Although I am fairly technically proficient, I am very new to Android, having only very recently purchased my first Android device, the Galaxy S4 phone, T-Mobile USA version, latest stock ROM.
I should mention that I have no interest in backing up the PIM data, as I have a Microsoft Exchange account through work, and have all my contacts, calendar, etc. on Exchange, and could easily re-sync it if lost on the phone. Of course also that Exchange e-mail account, but also have other personal IMAP e-mail accounts, which could also be re-synced. However, important for me to back up device settings, app settings, etc., as that could take many hours to re-configure if lost.
There seem to be various backup apps available, although some only work if the device is rooted. I have used Helium, and also Samsung Kies.
I am wondering, however, if the following would work:
What if, with a file explorer, either on the phone or on the desktop (with phone connected via USB and all files showing on the desktop computer), with the file explorer set to show all files--hidden, system, etc., show extensions, etc., one just copied everything in the phone's internal memory to a folder on the memory card? (And of course one could then copy that folder to a PC as well.) Would that folder have all the settings, etc., in it? If the phone crashed and lost all its data, but the memory card was still good (or if not,m and one saved the folder to an external computer), could one then restore the system to how it was by copying all the files in that folder back to the phone's internal memory?
Of course, one could save space by compressing that folder into a .zip, .rar, .7z, or other compressed file.
However, I have no idea whether saving all the files in internal memory (with the file explorer set to show everything) to the memory card or PC would really save all settings, etc., to be able to restore it to the state when one did that if need be.
Does anyone here know if that would work?
Thanks in advance for your response.
