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  • This guide has been updated to reverberate recent changes to Google Photos and Samsung One UI.

For nearly of usa, the bulk of our important data (messages, calendars, contacts, and so on) lives in the deject. Nonetheless, your phone or tablet might however accept some information not being backed upwards to the cloud, depending on the apps yous use and the sync/backup services you take enabled. For this guide, we'll exist going over some of the means you can back up this information and ensure it makes it to your next phone or tablet.

Cheque account sync status

Checking Android's sync status for your cloud accounts is a good first footstep. This makes sure everything that should exist backed up is really being backed upwardly. Open the Settings app, tap the Accounts option, select your chief Google account, and verify that all the apps and services nether the account have been synced recently. The settings might await slightly different (or exist in different places) depending on your device.

If some of the services haven't been synced recently, tap the Sync Now button on the folio. Depending on your version of Android, the Sync Now option might be under a menu. The reason to cheque this area is simple: sometimes synchronization breaks.

Make sure your photos and videos are backed up

If you use Google Photos to dorsum up the photos and videos you accept with your telephone or tablet, you should make certain it's still doing that. All you take to do is open the Photos app, tap your profile icon in the tiptop-right corner, and check for the 'Backup complete' message. If Photos isn't backing upward your media, it will show a 'Fill-in is off' message instead.

Google is ending unlimited backups in Google Photos, so if you have a lot of media, it might be a good idea to delete unneeded images and videos earlier enabling backups in Google Photos. For case, Samsung phones and tablets identify all screenshots in the Photographic camera directory that Photos monitors for backups, which can quickly eat up your account'south bachelor storage.

Of course, there are plenty of other photo backup apps for Android, including OneDrive and Dropbox. If you're using one of those, go into the app'due south settings and check the current sync status. Yous can also import photos manually into these apps if you merely want certain files or folders.

Backing up media to a flash drive

If you take enough storage on your flash drive, and an adapter if one is needed (either Type-C or microUSB), you tin merely re-create your phone'southward entire camera folder to the bulldoze. Plug the drive into your telephone, then employ the Files app (or the file manager of your option) on your device to re-create the 'DCIM' folder on your phone to the drive. Whatsoever other folders and types of files, like your Downloads folder, can be copied just as hands.

Every telephone manufacturer has a dissimilar file director, and so if you tin't figure it out, download Files by Google from the Play Store. Once yous've opened the app, here'south what yous need to do:

  1. Go the 'Browse' tab.
  2. Select your internal storage
  3. Find the 'DCIM' folder in the list and hold down on information technology until a checkmark appears.
  4. Tap the bill of fare push at the top-right and select 'Re-create to'.
  5. Select your flash drive in the list.

Once your files are copied, you can disconnect the flash drive and support the photos however you see fit.

Backing up files to a PC

If you take a computer with enough storage, y'all can also but connect your telephone or tablet over USB and copy the DCIM (and/or other desired folders) in a few clicks. Brand sure your phone is in MTP (file transfer) mode from the notification shade, and not fix to accuse or another USB connection way.

Backing upward files to a Mac

The official method for copying files to and from a Mac is the Android file transfer tool. This app is so notoriously bad and out of date that basically no one recommends using information technology. It often just straight up refuses to work, and is a big headache all effectually. We have a defended article hither with some other software you tin effort.

When you create a contact or calendar event, your phone might requite you the option of saving the data in the phone's internal storage, instead of in the deject. While that'south a nice feature to have, especially for the privacy-witting, information technology also ways yous might have saved some important information locally if you lot didn't pay close attention. Before you wipe our phone, you should check to see if whatever of your contacts or calendar events aren't backed up to the cloud. Information technology's also possible to store a express number of contacts on your phone'south SIM card, but this isn't a mutual practice anymore, so it'south pretty difficult to do it accidentally.

Some phones, like Google Pixel devices, don't even give you the option of saving contacts and calendars locally.

The exact procedure for this varies by phone model, but you lot tin can beginning by opening the Contacts app and looking for a menu with all your accounts. For example, the Contacts awarding on recent Samsung phones displays 'Telephone' alongside your Samsung and Google accounts. Some devices have an option to move Phone contacts to an online account, simply in some cases, yous'll have to export the file (usually accessible through the Share button) and import it using Google Contacts on the web.

Copying a local contact to Google with a Samsung Galaxy phone

Checking for locally-stored calendar events is mostly the same process: open your Agenda app and await for a calendar non linked to whatever accounts. Information technology'southward commonly called 'Telephone' or 'My agenda'. Withal, most mobile calendar apps don't give you an easy way to export calendars. The best way to practice this is to install this utility from the Play Store, open it, select your phone's calendar, and tap the 'Consign' push button. This will give you an .ics agenda file, which you tin can import into Google Calendar, Outlook, or any other cloud service.

Remove online accounts and disable Device Protection

If yous're selling your telephone, or giving it to someone else, you lot'll need to log out from all your Google accounts and remove any lock screen passwords. Android introduced a feature called 'Device Protection' back in 2015, which requires you to enter the password of the last Google account used on the device, subsequently the device has been wiped in many cases.

While Google does say that Device Protection shouldn't trigger a countersign cheque after manufacturing plant reset on about phones, re moving your Google accounts and lockscreen before resetting is the only way to guarantee it won't.

To disable Device Protection, you'll offset need to log out of all your Google accounts. Open up the Settings app on your telephone, become to the Accounts section, and tap 'Remove business relationship' under each business relationship.

Removing accounts on a Google Pixel telephone

Removing accounts on a Samsung Milky way phone

Once you've washed that, disable any lock screen passwords you might have. This tin be done from the Security section of the Settings app.

UPDATE: 2021/02/20 nine:26am PST By CORBIN DAVENPORT

This guide has been updated to reflect contempo changes to Google Photos and Samsung Ane UI.

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Nearly The Author

Corbin Davenport (3633 Articles Published)

Corbin is a tech journalist and developer who worked at Android Police from 2016 until 2021. Check out his other work at corbin.io.

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