[MUZBNICE]

OK....long time BB user, so I know my way around the phone, I have started reading everything I can find on here but I have still not found the answer.

My system has become unstable in the last week or so and I am trying to back everything up and preform a reset, however my PRIV wont connect to any PC I have tried to hook it up to.

There is no function to transfer the files when it is connected, simply charges.

All PC drivers are up to date and running 6.0.1 on the PRIV, anyone had this issue?

[Wezard]

When you fist plug in there should a dialog pop up saying "connected in charging mode, tap for more options".
If you miss the pop up, (it times out pretty fast) do a one finger swipe down from the top.
Tap the box and choose File Transfer (MTP). Unfortunately, you will have to do this each time you connect.
Don't mess with Photo transfer, (PTP) unless your computers are antiques.

[Tech Idiot]

OK...so, I am a tech *****..and the Priv is my first non-BB OS device...and I am learning, slowly, about Android OS and the device itself...

So, here's my question -- to do a complete back-up, obviously we are not using the "old" BlackBerry Desktop Manager...so what "software" are we supposed to use? Or, is it an "app" so to speak? What is the "bridge" between the device and my PC?

Thank you.

[Wezard]

Since there is no 'manager', you can use whats native on your computer, (copy, paste, whatever picture program you are currently using, etc) or you can go to play store and find something and see if it works.
If nothing comes up after connecting and choosing File transfer, then go to My Computer or This PC and find the Priv, open it and it will behave very similar to a thumb drive. I'm assuming you have the drivers installed.

This is where Android truly s**ks - you don't have any option for a back up.
If you are OK with having stuff on Googles cloud, contacts should be OK, set camera to store photos on SD card, or some of the gallery apps have a built in cloud storage, if you leave your emails on the server, you can get them back. There are a bunch of apps that claim to backup SMS/MMS, (make sure they actually store them on the SD or your computer). Same thing for documents. You'll have to reset all your app settings, no way to save them.

[Tech Idiot]

Since there is no 'manager', you can use whats native on your computer, (copy, paste, whatever picture program you are currently using, etc) or you can go to play store and find something and see if it works.
If nothing comes up after connecting and choosing File transfer, then go to My Computer or This PC and find the Priv, open it and it will behave very similar to a thumb drive. I'm assuming you have the drivers installed.

This is where Android truly s**ks - you don't have any option for a back up.
If you are OK with having stuff on Googles cloud, contacts should be OK, set camera to store photos on SD card, or some of the gallery apps have a built in cloud storage, if you leave your emails on the server, you can get them back. There are a bunch of apps that claim to backup SMS/MMS, (make sure they actually store them on the SD or your computer). Same thing for documents. You'll have to reset all your app settings, no way to save them.

This is good news, I think, LOL. If it behaves, and the process is just like a thumb drive -- that's simple, even for me! LOL.

As far as your second paragraph and the comment I underlined/bolded -- isn't what you described in the first paragraph (the thumb drive process) the back up? If I connect the Priv to my laptop, highlight everything, copy and paste it into a folder on my laptop...isn't that my back up? If the Priv crashes the next day, I can "restore" all of the data on my laptop back onto the Priv (except for settings I guess).

Am I missing something? Thank you again in advance.

[FF22]

This is good news, I think, LOL. If it behaves, and the process is just like a thumb drive -- that's simple, even for me! LOL.

As far as your second paragraph and the comment I underlined/bolded -- isn't what you described in the first paragraph (the thumb drive process) the back up? If I connect the Priv to my laptop, highlight everything, copy and paste it into a folder on my laptop...isn't that my back up? If the Priv crashes the next day, I can "restore" all of the data on my laptop back onto the Priv (except for settings I guess).

Am I missing something? Thank you again in advance.

BACKUP is a variable term. You can obviously backup all of your photos, music, docs, tangible files like those. Some apps might create their own files and they may not be as obvious or easy to find and backup. For instance, say you installed a Drawing App. It might save its files to an obscure folder somewhere in the Android folder. So backing up stuff like that can be harder to accomplish. Then, yes, you may have to recreate how your icons are arranged on one, two or more homepages. If you have some widgets and they have options, those might not be saved so you'd have to recreate those.

Apps, well, if you purchased or downloaded from the Google Store, you can get those back. And if you permit, google can backup many apps and some of their settings and restore those once you initialize the phone with your same google id info.

Others probably have a better idea of what/how backup works on the Priv or Android in general.

[Wezard]

I said similar to a thumb drive, meaning how you move the various files. As F2 alluded, you first have to find all the files, then make sure you put them all back into the correct places. It's nowhere as simple as copying the whole thing then copying it back.
And there are a Lot of settings in Android and whatever apps you choose to use. The defaults for all of it is for minimum security and privacy and maximum data and battery usage. So you will want to adjust a lot of them, could easily take an hour or two to reset all those, assuming you can even remember where and what they were.

[YeemanBB]

There may be information that you need to restore but isn't stored in a "file" on the phone that you can see, access or copy. For example, your Password Keeper or Notes. My advice is to make an assessment of all the information you need to restore and devise a strategy on how to backup and restore such information. As F2 mentioned, some, not all, apps are backed up by Google if you set it up for Google to do so. You can find which apps are backed up by Google in Manage Backup under Settings in the Google Drive app.

By the way, I won't use my computer to store sensitive information from my phone backup. I just won't trust the security on any computer.

[Wezard]

By the way, I won't use my computer to store sensitive information from my phone backup. I just won't trust the security on any computer.

But you store it on your phone, and trust Googles cloud?

[YeemanBB]

But you store it on your phone, and trust Googles cloud?

I don't have anything sensitive stored on any cloud. By the way, I believe my computer can be much more easily hacked than Google Cloud. I am much more comfortable with information stored on my phone and accessing sensitive sites through my phone apps, not the browser on my phone or on my computer.

[Wezard]

I'm not concerned about Googles cloud being hacked, (though I do think it can be done, and will be, just a matter of when) than I am about what Google sells.
My PC is physically very secure, unlike a phone which is easily stolen, or left somewhere. And what little sensitive info I have is on an external hard drive, which is separately software secured, in addition to the software security on the PC.
How do you access sites, phone or computer, without using a browser? Are you referring banking apps? I don't consider using a banking app as accessing a 'site', though thats a matter of semantics. And you are prob correct that a phone app for that, is more secure that a computer based browser.

[theMite7401]

The stock Password Manager application needs to have a backup performed (option in the app) and copied to SD card or pc(better idea - if you lose the phone, no card, right?). It is NOT restored like other apps from Google cloud! Then, restore from your backup after your reset is completed.