Mobile Backup - How to Protect Android Devices

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Mobile devices are an integral part of people's lives. They allow us to stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues, keep up with what's going on around the corner and across the world, and share our thoughts, photos, and videos. It's important to protect that data in case your phone is lost or stolen.

BYOD in the Workplace

The rise of mobile devices has made "Bring your own device" (BYOD) an inevitable part of every business's IT environment. Employees don't want to carry two devices just to check work email, but employers need to ensure their corporate data is protected on mobile devices, just like any other device in the company. Mobile device data–like emails, notes, and particularly custom data from specialized apps–should be backed up.

Cloud backup services (like Samsung's) provides an excellent offsite protection for Android devices. However, it has two significant limitations for businesses. First, it's owned by the employee. The employer doesn't have access to it, unless the employee hands over their credentials. Second, it's not on-site. Offsite protection is a critical part of any backup strategy, but on-site storage is as well. With on-site backup storage, employers know they have a local copy of their business that they can restore quickly to reduce any downtime.

Why Local Backup?

Having a local backup through your computer, in addition to a remote backup through a cloud service, ensures your mobile life is protected in two places and that one backup is immediately available. In data protection, we have a backup strategy called the "3-2-1 Rule":

• 3: Keep three copies of all of your data.
• 2: Use two different storage media.
• 1: Store one of the copies offsite.

Following the "3-2-1 Rule" ensures your data is spread across three devices, on multiple media, in different places.

Protected by Retrospect

As long as you perform a local backup of your Android device, Retrospect ensures that those backups are protected on your media of choice, along with the rest of your digital life. Let’s walk through how to achieve that.

Android Devices

• Local Backup: Google provides step-by-step instructions on how to transfer files to and from your PC or Mac computer.
• Cloud Backup: Using a Google Account, you can backup photos, files, and music by following step-by-step instructions. Google also provides another step-by-step instructions specific to Google Photos.

Samsung Devices

• Local Backup: Samsung provides a tool called SmartSwitch that allows you to copy your data onto your computer.
• Cloud Backup: Create a Samsung account and follow their step-by-step instructions to backup your device.

Last Update: March 29, 2016