These days, 0ur phones and tablets perhaps represent a bigger part of our lives than the desktop and laptop of old did. We all know the writing is on the wall for the laptop and many of us – myself included – are beginning to use a tablet in its place. With that shiny new Nexus 7 filled up of all your personal data it’d be nice to know that it’s all safe, read on to see what Clickfree can do to help with that.
App Name: ClickFree Mobile
Description:ClickFree is an application for both phones and tablets on Android that is your one and only stop on the train to backup land. Of course, you’ve heard of Titanium Backup but, that’s for root users only and needs a little in-depth knowledge to get your way round it all. Not everybody with an Android phone or tablet wants to do all of that but, they know they need to back things up. The app offers backing up to an SD card (if present) but also allows updates to a number of cloud services including Dropbox, Box, SkyDrive, Google Drive and SugarSync. There’s a number of innovative features including a one-click backup, selecting what to backup by categories as well as an easy restore function. As I’ve said, there are options for root users but, this requires no root and will secure backups of your multimedia and things you hold dear easily.
How It Works: It’s a really simple app to get up and running, which is great for all users as it’s not just those looking to mess with their device that feel the need to backup, it’s a practice that everyone should pick up at some point. First time you open up the app you can either choose to backup straight away or you can choose what you want to backup. Which is perfect if you know that the information you have elsewhere is up-to-date and easy to get to, making the backup itself smaller and quicker. However, if you have photos and videos that were taken with your device they might not be on your PC or in cloud, Clickfree will do this for you. For instance, in my case all the video on my Touchpad is up-to-date elsewhere and so I don’t need to back these up, it’s great to see a level of control here.
Once you’ve configured the backup you can choose where you want to back it up to, which is great as having it to access from the cloud in Dropbox for instance is really nice, this takes all the hassle out of a back up.
Once the back up is complete the app will prompt you to let you know if it’s been completed or if there’s been a problem, which the wizard will then take you through. The app will take you through everything step by step easily.
Restoring is, again, as easy as backing up is. Just simply select restore and the whole process is familiar to backing up, select what you want to restore and then hit restore, ClickFree will then tell you if something’s gone wrong or if it’s been completed successfully.
Opinion:As somebody who honestly changes ROMs a lot, it comes with having a Nexus, I like to back things up because let’s face it, stuff is bound to go wrong. I wish that I had come across Clickfree before now. As much as I love Titanium Backup I’ve had a lot of trouble with it in the past but, with Clickfree I can see everyone being able to use this app without problems.
It’s a powerful app, allowing you to back up a number of different content without having to worry about anything, Clickfree takes care of it all and the best thing is that there’s a backup option that’s going to suit pretty much anyone. There’s a cloud option for pretty much whichever camp you sit in, if you’re an old Hotmail person then SkyDrive might be for you, Dropbox is obviously the most popular but, with Google Drive offering 5GB this is a great option and I really like the variety of back up locations on offer by Clickfree, it’s perfect for all users out there.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – Clickfree backed up a number of things to Dropbox and Drive for me, and did both quickly, my upload speed was the only problem here.
- Features (5/5) – Offering so many options yet retaining functionality is a difficult, the developers of Clickfree have pulled it off brilliantly.
- Theme (4/5) – With a bright background and a clean layout to its menus, Clickfree is excellent to use.
- Overall (5/5) – If ever there was a backup app for everybody, not just the rooters but, the average user, this is it!
Pros
- Everything runs smoothly and the interface is clean and simple.
- Critically, both backups and restores were very fast.
- There’s so many storage options here there has to be one for you.
- Being able to control what gets backed up so easily is an excellent feature, and essential if you’re light on storage.
Cons
- A more featured file browser for looking at backups would be appreciated but, not a dealbreaker.
- The layout on a tablet could be better but, at no point does anything look out-of-place or unclear.
Conclusion: If you, or somebody that you know has a lot of personal data, such as photos and documents on their phone or tablet then this app is essential. Creating a backup of the bare necessities doesn’t take more than a few minutes at most and you can back it up to pretty much anywhere.
Clickfree is a very powerful piece of software, indeed but, it’s even better if you learn to use it to sort you. For instance, how often do you wish the document on your tablet was available when you got home, or to work? Sure, Dropbox can do this but, sending a document or, an up-to-date document to Dropbox is tricky. With Clickfree – after you’ve set it up – you can just hit backup and everything will be wherever you want it to be, waiting for you.
I wholeheartedly recommend this app to anyone that has personal data on their devices. Those photos you take of your child every day? Back them up every day and never worry about losing them, it’s brilliant, no hassle involved and accessible to everyone. A truly refreshing app that serves a very real need perfectly.
You can hold of Clickfree Mobile in the Google Play Store, here.