Realising there was a lack of conclusive information online,
I thought I’d write this quick article to let others know what I didn’t know until
recently.
What is backed up on Windows 10 Mobile?
Warning: I am on
the latest fast ring insider build so I can’t be 100% sure this will apply to
every Windows 10 Mobile version in history, so bare that in mind please.
However, the following should be backed up if you’ve enabled
the relevant settings:
·
Text/SMS Messages
·
Call history*
·
Edge favs, reading list
·
Windows Settings**
·
Some of your installed Apps User Data
You don’t need any extra apps from the Windows Store as the
above data is backed up natively (inbuilt) in the Windows 10 Mobile OS.
* I’m not 100% sure if call history was restored on my phone
due to the inbuilt backup or because I have the TruCaller App installed (whose
data is in the app user data backup. See Step 5). So, my recommendation would
be to make sure you have everything done in this article before you reset your
phone in order to maximise what you get back afterwards. Be prepared to loose
some data even if you do all these steps.
** Not all Windows Settings are backed up
Step 1: Things to do
as well as backing up
1.
Personal
Data Storage Locations
As well as everything else in this article, it’s well worth
moving all your personal data to an SD card (hopefully you have one) and changing
storage settings so that all subsequent items of personal data automatically
get saved on the SD Card. This way when you reset your phone, you can tell
Windows to keep everything on the SD Card before it resets.
Under Settings/System/Storage
you’ll see a section titled ‘Save
Locations’. Make sure all the drop-down lists are changed from ‘This Device’ to ‘SD Card’.
This doesn’t move any existing data so you’ll need to load
the ‘File Explorer’ app and moving
every folder that you see to the SD Card in order to be sure that you miss
nothing out.
2.
Upload
all Photos to OneDrive
Open the Photos
app, put all your photos into albums and upload them to OneDrive. You can then
open up www.onedrive.com and view your
photos there to confirm what’s been uploaded.
One can also use the OneDrive
app (available in the Store) to have it automatically upload all Photos to
OneDrive for you.
3.
Backup
Messages using Microsoft App
The ‘contacts+message
backup’ app by Microsoft (available in the Store) is a very good extra way
of backing up your messages to the SD Card for safe keeping. If you’re extra
paranoid about your messages, it’s worth using.
Step 2: Text/SMS
Messages & Call History
In Windows Mobile 8.1 this section was much more obvious but
in Windows 10 Mobile I found it all a little ambiguous as to what the OS was
actually doing with my messages.
Go to the Messaging
App, under settings, and first and foremost sign in with your Microsoft
Account.
There is a toggle button option, as shown below, under the
wording ‘Sync Messages between devices’.
This wording is confusing but also correct. If you open the
messaging app on any other windows device where you are signed in with the same
Microsoft account and syncing is on, your messages should appear. This is very
handy in order to check your messages from your phone on your Windows 10 PC,
for example. However, in reality, I’ve found the messages that appear on my
other Windows 10 devices aren’t as up-to-date as they should be. Exactly when a
Windows 10 device actually synchronises these messages is a mystery to me.
Possibly you may want to make sure you turn off any metered connection setting you
may have for your Wi-Fi for 24 hours prior to any reset on your windows devices
if you use that setting in order to make sure everything syncs in background. Sadly,
I’ve found that turning the sync off/on makes no appreciable difference to messages
appearing on other devices.
Anyhow, the important thing to remember here is that if you
have turned on the sync button in the Messaging app, you have effectively
turned on the ‘backup my messages’ button.
There’s some more official information from Microsoft here https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17232/windows-10-mobile-back-up
When I reset my phone and logged back into messaging app
afterwards, the messages did slowly start to appear in the app. It’s slow and staggered,
so come back after 15-30 minutes to check everything is restored.
The Call History in the Phone App was already restored after
the reset but I don’t know if that’s something including in the app backup
section (Step 5 in this article) in Windows 10 Mobile OS or because the
Messaging App had the sync button turned on.
Step 3: Windows
Settings
Under Settings/Accounts
there is a ‘sync your settings’
option which you should make sure is on well before you reset your phone.
What’s being sync’d here? Again, it’s not totally clear. The
url link on this screen takes you to a bing results page that refers to syncing
and ‘other windows settings’ which isn’t even an option on this version of
Windows 10 Mobile. If you do turn on all three sync buttons here, the text on
the screen and on the webpage suggests that all sorts of settings including passwords, themes, web browser settings, device
settings, file explorer settings and notification preferences will be
sync’d.
Whether these are all actually sync’d based on these three
toggle buttons I’m not convinced but there’s no doubt that it’s very much worth
turning on as many sync options as possible before a reset so it’s best to turn
all these three on in order to maximise what you have when you log back in to
your phone after a reset.
Step 4: Edge Settings
Everyone’s favourite Windows 10 Mobile web browser, Edge,
has some sync options that (in my experience) work between Windows 10 devices
quite well.
Make sure you have this toggle button in Edge/Settings turned on long before you
reset your phone:
The sync in Edge between devices isn’t perfect; the reading
list is rather unreliable in terms of syncing everything perfectly between
devices but favourites sync nicely. Either way, even if they don’t sync 100%
between mobile and PC, the chances are that when you reset your phone and you
have had this sync setting on, you’ll get a reasonable amount of your mobile
edge favs/reading lists back. I can confirm that I got my favourites and
reading list back as they were before the reset on my phone.
Step 5: App & OS Data
Under Settings/Windows
Update there is a backup option.
If you turn all of this on, it will backup data from certain apps to OneDrive as
well as certain Windows Settings. I say ‘certain’ because not all apps are
supported, plus Microsoft’s wording is vague on exactly what is backed up.
The wording says settings like start menu layout, accounts and passwords, which seems to be very
similar to Edge’s sync settings and also vague on what other settings are
backed up. Given my personal experience of using these various backup settings,
resetting my phone and restoring the data, I’d say a lot is backed up but
you’ll still have to do some minor tinkering after you’ve restored data. Minor
settings for Wifi, Storage etc certainly don’t get backed up or restored. Over
on https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17232/windows-10-mobile-back-up it also mentions ‘Conversation
History’ in the same breath as this backup.
This backup section is VERY
IMPORTANT as it appears to be this backup that Windows Mobile 10 looks for
after it’s reset your phone.
Before you reset your phone, make sure you have both options
ticked on the initial backup screen for ‘back
up content from participating apps’ and ‘back up settings like start screen layout, accounts and passwords’:
Then click on the ‘More
Options’ link below the latter toggle button and you’ll see a screen like
this:
Make sure ‘Schedule
backups’ is on and that every toggle button below for each corresponding
app that you care about is on.
Then, just to be doubly sure, click the ‘Back up now’ button and wait 5-10 minutes whilst it sends all that
data to OneDrive. If you wish to view that the backup is on OneDrive, follow
the link towards to bottom of the screen called ‘Go to onedrive.com’. Annoyingly you can only view this backup via
this method on your phone. You won’t be able to see this backup in OneDrive on
your PC.
When you log into your phone with your Microsoft Account for
first time after a reset it’ll ask you if you want to restore backups from
OneDrive. You’ll likely need to verify your identity during the restore (I.e.
email to your backup email account with a code you need to enter on phone). This
particular restoration refers only to the OneDrive backup for settings and app
data, not Messaging app backup/sync.
Step 7: Checklist to maximise
your backup before a reset
So, here’s everything in one easy list to tick off and implement
at least 24 hours before you hit that ‘reset your phone’ button:
1.
Change Storage
locations to your SD Card and use ‘File Manager’ to move all folders to the SD
Card.
2.
Use the Photos
App to create albums and upload all photos to OneDrive.
3.
Use the ‘Contacts+Messages
backup’ app to backup text/sms messages to your SD Card.
4.
In Messaging
App on phone, log in with your Microsoft account and turn on the sync button.
5.
Under Settings/Accounts
enable all three buttons under the ‘sync
your settings’ option.
6.
Under Edge/Settings,
enable the ‘sync your favourites and
reading list’ button.
7.
Under Settings/Windows
Update/backup enable both toggle
buttons, then click on the ‘More
Options’ link, turn on the ‘Schedule
Backups’ button and all toggle buttons for each app further down the
screen. Press the ‘back up now’
button to back up to OneDrive.
PS – When you do hit the ‘reset your phone’ button it will
ask you if you want to keep your data on the SD Card. Obviously you do!
DISCLAIMER – I can’t guarantee that this article
is 100% accurate and you’ll get 100% of your data back after resetting your
phone.
No comments:
Post a Comment