Description: Easy Backup & Restore is an Android app that lives up to its name, offering users a simple way of backing up content like their SMS and MMS messages, their contacts, calendar details and more to their new Android smartphone. While the app doesn’t backup apps and their data, Google’s Play Store has been doing that for some time. Rather than making things overly-complicated, Easy Backup & Restore aims to make it super-easy to get your information from one phone to another. Read on to find out why Easy Backup & Restore is held in such high regard with a four and a half star rating in the Play Store.
How it Works: Just like other Android apps, it’s best to start by downloading Easy Backup & Restore from the Play Store. From there, you’ll be asked if you want to perform a backup right away.
If this is your first time using the app, then it’s pretty safe to say that you do want to backup your data. On the next screen, you can see what the app can backup for you.
You’ll be asked where you would like to backup your data to, and this list is really quite comprehensive including a few of the more popular cloud storage providers out there.
On my Xperia Z2, the backup process took next to no time at all and I was given the option to choose a specific name for my backup as well. When it was done, I could see a list of things that the app had kindly backed up for me.
Restoring your backup on a new phone, or from the same phone in case something went wrong, is similarly easy and the process is much the same, giving you the choice of what to backup.
The only bump in the road, and this is a small one, is when restoring text messages thanks to a recent change in Android 4.4 KitKat.
Opinion: I’ve been using Android since the dark days of Android 2.2 and ever since then, it’s been pretty difficult to backup your things and move them to a new phone. This has gotten better over the years, but swapping from device to device like I do is painful, especially when I am not rooted. The essentials however, are handled really easily with Easy Backup & Restore. Your contacts, SMS messages, calendar appointments and more are all backed up safely and you can even upload them to cloud storage to make it easier to pull them down again on a separate device. Simple, easy, and suitable for everyone to use, this makes upgrading to a new phone, or replacing a broken one easier by far.
Ratings
- Speed (5/5) – With hardly any steps to the overall process, and a quick backup time, this is one of the quickest ways of getting your data from one device to another.
- Features (4/5) – While this is a pretty complete solution, it would be nice to see the ability to upload maybe game saves or some sort of app data. But we’ll lay this at Google’s door.
- Theme (4/5) – It’s nothing particularly special, but the overall look and feel is just fine and the UI is easy to follow to boot.
- Overall (4/5) – A simple and essential way of getting your data from one device to another and while it doesn’t include apps, it covers the most important stuff.
Pros
- Backs up your SMS messages as well as your MMS messages in one go.
- Good for users that don’t know how to use GMail for contacts and calendar backup.
- Allows you to backup to cloud storage like Dropbox and Google Drive.
- Nice and fast, without any necessary hassle.
Cons
- Doesn’t back up apps or games, or their save files.
- While great for smartphones, the app doesn’t look all that great on tablets.
Conclusion: If you’re in need of a comprehensive backup solution that covers the essentials like your SMS messages, your contacts and your bookmarks then this is one of the best free options available. It can be used with cloud storage, doesn’t ask much of its users and there’s no need to spend time trawling through options. It would be nice if it could back up app data and saved games, but we can’t expect everything for free and as it is, Easy Backup & Restore can help you get going on a new smartphone in a matter of minutes.