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With the backup command you could make a complete backup of android smartphones, now that I know only the pull command remains but it is not like the backup command, are there alternatives?

tecno78
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1 Answers1

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The adb backup command may be able to make a complete backup of an Android smartphone, but nowadays it becomes more and more useless:

  1. adb backup can only backup apps that allow backup at all (an app has to declare allowBackup=true in it's AndroidManifest.xml or don't have such an entry at all). If it sets allowBackup=false then adb backup can not get any data on this app.

  2. Cryptographic keys stored in AndroidKeystore can not be extracted, they are bound to the phone hardware. https://developer.android.com/training/articles/keystore

  3. adb backup fails on recent apps that have targetSDK level to 31 or higher (if the abb is a production and not a debuggable app). adb backup was marked deprecated years ago, seems like Google wants to finally cut it off. https://developer.android.com/about/versions/12/behavior-changes-12#adb-backup-restrictions

Robert
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  • Ok, but what is the current alternative to that command? And which allows the entire android backup? The various tools that do android backups rely on adb, for example andriller, which adb command are they based on? – tecno78 Nov 10 '22 at 20:04
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    @tecno78 On unrooted devices there is no real alternative. If you can not access the data you can not backup or transfer them. If a tool uses adb backup command it will fail. Some apps allow Google cloud backup and others can be transfered to a new device using direct USB connection. That are the ways Google allows. – Robert Nov 10 '22 at 21:50
  • Tools like andriller are adb based and work, without root, something escapes me – tecno78 Nov 11 '22 at 11:57
  • @tecno78 I did not say adb backup does not work at all, there are still apps which allow backup and on older phones adb backup also still works for apps that allow it, but the number of apps is getting smaller and smaller and on newer devices for newer apps it doesn't work at all. – Robert Nov 11 '22 at 12:24
  • ok, but then tools like andriller or similar that back up all android use adb only for the connection with the device, then for the backup they do not use the adb "backup" command but it is the program with which the tool was developed back up? – tecno78 Nov 11 '22 at 18:38
  • @tecno78 Have you tried to create an abckup of an app that refuses backup via adb? Most likely you will get the same result using andriller. – Robert Nov 11 '22 at 19:13
  • So andriller and the like use the adb "backup" function to extract the data? However apart from applications, data such as images, audio, media in general are extracted right? The alternatives are then the adb command "pull" or root the device and then perform the copy with commands like dd? – tecno78 Nov 12 '22 at 20:14
  • @tecno78 I don't use andriller and such tools, you say it uses adb backup. As I don't use it I don't know how it works and what data it backup. – Robert Nov 13 '22 at 12:36
  • No I'm not sure, I was just asking – tecno78 Nov 13 '22 at 20:31
  • @tecno78 as I wrote for app private data of non-debug apps on a non-rooted device there is only adb backup, thus if these tools claim to create a backup they can only use adb backup and are affected by the problems I mentioned. All the other data on the sdcard section can be accessed by commands like adb pull. – Robert Nov 13 '22 at 21:52
  • ok, clearer this way, in order to root the device can you tell me any particular tool? – tecno78 Nov 14 '22 at 11:40
  • @tecno78 - you want topjohnwu/Magisk on github for root. I'm not posting a link just because there are so many fake (maklware) links out there that it's good to get in the habit of going straight to github. Termux app can be helpful with root; tar and split are available. Your USB storage is under /mnt/media_rw/ . – Bill McGonigle Dec 04 '22 at 15:30