can could create a copy of the backup on a PC.

* I used the free Android version of Helium.

** Before you proceed you need to enable ‘USB debugging’ on the phone. This option is likely to be found under ‘Developer options’ in ‘Settings’.

*** The backup destination can be cloud or internal storage. Once you select your backup type, you can choose whether to encrypt the backup. There was an application that I thought I could backup, but halted the backup process when I tried, so I cancelled and attempted again without that application selected.

How to backup Android 6.0.1 Contacts

1. Select the three dots near the top right.
2. Select ‘Settings’, ‘Contacts’ and then ‘Import/Export contacts’.
3. Now you can choose whether to export to the device storage or SD card.
4. I then connected the phone to a PC and transferred the ‘Contacts.vcf’ file to the PC, ready for importing on the phone later.

How to backup photos

I just connected the phone to a PC and then transferred the photos to a folder on the PC.

My fiancée’s photos are placed on a microSD, so the location might be different for you. On my fiancée’s phone, the location was \card\DCIM\Camera

How to sync the Scheduler (Samsung S5 G900F Android 6.0.1 stock ROM)

The scheduler on the phone I was using had been setup to sync with Google Calendar. So all I had to do was:

1. Connect the phone to a wireless connection.
2. Open the Scheduler application.
3. From the top right menu, I selected ‘Sync now’.
4. Then I checked via a PC, that Google Calendar had been updated.

Memo Backup

The Memo application that my fiancée uses is a Samsung application. My fiancée has few memos and to save researching, I just took a few photos and will input the data in a new memo application.

Looking after the backup

This is probably the second most important thing I did. My fiancée didn’t have a backup of her phone’s contacts, so I’ve encrypted and moved a copy of the backup to a NAS.

Final thoughts

There might be a few details in this blog post that helps others. Shortly I will upgrade the phone’s ROM and then restore some data to the phone.

I also own an S5 phone, but the G900T model, not the G900F. On my G900T I’ve been running LineageOS 16 for a while and really like it. I’ve not used version 17 yet, which was only recently released for the S5, so hopefully my fiancée likes the new ROM on her phone and it works well.