Android: Use adb to do a full backup of your smartphone or tablet on GNU / Linux PC

Adb is a powerful and very useful tool to manage Android from a PC. In addition, the use of adb does not require root access to the Android device.

In this article, adb will be used to make a full backup of the Andoid device.

Use adb to make a full backup to PC

To use adb, it must first be installed. For this step, see this article:   How to install adb and fasboot

Then, connect the device with the USB cable to the PC and move the Android in "debug" mode. To switch to the "debug" mode, go to the "Settings" menu, the menu "Decomposition Systems" and "Developer Options":

And enable debug mode:

Open a terminal and run the detection of Android:

adb devices

Result of the order for my case:

[emna@amor-pc ~]$ adb devices * daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 * * daemon started successfully * List of devices attached TA98601E4J  device

Start the execution of the backup:

adb backup -apk -shared -all -f backup.ab

A message will appear in your terminal to confirm thebackup:

Now unlock your device and confirm the backup operation.

Confirm the launch of the backup on the device, it is possible to encrypt it:

Restore a backup with adb

To start restoring the full backup of Android, enter in a terminal:

adb restore backup.ab