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Carbon App - back up your phone, no root required

S

siiip5

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 13, 2012
395
0
So, the same guy that made CWM, brought this out and allows you to back up your Android phone on your internal or extSDcard without the need for rooting your phone. Available in the Play Store in both free and pro variants. The free version will get you full backup/restore to/from SD card and PC (requires your phone's drivers), for both rooted and non-rooted users. For an additional fee of $5, the app also offers an ad-free experience, automatic backups, and – most importantly – cloud backups. With the latter option enabled, Carbon can automatically send your backups to your Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive account. You'll never lose anything again.

Link to Play Store app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup

nexusae0_229.png
 
3bs said:
I'm curious as to how this is app is different from DataSync
Click to expand...

Root is required for DataSync - looks like Carbon doesn't require root access.

This would be awesome for someone like me - coming from the always backed-up world of the iPhone + iCloud, auto cloud backups was one of the things that bothered me about Android.

I'll look to install this app when I get my Nexus 4!
 
Thanks for the link! Looks like I'll be $5 poorer soon. :D

I had to do a restore on my N4, and was missing one of Apples ease of use features at that point -- glad phone was new, and pretty much empty.
 
While it is nice that there is a free version it really isn't usable much without paying. I'd rather there be a trial period. Allowing backing up to Box but not restoring is kinda lame. Oh wait a minute... maybe it is not: if you never need to restore you don't need to pay. :)

Another thing that I don't understand is app groups. Is that referring to folders? If so why only one app group name?



Michael
 
Anyone having trouble with the Carbon Mac app ? I'm on 10.6.8 and it crashes before it even opens....
 
+1. Good find.

Strangely, I am not compelled to use it, though. Android is so stable, I have little fear or concern of it crashing and having to do a restore. I can't even remember the last time I had to reboot my phone.

Still, sounds like a great app, and should finally help those that do want to backup without root. The list of iOS advantages grows ever smaller...
 
If anyone buys it let me know how the restore feature works. I use Titanium Backup right now but I'd love to find an app that can restore app data without the need for root.
 
onthecouchagain said:
+1. Good find.

Strangely, I am not compelled to use it, though. Android is so stable, I have little fear or concern of it crashing and having to do a restore. I can't even remember the last time I had to reboot my phone.

Still, sounds like a great app, and should finally help those that do want to backup without root. The list of iOS advantages grows ever smaller...
Click to expand...

It's not really about stability- a lot of people lose or break their phones (or have warranty issues, requiring a replacement), having a backup on hand saves a lot of headaches when replacing it.
 
I am not sure what is so great about this app. I guess it is nice to be able to back up apps and restore their settings. But it was taking forever to backup full apps to Box (on wifi) so I finally killed it and only did app settings. I suppose that could be useful but I still don't know what app groups are. I really was hoping for something like a nandroid backup that just restores things exactly as they were at the time the backup was made.

As far as using it via USB I was not going to install a pc or mac counterpart. You can already backup to a PC or Mac without rooting using adb which of course is free.

Be nice if someone were to create a script or wrapper for the adb method so it is easy for the those not technically inclined. Maybe I'll do it if I get a chance.




Michael
 
Tinmania said:
I am not sure what is so great about this app. I guess it is nice to be able to back up apps and restore their settings. But it was taking forever to backup full apps to Box (on wifi) so I finally killed it and only did app settings. I suppose that could be useful but I still don't know what app groups are. I really was hoping for something like a nandroid backup that just restores things exactly as they were at the time the backup was made.

As far as using it via USB I was not going to install a pc or mac counterpart. You can already backup to a PC or Mac without rooting using adb which of course is free.

Be nice if someone were to create a script or wrapper for the adb method so it is easy for the those not technically inclined. Maybe I'll do it if I get a chance.



Michael
Click to expand...


I haven't checked yet - Does adb (I assume that's Android File Transfer?) do smart incremental backups? I assume the script you're talking about is a way to automate that -- Being adle to do that painlessly is what I'm looking for.
 
Tinmania said:
I am not sure what is so great about this app. I guess it is nice to be able to back up apps and restore their settings. But it was taking forever to backup full apps to Box (on wifi) so I finally killed it and only did app settings. I suppose that could be useful but I still don't know what app groups are. I really was hoping for something like a nandroid backup that just restores things exactly as they were at the time the backup was made.

As far as using it via USB I was not going to install a pc or mac counterpart. You can already backup to a PC or Mac without rooting using adb which of course is free.

Be nice if someone were to create a script or wrapper for the adb method so it is easy for the those not technically inclined. Maybe I'll do it if I get a chance.

Michael
Click to expand...
The only thing that makes this app great, is that it doesn't require root and is aimed at people that either don't want to, or don't know how to root.

Anyone that wants to use full featured programs for backing up data, including root files, will use CWM or TB. I will never use carbon, because I root my devices the second I get them. But at least now, I can direct people that don't root to an app that they can use. I couldn't say that a couple weeks ago.

----------
knucklehead said:
I haven't checked yet - Does adb (I assume that's Android File Transfer?) do smart incremental backups? I assume the script you're talking about is a way to automate that -- Being adle to do that painlessly is what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...

ADB allows for commands to be initiated via a terminal interface. Think DOS on Windows in the 80's.
 
siiip5 said:
The only thing that makes this app great, is that it doesn't require root and is aimed at people that either don't want to, or don't know how to root.

Anyone that wants to use full featured programs for backing up data, including root files, will use CWM or TB. I will never use carbon, because I root my devices the second I get them. But at least now, I can direct people that don't root to an app that they can use. I couldn't say that a couple weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Do you happen to know if there are any auto settings as far as when the backups take place?

For instance, can I set it to backup at a certain time everyday or when charging/screen is off?

EDIT: I re-read the post and saw the auto backup listed - just wondered how robust the options are.
 
jrswizzle said:
Do you happen to know if there are any auto settings as far as when the backups take place?

For instance, can I set it to backup at a certain time everyday or when charging/screen is off?

EDIT: I re-read the post and saw the auto backup listed - just wondered how robust the options are.
Click to expand...

Don't know? I am rooted and use CWM and TB. I have Titanium Backup Auto backup only new apps or updates once a week to my Google Drive. I use CWM to backup my current ROM before I flash a new one. I have backups on my home PC as well.

As I said, I will probably never utilize this app, because I don't need it. I will just direct my unrooted brothers that way.
 
siiip5 said:
Don't know? I am rooted and use CWM and TB. I have Titanium Backup Auto backup only new apps or updates once a week to my Google Drive. I use CWM to backup my current ROM before I flash a new one. I have backups on my home PC as well.

As I said, I will probably never utilize this app, because I don't need it. I will just direct my unrooted brothers that way.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, no problem!
 
onthecouchagain said:
+1. Good find.

Strangely, I am not compelled to use it, though. Android is so stable, I have little fear or concern of it crashing and having to do a restore. I can't even remember the last time I had to reboot my phone.

Still, sounds like a great app, and should finally help those that do want to backup without root. The list of iOS advantages grows ever smaller...
Click to expand...

Your only consideration should be how catastrophic it would be if you lost all your data, not whether or not you're actually going to.

Hardly anybody backs up because they think they're actually going to lose data, more just in case.
 
I guess I don't have that many things that are that valuable on my phone that I can't retrieve elsewhere (Gmail, for example)...

Anyway, I'm not knocking this app/feature or the idea of backing things up. Rock on.
 
I have managed to do 1 backup on my MBP with this, I have the desktop controller for Mac installed on my MBP and this says "Carbon has been enabled on your Android" but it never connects. Not to good IMHO.

Screenshot_2013-02-01-22-09-05_zpsc8bb3db0.png
 
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