You never know when something will go wrong with your smartphone. Sure, you’ll do your best to make sure it performs as it should but you never know when something bad may happen. To alleviate some of this anxiety, you should be regularly backing up your data and I’ll be showing you all of the available methods.
I have already shown you a number of things that require you to perform a factory reset to complete. This can be anything from manually doing it yourself to unbrick the phone or by simply wanting to gain root access. These are all actions the user will take so making a backup ahead of time is ideal.
However, there are times when you won’t get the chance to backup before it’s too late.
In this scenario, I am speaking about being one of the unlucky few who end up with a bootlooped smartphone after installing an OTA update. Whether or not your Galaxy Note 10 is rooted, there are some times when a fresh update can wreak havoc on your setup. It’s rare, but it can happen.
So it’s advisable to get in the habit of backing up your photos, videos, contacts, SMS text messages and more on a regular basis. You have a number of options to choose from too so let me begin by showing you the most basic of options.
Backup Your Galaxy Note 10 Data to the Cloud
One of the easiest ways to back up your data (assuming you have a decent internet connection) is to use the cloud. This is an ambiguous term and can mean all sorts of things. Two options we have integrated into the Android OS for cloud backups are Samsung Cloud and Google Drive.
However, you can use all sorts of cloud backup apps and services including Mega, Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon Drive, and more. I can’t go over all of these choices with you here today but I would like to cover the more popular ones since they are immediately available to all Galaxy Note 10 owners.
Backup the Galaxy Note 10 with a Google Account
This is actually the core backup service that Google has built into the Android OS. It uses your Google Drive account and is set to backup and restore automatically by default. However, we can go in and manually trigger this backup process so you know that your stored data is up to date.
- Open the Settings app
- Scroll down and tap on the Accounts and Backup menu
- Tap the Backup and Restore option
- Make sure there’s a Google account selected
- Make sure the Back Up My Data toggle is enabled
- You can enable the Automatic Restore toggle as well (optional)
- Then tap the Google Account entry
- Followed by tapping the blue Back Up Now button at the top
This isn’t going to be backing up the 3rd-party applications or games you have installed, but if those apps or games have been coded with this feature in mind then it will back up those app’s data. This will back up your SMS text messages, contacts, call history, device settings, photos, videos, and more.
Backup the Galaxy Note 10 with a Samsung Account
Another cloud backup service that is available to all Samsung Galaxy Note 10 owners is using the Samsung Cloud. This is something Samsung created recently as a way to offer a backup service directly to its customers. Instead of the information going to Google Drive, this method will send your data to Samsung’s servers.
- Go back into the Settings app
- Dive into the Accounts and Backup menu
- Tap the Backup and Restore option
- Then tap the Back Up Data option at the top within the Samsung Account section
- Select the apps you want to be included in this backup
- Then tap the Back Up button located at the bottom of the screen
I’m seeing the same style of backup happening with Samsung Cloud as we did with Google Drive. You can choose which pieces of data you want to back up in this way using a predetermined list of options. This includes your phone data, text messages, contacts, calendar events, clock alarms, and more.
Perform a Local Backup of the Galaxy Note 10 to the PC
Not everyone is a fan of storing their information in the cloud. So, if you would rather keep your data away from Samsung or Google servers then you’ll want to check the settings of the two backup options mentioned above. These are set to back up your data automatically by default.
So if you don’t want this to happen then you’ll want to go in and turn them off. Turning these off doesn’t mean you are left without a backup solution though as there are still a few to choose from. Again, I want to go over the most basic of options here today for Galaxy Note 10 devices but you won’t be limited to these.
Backup the Internal Storage of the Galaxy Note 10
The most common way of backing up things you have stored on your device is by using a USB cable. Anything downloaded from the internet, from an MMS text, an email, or other applications will be saved to your Internal Storage. This holds all sorts of things from photos and videos to misc. application data.
- Connect the smartphone to the PC with a USB cable
- Grant access from the PC when prompted
- Swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the Notification Shade
- Look for and tap on the USB Mode notification
- Then make sure it’s set to File Transfer
- Open up a Windows Explorer window
- Click the This PC option in the left navigation panel
- Double-click the Galaxy Note 10 entry
- Then double-click the Phone drive listing
- So you can select all of those folders, right-click them, and copy them to the PC
Now, this will not save your contact list, it will not back up your SMS messages or even your system data. This method is just a raw copy and paste of the files and folders you have available to you. This doesn’t include system files but can include some application data.
Backup the Galaxy Note 10 with Samsung Smart Switch
If you want to take the USB backup method a bit further then you can use Smart Switch. This works similarly to the above method mentioned, but lets you take things a step further and backs up your system and app data. It can also back up your photos, videos, call history, etc. as well too.
- Connect the smartphone to the PC with a USB cable
- Grant access from the PC when prompted
- Swipe down from the top of the screen to reveal the Notification Shade
- Look for and tap on the USB Mode notification
- Then make sure it’s set to File Transfer
- Download and install Samsung Smart Switch
- Open up the Samsung PC program
- Then click the big blue Backup button after it detects the Galaxy Note 10
I say can because what gets backed up is up to you. Kind of like we saw with the Samsung Cloud backup option. You can dig through the settings of Samsung Smart Switch and customize the backup directory, designate what gets backed up, and more.
