Backing Up an Android Device

Bonecracker · 8. November 2018

Hey there!

I'm desperately searching for a solution to backup my Android Device (Galaxy S7 Edge) to my OMV NAS.
Requirements:
- can handle larger amount of files (eg. Whatsapp Media 5000 images)
- incremental backups, only new files get syncronised
- reliable, so i don't have to do it manually every time
- ota, the best solution would be so that every time i log into any Wifi, it just synchronizes

What i tried so far:
- adb pull: it's manual, and just copies all files, whether they changed or not, and whether they exist or not
- Nextcloud App, most of the time just straightup crashes and is very unreliable, perhabs because of the many files and folger
- The app FolderSync to Nextcloud, works barely, but better then the rest, but spits out many errors (forbidden, .something file not found etc.)

Maybe one of you has a working solution and wants to share it with me.

Thx!

Adoby · 8. November 2018

I use FolderSync. Works perfectly fine for me. But I only backup or update data and I initiate it.

I understand you can also install SSH Helper on an unrooted phone.

Then you can use rsync transfers, perhaps initiated automatically from your OMV NAS whenever your phone is available on WiFi the LAN.

For instance use a crontab script that tests every hour if the phone has been successfully backed up the last 24 hours, if not it checks if the phone is online now, if it is it runs a rsync script to back it up using a time stamped rsync snapshot. And automatically purge very old snapshots. And finally trigger tasker on your phone to tell you that the phone has been backed up successfully again.

Or have tasker trigger a backup whenever the phone connects to WiFi and a connection to your OMV NAS is available.

Bonecracker · 8. November 2018

Thank you! I will try that.

With foldersync, i get eg. just "forbidden" as an error. And i dont know, what differentiates the folder with forbidden from any other, or i get "Stream closed" and i dont know where from...

Jockewhbg · 3. Juli 2021

Zitat von Adoby

I use FolderSync. Works perfectly fine for me. But I only backup or update data and I initiate it.

Hi,

Which protocol do you use with FolderSync? I´ve tried FTPeS but it won´t transfer files smaller than 1 MB. The connection drops. Larger files works fine.

Regards

Jocke

Adoby · 3. Juli 2021

I use SMB2 between my Linux boxes and my Android devices, using FolderSync.

oopenmediavault · 5. Juli 2021

Zitat von Adoby

I use FolderSync. Works perfectly fine for me. But I only backup or update data and I initiate it.

I understand you can also install SSH Helper on an unrooted phone.

Then you can use rsync transfers, perhaps initiated automatically from your OMV NAS whenever your phone is available on WiFi the LAN.

For instance use a crontab script that tests every hour if the phone has been successfully backed up the last 24 hours, if not it checks if the phone is online now, if it is it runs a rsync script to back it up using a time stamped rsync snapshot. And automatically purge very old snapshots. And finally trigger tasker on your phone to tell you that the phone has been backed up successfully again.

Or have tasker trigger a backup whenever the phone connects to WiFi and a connection to your OMV NAS is available.

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This seems fairly advanced... Not every user can program something like this, (without wasting a lot of time). So I'll just ask if you already implemented this or know for example the command to 1)check if phone online 2) check if it phone is on WiFi (not just mobile data) 3) Check if it backed up in last 24 hours.

Adoby · 5. Juli 2021

Yes, this is indeed advanced. If you want to fully automate Android Backups to a NAS you will indeed have to do a lot of work. Perhaps there is an app that can do this, already?

I have not fully automated this. Currently I just use scheduled syncs over WiFi initiated from FolderSync PRO. Works fine as long as I haven't turned off WiFi. If the phone is not connected the sync simply fails.

Soma · 5. Juli 2021

Zitat von Bonecracker

- Nextcloud App, most of the time just straightup crashes and is very unreliable,

Maybe you need to review the backup:

Have some (not all) folders in sync with my server and, as soon as there's new files on them (and I'm on a Wi-fi connection), it uploads them to Nextcloud.

The initial upload is/was a pain, but now, I don't even notice it.

auanasgheps · 5. Juli 2021

Syncthing is the best solution in my opinion.

mi-hol · 7. Juli 2021

auanasgheps could you please share some more information about how you setup Syncthing on OMV server?

auanasgheps · 9. Juli 2021

Zitat von mi-hol

auanasgheps could you please share some more information about how you setup Syncthing on OMV server?

With Docker, you can find tutorials on Youtube if you don't know how to use it.

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