How do I backup my Ubuntu Phone?

Question

How do I backup my Ubuntu Phone so I can restore it to the same state after a factory reset? To specify, I'm looking for the following:

Copying the /home/phablet/ folder will save the files, but does this also save all the config files and programs?

Backing up /home/phablet will backup everything except the apps which are in a number of places including /opt/click.ubuntu.com/ and /usr/share/click/preinstalled. However even backing up those directories won't be enough. Installing applications will unpack files in /opt but will also trigger other things like apparmor profile processing. — popey, Commented Mar 29, 2015 at 20:40
@popey So it seems the best method is to backup /home/phablet and reinstall apps after restoring a backup? All the applications configuration (i.E. tasks in the task app) should still be there if I understood you correctly? Thanks for the answer(/comment)! — Christopher Bludau, Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 10:18
Yes, all config and app data will be in your home. You can run "click list" to see a list of all apps installed, which could be a useful thing to backup. — popey, Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 10:27
Is it necessary to backup the .cache folder, does it have any benefits? Thx! — flohack, Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 21:24

popey · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-31 10:19:38Z

8

I made a little script to make backing up the phone easier. It's on github.

answered Aug 31, 2016 at 10:19

popey

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Merlijn Sebrechts · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-17 15:49:54Z

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Backing up the /home/phablet folder will backup everything except the apps.
You can get a list of all installed apps by running click list on your phone. You will have to reinstall these manually.

Apps are installed in an number of places and trigger other things like apparmor profile processing so there is no easy way to backup those.

answered Jul 17, 2016 at 15:49

Merlijn Sebrechts

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