I have a new phone, Samsung Galaxy J7, with Android 6.01, NOT rooted.I have read a lot of threads about backup, but none that really answer my questions.
Here are some things that I DON"T need backed up--contacts, calendar, e-mail messages, etc. Because I have an Exchange account (also Gmail Imap account), and those items will sync from there. I also would not need a backup app for photos, music, etc. Photos are files on my SD card that I can easily copy to the computer. Music files are first on my computer, that I transfer to the SD card. No need for a backup app for that. Apps themselves need no backup, as they can always get re-downloaded from the app store, and frequently update anyhow.
What I need backup for, is what will not sync from Exchange nor Imap, nor files that can be copied from and to the computer. Mostly settings--the general phone and Android settings, home screens, accounts, etc. (So that if something goes wrong with the phone and all that is lost, I would not have to spend hours setting it all up from scratch, entering account info again, etc. Also helpful-settings for apps.
I installed the Helium app, that reviews say is a good backup app (free version). I do not find it very useful. I have no idea why it makes you connect to the computer, then initiate its desktop app, just to verify the app somehow? But then, it will not backup to the computer! Nor even to the SD card. It does have an option to backup to the cloud with the pro version, but I would rather backup locally. It only backs up to internal phone memory. What use is that if the phone gets messed up and that backup is no longer in internal memory?
Furthermore, I see in Helium no way to backup phone settings, account into, etc. It can backup apps, or only app data. So I backed up the app data, went to a folder in internal memory called Carbon, and I copied that folder to the SD card and external HDD. Yet I do not find that very helpful.
I see that in the OS Settings that Google automatically backs up settings, etc., to one's Google Cloud account. OK. That's good. But I see no way to restore. Only that when one reinstalls an app, it will automatically reinsall the settings for that app. That's good. Perhaps no use for the app settings backup from Helium then. But what if something goes wrong on the phone and my homescreens get messed up? How would automatic restore help that? It is good if Google is automatically saving all my phone settings to the cloud. But if I have no way to manually restore them, what use is that? (Perhaps would work for app settings, as described, but not for phone and OS settings, accounts, etc.)
Could anyone tell me, is there a way to backup the info as I dscribed above, either through an internal feature, or with an external app (that does not requrie root), so that if the phone gets messed up somehow i can quickly and easily restore it to how it was?
(Surprised that Android does not have a feature like System restore in Windows.)
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
