topic Re: Why no simple backup? in XPERIA archive

Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:46:17 GMT

I've been having a lot of memory issues with my Tipo, built-in apps like the Music Player and even "Settings" are crashing at odd times, and to cut a long story short, I think I just need to blitz it, return to Factory settings and start building up the system again from scratch.

I'm also having the issue that's been mentioned several times before here, where the Google Play Store has real problems connecting or downloading while I'm using Wi-Fi - it just keeps timing out. If it was consistent I'd have a better idea of where to start looking for a problem, but it's so random... it just doesn't work about 60-70% of the time.

However, the one thing stopping me doing a Factory Reset is that Sony do not seem to provide any SIMPLE BACKUP ability, either on the phone itself or in the PC Companion.

Just to make it clear, I don't want to SYNC to any other device, all I want to do is back up all my personal data e.g. contacts, account settings, call logs, and text messages.

There are plenty of options in PC companion to import stuff from an old phone, but not to just BACKUP and RESTORE.

Can someone explain to me in simple terms why they don't provide this any more, and maybe give some suggestions for how else I can achieve it please?? (I've looked at this topic http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Ion/Alternatives-on-How-to-backup-Xperias/td-p/161240 already)

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:48:00 GMT

Just out of interest, I did find a simple way to back up my contacts by going to Contacts/Settings/ Backup contacts, which saves them as a .vcf file to EITHER the internal SD card memory or to the external SD card.

I was thoroughly confused for a while though, because the created files (in mnt/Sdcard/System/PIM or mnt/ext-card/System/PIM) do not show up at all in Windows Explorer when the phone is connected to the PC. I had to use a third-party file Explorer on the phone itself to realise they WERE actuially there.

It shouldn't be this hard....

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:50:07 GMT

Pc companion does have a backup and restore tab and it is very easy to use.

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:57:47 GMT

Would you be kind enough to show me where then. I have updated to the latest version and I cannot see it anywhere.

Here's what I see....(please excuse quick copy/paste job - the program window is badly designed and will not expand to show everything at once!)

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 13:58:26 GMT

No problem.You see that horizontal bar?Drag it to the right.

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:17:22 GMT

Sorry I thought I was being clear when I mentioned about the quick "copy-and paste" on my screen grab.

I HAVE grabbed the horizontal scroll bar, and the only thing exposed is the part of the image which I added i.e. the "File Manager" section. What I have shown is everything available.

The File Manager section, just opens a standard-looking Windows Explorer window.

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:29:18 GMT

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:39:20 GMT

OK thanks.....

Firstly we are back to that dreaded word "sync", rather than "backup". I have no wish to merge two sets of data from two different places, I purely want to BACK UP what is on the phone. Let's see if that is possible....

So I open the "Sync zone" and the first thing it asks me is if I want to SYNCHRONISE 1) my Contacts (with Outlook or Windows own address book) and 2) my Calendar (ONLY with Outlook).

As I do not have Outlook on my PC that's not looking "very easy" or helpful so far. And as I keep saying, I do not want to synchronise the contents of this phone with anything I might have on this PC.

SO lets move on..... Below the two Outlook selection boxes, we have a link for "More options".

Looking more complicated now, but still I only have two sections for Contacts and Calendar and it asks me "what folder I want to SYNCHRONISE with, and to set the SYNCHRONISATION scope. When I click on either to see what's available in "selected contacts" there are NO contact showing at all

So that looks a complete dead loss.

It all looks as though if I could ever get it to work it MIGHT be trying to sync to some Google account in the sky... Brilliant, just what I don't want.

And even if I did, where is the back up for anything else, such as text messages, emails, call logs, etc?

Previous phones I have owned have had software to do all of those tasks, easily and simply to a PC, so the files could be archived, stored and put back onto the phone with a simply labeled RESTORE function.

None of that seems visible in PC Companion.

I'm sorry if this seems tetchy, but it comes at the end of two days of fighting with the internal memory of this phone corrupting itself and struggling to re-install many applications while the Google Play Store is failing to connect via WiFi 70% of the time. I still do not have a useable phone I can trust not to crash. I am having to re-boot it constantly.

I would love to try to fix that problem by returning to factory settings, but cannot until I get some way of backing up things like text messages and my contacts.

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:43:25 GMT

If you backup via gmail,your files are stored on google servers.After you repair or reset to factory settings,you will be able to restore them.I would also suggest myphone explorer for messages,it is a good app.Have you tried reinstalling PC companion from here?

http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/tools/pc-companion/

Also,make sure you have Java up to date.

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:59:42 GMT

And that could be the problem....

I have never used GMail ever, have never needed to as I can access my normal emai account on the phone.

I have two Google accounts, one with my normal email address and one with a googlemail address (I have tried several times to convert that to a Gmail address, following the instructions from Google carefully, and it has never worked).

All my apps from the Play Store have been downloaded to or for the account in my normal address (whatever that means). I've no idea what difference it may make.

It still doesn't explain why everything I can see on that "sync" page seems to be looking for stuff on my PC to send TO the phone and not the other way round like I'm needing.

On the other point I noticed.... Any idea why Sony's own File Manager cannot see the .vcf files that the phone makes of it's own contacts when you use "backup" there?

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:02:42 GMT

I have no idea why the file manager cannot see the .vcf.Have you given myphone explorer a try?Also,try to install PCC from where I told you and update java.

Re: Why no simple backup?

Andy_P2002 — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:30:25 GMT

To put this to bed....

I bit the bullet and used "sync" to a Google account to backup my contacts. It seemed to duplicate a few and made a couple of bizarre substitutions, but on the whole it workd fine other than my usual confusion about which to use if tyou have more than one Google mail account.

I used 'SMS Backup and Restore' to re-create my message history. That was excellent, it only failed to restore 2 messages out of about 900.

I also used my Google account to try to sync my Calendar events, but that seems to have failed completely. When I look at sync settings it always says "Sync Error - Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly." (A pretty unhelpful error message as it has been saying that for weeks now and obviously isn't coming back any time soon. (Everything else is syncing OK on that account).

All my apps have now been re-installed OK (several times dure to several "return to factory settings"!)

Google PlayStore tries to help by listing what you have downloaded, but again there were confusions where my stuff has been downloaded while I was logged in on various different accont names.

--------------

As for the crashing issue itself, I'm 99% sure I've cracked it. I found two corrupted mp3 files in a single folder on the external SD card, and it seems those were causing constant re-scanning of the card, causing the media apps to fail and possibly causing the other crashes due to the low memory on theis phone.

I shifted everything off to a PC, reformatted the card and put everything back again (including new versions of the bad files) and after a final "return to factory settings and re-install of everything, everything seems back to normal.

I've no idea what caused those mp3 files to corrupt, but if it happens again, I'll ditch the SD card as it's the prime suspect.

Re: Why no simple backup?

_alexdon_ — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 14:11:05 GMT

Good,if that happens again,use another SD card.