A Question About Android

[bendejo]

For you Android users:

As I understand it, when you sync your device it gets saved to a google server somewhere.

Do you have the option of saving it to a file on your device, or an attached computer (like we did with Palm/Handspring/Windows Mobile/etc)? If so, can you avoid the data going over the net, short of breaking the net connection?

Also, once you get it all set up way you like, is it possible to keep an Android equivalent of a 'backup image' such that you if your system gets messed up you can restore it?

Android sounded like a great idea when it was announced, but even years later it still sounds a little clumsy.

[thaicbr]

its only clumsy if you do not know how to use Google.

[thaimite]

I am a little unsure as to what you mean by files, but the short answer is yes

If you are referring to pictures, movies videos on your phone, yes they ca be syned to a PC either directly or over th air.

If you are referring to contacts, appointments etc, then these are usually synced to Google but by using appliations such ass MyPhoneExplorrer they can be synced directly to your PC assuming you are using Windows. Using Linux is a little harder.

I also tried an app that automatically uploaded any photos I took to a Dropbox style folder (I think it was Ubutu One) but soon ditched it as it killed he battery life with all the uploads when taking more than a very few pictures.

I inintially dd not want to go the Android route, becaue I did not want my life on Google, but now I have taken the plung I am very happy with it.

[jybkk]

Your contacts are automatically synced on your gmail account.

To get a file version of it (csv, excel,...) log on your gmail from any computer, go in "contacts" then "more>export".

On the other way around, if you have a lot of contacts from another source and you have a way to put that into an excel or text file, then you can import that within gmail and it will be synced with your phone (much easier than re-typing everything on the phone).

The sync is automatic so if you lose your phone or simply buy a new one, as soon as you link it with your google account all contacts will be there within a few minutes.

The sync also works similarly for your calendar, apps and gmail account.

If you want to automatically sync your pictures, one of the many ways is to use a Google+ account which will sync your phone pictures to a private album in Picasa.

You can also use cloud backup like "SugarSync" to backup over the air your media from the phone to your computer (it works both ways so you can also use this to get files from your computer)

Your applications (purchased or simply downloaded) are automatically linked to your account and you can reinstall them from your computer to your phone from market.android.com

In my opinion, there is very little use for system backup since all the important stuff is already on the cloud, and if you had to do a restore, most will come back after you simply log-in in your google account, while the rest will be back as soon as you reinstall the app.

But there are still full system backup solutions, for example Titanium Backup.

On another hand, if for some reason you are reluctant to use any online (or "cloud") service for sync and backup, then Android is probably not the good option for you... but you'll quickly see that this is where every system is heading to, so you probably soon won't have a choice anyway.