Proper backup of the Gemini BEFORE the Astro arrives

[Dixit]

I never would have guessed in May 2020 - buying the Astro Early Bird perk - that I needed to ask this question.

I kind of figured that the Gemini would be outdated and that the battery would be slowly dieing when the Astro arrives.  I would then use a transfer tool to port the Gemini's content into the Astro. That's what I did when my wife needed a new phone

Alas... that was far too positive !

My Gemini is now nearly dead, i.e. it is permanently connected to a powerblock. Worse: it was completely dead for a few days. I plugged in the charger for the 25th time, hoping for a miracle. And suddenly... the Gemini started to charge ! It also became extremely hot and made a siffling sound. Scary stuff ! This machine will not last long... and let's hope it doesn't burn the house.

And absolutely no Astro in sight...

Anway, that was the intro.

Does anyone have a good tool/plan/script that would allow me to make a proper back-up of the Gemini's data and installed apps ? A backup that will then be installed on the Astro ?

[RonWard]

I have used Wondershare Mobile Trans & Wondershare Dr.Fone for a few years on my mobiles but not sure if they can handle the Gemini or not. 

[idc]

We used Wonderfone just now. What would have been helpful would have been if the buggers had stated that they don't do a 'restore' on their 'free trial'. After all one can't actually trial anything useful if you can't do both a backup and a restore to check that the backup worked. (And we might have paid for the full backup in order to also back up the application data if the buggers had let us know beforehand that the thing couldn't be restored until a 'ransom' had been paid.) Anyway, excuse the irritation!
It just feels a bit like demanding money with menaces if they don't explain that part of the deal ... :-)

[ZimbiX]

I've been loving Swift Backup since I discovered that the venerable Titanium Backup no longer worked properly a couple of years ago (lacking support for split-APKs). It's a shame that root is necessary to be able to back up everything properly, and you can't get root without wiping the device from unlocking the bootloader - hence why I root ASAP. ADB-based backup like Helium used to be a workable solution for those who hadn't rooted, but it's less and less supported, sadly.

It astounds me that backup is still so hard on Android. I don't know why, but I've never been able to make use of the backup supposedly provided by Google on any of my devices.

[cam1965]

You are right.Unfortunately, when rooting the device, some banking, life and car insurance applications, as well as airline ticket purchases here in Brazil do not work with the rooted device. I rooted mine specifically so I could change the keyboard file to accent directly on it like a regular computer (I created a new keyboard apk). Then I removed the root and left it unlocked, so that I can install a compiled kernel in the future to solve problems like the hdmi problem I mentioned here.

[Dom (shymega)]

There is a way to trigger the Cloud Restore Flow on Android <= 11.

I think I should make a guide for it and put it on my blog, for definite. Will look into it.

Planet deliberately don't support Google restore, because they want to support those who don't want Google services. But personally, I think they should maintain an alternate ROM for that usecase, and support Google restore on their 'as-is' devices as most OEMs do.