Backing up text and contacts to PC with Andriod 2.2?

thor

I have just started to use my new Desire and after problems backing up text and contacts with my old Hero phone, the first thing I checked was the Desire's ability to back up phone data.
The manual claims that you can automatically do so from the privacy setting but I have found out that Android 2.2 has dropped this function(I think they forgot about it) and I certainly could not locate where it was supposed to be.
So I am asking for suggestions for the best free back up app which saves texts and phone contacts to the PC.
Also if I was to copy the entire contents of the phone's SD card to my computerand then do a factory reset, would copying back this data from PC to SD card restore everything back as well. In other words, would I need a backup app in this instance?

jayme1

the best way to backup contacts is through your gmail account, contacts (and calendar) will be synced to gmail in the cloud and then you can 'sync' them with your computer into Outlook ect., change or add a contact in any place and the other 2 update almost instantly. (video about google sync)

as for SMS I don't know but I'm sure you can back them up,
or if you have a data plan then sending a gmail email will automatically save a copy in gmail and will be much cheaper than SMS esp if most of the people you text have a smartphone and data add-on

fiendishlyclever

I use SMS backup. It is free and copies all your SMS messages into your GMail account as you get them. Very handy as you always have a copy you can access - it's a one way backup (don't think you can restore them) but there's no need as you can access GMail on your phone.

https://market.android.com/details?id=tv.studer.smssync

madinlife

you can use ny phone explorer to back up the contents of your phone it is available at fjsoft.at/en/downloads.php hope this helps you sorry can"t post links you will need to add www you will need to downloads ad the myphoneexploer client from android market and start it before connecting to your pc

Snakeeyes21

madinlife wrote: »

you can use ny phone explorer to back up the contents of your phone it is available at fjsoft.at/en/downloads.php hope this helps you sorry can"t post links you will need to add www you will need to downloads ad the myphoneexploer client from android market and start it before connecting to your pc

couldnt agree more, this is an excellent piece of software, you can connect via wii, bluetooth or usb cable.

Very highly recommended on any android forum

You can do a whole lot more than just syncing contacts and texts with it..

download from here
http://www.fjsoft.at/en/
then the app for the phone
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fjsoft.myphoneexplorer.client

I also use sms backup and restore to back up all my sms at set intervals throughout the day
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&feature=search_result

Also Titanium backup to backup all my apps and app data, the pro version is well wotrth the few quid it costs in the time it saves when you are restoring your apps and stuff
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup&feature=search_result

titanium pro key
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackupPro

edit: to use titanium backup you need to be rooted,..

S0litaire

I use "SMS Backup+"
it's great (it can also log any sent/received calls to a google calendar)
used it a few times to restore contacts after doing a hard reset.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync

Wintermute

I use backup everything which worked well for me after I spend my phone off to be factory flashed (couldn't find a way to unroot it myself that actually worked!), but there's tons of apps out there that'll do the same thing that are also free