Backup/Restore MotoG6?

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Hello!

All of this talk lately about backups for PCs got me thinking about my phone and how to back it up as well. I have a MotoG6 that is about 2 years old, running Android 8.0. It works great for what I use it for – mainly text, email, pictures and some web. When I first got it, it wanted to upgrade to Android 9.0 – which I never did (long story but at the time I was more focused on making sure it worked rather than messing around with updates). Now, I get reminders about the upgrade – which I just ignore.

However, lately I have been thinking that I should do that update while it is still available for this phone. My real reason is to have a backup to be able to restore it to 8.0 if the upgrade doesn’t work out, though it would be a good idea to have a backup of my picture and contacts. So, I looked up how to backup the phone and had a few questions.

I found a few different ways – but the one that seems most straightforward involves backup up to a Google account or Google Drive? I am not sure what that means exactly. I have 2 gmail accounts associated with the phone – but am not sure if that is what is meant by a Google account or Google Drive. Or is that an app that I’d need to get? Or something else? (I don’t have any cloud type of storage at this point, if that is what is needed.)

I also did find some info on backing up directly to a PC – again, not sure if that is what I want to do or if that can be a way to restore it.

So – I am looking for some information on how to perform a good backup that would enable me to restore the phone to 8.0 in the event that 9.0 doesn’t work out – or I run into issues with it.

Any help would be appreciated! Or, if just continuing as I have been – ignoring that upgrade notice sounds like a better idea, I’d appreciate knowing that, too! (Though I guess knowing how to at least make a backup would be a good idea.)

Thanks in advance for any help – and please let me know if I need to add any information that might be helpful.

LH

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Lars220

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And just to add – when I do “backup” my photos, I connect the phone to my PC and download them that way. Not a real backup, but that way I have a copy of them.

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You should backup your photos to the free Google photos (I do that with my iPhone).
There are Android apps to backup your device to Google drive, SD card.. like the free My Backup

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Lars220, LHiggins

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Thanks, I’ll look into those apps. But, as noted below – I am mainly interested in backing up the OS so that I could roll back if needed – which doesn’t sound possible.

Thanks again!

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LHiggins wrote:

My real reason is to have a backup to be able to restore it to 8.0 if the upgrade doesn’t work out, though it would be a good idea to have a backup of my picture and contacts.

You’re talking about two different kinds of backups: backing up the operating system and backing up your data. There’s also a third type of backup to be aware of when considering your options.

First:

Your pictures and contacts may already be getting synced with your google account. To find out, log into your gmail acct from your computer, click the little 9-dot grid in the upper right corner (next to your avatar), and open your Photos link and Contacts link. You’ll probably find your phone’s data is automatically being synced there. If it isn’t, you can enable it in your phone’s Settings/Accounts/Google sync settings.

Second:

The second type is an apps and settings backup, which you enable in your phone’s Settings/System/Backup section:

It’s purpose is for quickly setting up your new phone when you change phones, including automatically reinstalling all your apps.

Third:

The third type, which you appear to be most concerned about, is an OS backup. The two aforementioned backups will not achieve that. Once you upgrade the OS, there’s no easy way to roll back. Even doing a factory reset of the phone will not roll back the OS. A factory reset just wipes your apps and data and puts the existing OS back to a clean starting point.

If you want to roll back the OS, you have to get into some really arcane stuff, like “rooting” and often even replacing the Recovery partition on the phone. And if you got your phone from a carrier, chances are the carrier may have locked the phone so you can’t even do that.

The process we’re talking about here is often called “ROMing”, and while the basic idea is similar to backing up your computer’s OS with an imaging program (Macrium, Acronis, Easus, et al), the key difference is you can (usually) easily boot your computer from external media (CD or USB stick) when the time comes to restore an image. There’s no similarly easy way to boot your phone from external media — hence, all the hoops you have to jump through to revert a phone’s OS. If you’re really interested, you can probably find lots of gory details on places like the XDA Developers forum, but I imagine you’ll conclude it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

 

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LHiggins

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Thanks for the reply! Yes, I am mostly interested in the OS backup – but it does sound like that isn’t really going to be an option. I will look into the other backup of pictures, contacts etc, but those aren’t my main concern. And as I said, I do physically move the pictures onto my laptop via the USB cable, so that probably is the east concern.

So – would you recommend that I just keep deferring the 9.0 upgrade, or back up all of the data and bite the bullet and see what happens? Do those kinds of updates typically cause issues – or is not doing the update “worse” than the possible consequences?

Thanks for the help!

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LHiggins wrote:

I am mostly interested in the OS backup – but it does sound like that isn’t really going to be an option.

If you’ve never done it before, I would strongly advise against it. (At least, don’t try it on a phone you need or care about. The next time you upgrade your phone, then your old one will be available to experiment with, but not until then.)

I used to unlock/root/ROM all my phones, so this is something I’m familiar with. But I gave up bothering about 4 or 5 yrs ago. Every phone was different so you had to relearn new strategies for each phone, and it just wasn’t worth the effort.

If you’re curious, here’s a link for downloading the stock G6 ROM and the instructions for reinstalling it. I think you’ll be able to tell it’s not for the faint of heart.

 

LHiggins wrote:

So – would you recommend that I just keep deferring the 9.0 upgrade, or back up all of the data and bite the bullet and see what happens? Do those kinds of updates typically cause issues – or is not doing the update “worse” than the possible consequences?

I happen to have experience with two Moto G6’s, so you can use these as data points.

The first G6 was carrier-locked to Verizon, but we were able to move it to a new carrier later on with a new SIM. It worked fine on the new carrier. But exasperated by the recurring nags, my wife went ahead and allowed the 8 to 9 upgrade. The upgrade failed miserably, and the phone went into a permanent boot loop. (In retrospect, I wonder if the Verizon lock was the root of the problem. The phone may have been trying to download a VZW update when the phone was no longer on a VZW subscription.) I did all the research on the XDA forums and elsewhere to try and revert to a stock ROM, but got nowhere because the phone was carrier-locked to VZW. The carrier has the ability to unlock the phone from their network, but their reps were not interested in helping because we were no longer VZW customers. (Tip: if you need it unlocked, do it *before* you quit the carrier!)

The second G6 was bought unlocked. It updated itself from 8 to 9 without a whimper, and is working fine on our current carrier.

As for whether 8 or 9 is better, I’m of the opinion it makes no difference. Technically, 8 may be arguably less secure than 9, but with 12 now in release, both 8 and 9 are probably in the same boat, security-wise.

The real stumbling block is going to be when the apps you want to use are no longer supported on older Android versions. When the apps on which you rely stop supporting 8 (maybe within a year), 9 won’t be far behind.

So if you don’t mind clicking away the nags, I’d recommend sticking with what you’ve got. Either way, you’ll have to get a new phone in another year or two because both 8 and 9 will be too obsolete by then, so I see little point in tempting fate now.

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Lars220, wavy, LHiggins

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Thank you so much for the very detailed and helpful reply! After reading through it, I am convinced not to try the upgrade – and also much more confident that I am not doing the phone any harm by just deferring it indefinitely. When I had first gotten the phone, I did look for info on the update and several of the postings – not sure where I found them now – were similar to your first story of what damage can be done by an update gone wrong. So I never did it then, and maybe better that I didn’t.

This is a Tracfone that has been great – I think it is now on the Verizon network, but still operates under Tracfone, so another reason to be cautious with any updates, I’d guess.

dg1261 wrote:

The real stumbling block is going to be when the apps you want to use are no longer supported on older Android versions. When the apps on which you rely stop supporting 8 (maybe within a year), 9 won’t be far behind.

Yes, I can see that happening, though haven’t run into it so far. I don’t usually even keep it connected to the data or WiFi, but when I do I will often update what apps I have, but so far, there hasn’t been any really burning desire to get any new apps, so maybe I’ll be fine till this phone needs to be replaced one day.

Would it be a good idea to set up a backup of my contacts, messages, etc to Google Drive? I understand about the OS, but having a backup of these other things may be a good idea in any case. And I can also look into a backup of the photos – though those I do copy over to my laptop, so for the most part, I have them. Just now looking into saving copies of photos in my texts that others have sent me.

Thanks again for all of the help! I really appreciate it. I do feel much better about the whole process now! Have a great day!

 

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Lars220

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Re: Tracfone: when in doubt, check HowardForums for help instead of Tracfone themselves. Tracfone support is not good. With your phone, the update is coming from Tracfone if you use a Tracfone branded Moto G6, not Verizon. Tracfone just uses Verizon’s network, among others.

Side note: Tracfone does have a Bring Your Own Phone program, if you decide you would rather get support from phone manufacturers when you get a new phone in the future. If you want to stay with Motos, you definitely can get an unlocked Moto G and use that with Tracfone (personal experience here, I’ve used Tracfone for years that way, starting with a Moto G3 up to my current Moto G Power 8th gen).

Re: data backups to Google Drive: definitely do so. Google started deprecating older backup/restore methods where you could backup to a local computer with Android 9 Pie. Not all app data can be backed up without rooting, but use any built-in backups, both app and Android specific ones, for what you can.

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LHiggins

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Thanks for the info about HowardForums – I didn’t know about that site. And also for the unlocked support issue – thanks!

I’ve also been a Tracfone user for quite a few years – on my third phone with them, and everything has been great. I am a light user, so I generally just get a 1 year refill of time, text and data and add if I need to during the year. And I do love the Moto G6, too.

Thanks again – I appreciate the information!

 

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Everybody has their own strategies for backing up their data, so it’s up to you. For instance, some people just let the Photos app sync to Google’s cloud, while you prefer your own local backup of your photos. To each, his own.

To let Google sync your photos, adjust the settings in the Google Photos app. Note this might affect your acct space quota, depending on your settings, so be alert to that if you have tons of photos.

To sync your Contacts, adjust your phone’s Settings -> Accounts, and select the Google acct to which you want to sync.

I note you have multiple Google accts — I do, too. The example shown here is of a secondary family acct, where we all share a family calendar and shared Google Docs of importance to the whole family, so only those items are synced.

To sync your Contacts to Google’s cloud, select your primary Google acct and enable Contacts syncing.

Your phone’s native messaging app is not associated with a Google acct, so backups to Google won’t be included if you’re using the phone’s app. There are an array of other apps for backing those up.

If your messages are via Google Chat (or whatever Google is calling it these days), those are backed up if you have Gmail synced. If you’re using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, those have their own settings. So there are a hodge-podge of ways of backing up your messages, depending on what you’re using.

 

 

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LHiggins

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Thanks so much for all of your help! This information on various backup methods is great and very helpful. I’m going to take a look at the phone and see if I can set it up to do a basic backup – not photos, but I’ll see what can be backed up.

I’ve also “discovered” how to save pictures sent in texts so that I can move those over to my laptop as well.

Thanks again for your very detailed explanations! Very much appreciated!

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I had 2 unlocked Moto G6s.  Android 8 worked perfectly on them. When the update to 9 came, I installed it. Everything went fine. Only later did I notice the problems it caused to the speaker/ sound system. It will replace the current Dolby sound app in android 8, with a newer less customizable version, that ruins the audio quality (both for the speakers and earpieces). Please search out if this is a common problem BEFORE you do anything.

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LHiggins

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Thanks so much for the reply and that info. I have decided not to bother with the update and to just keep deferring it. Sounds like there could be issues and I don’t need that – LOL!

Thanks again!

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does google still backup photos at a reduced rez by default.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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