How to Backup Your Smart Phone 85
Lucas123 writes "According to a Computerworld story there will be 8 million cell phones/smart phones lost this year. The site describes how to easily back up data on handhelds. The piece also addresses the future of these technologies: 'In Dulaney's opinion, traditional USB syncing "will die." Gartner is telling its corporate customers they should hasten this process by not permitting their employees to sync to their PCs. He explains this by saying that individual end users can create distributed computing and security problems because they are poor data administrators. Moreover, he adds, PCs are not necessarily more reliable than cell phones. Drake gives a qualified endorsement of wireless e-mail as the master application for backing up and syncing data, saying the technology is fine for dedicated e-mail environments but insufficient for corporate environments that require a vast array of wireless applications.'"
yeah thats just want i want (Score:3, Insightful)
"Oh you want to leave, I'm sorry but our backups failed and your data is gone..."
"Oh you decided to stay, guess what, we've found that backup...."
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~Dan
Question is .. (Score:1)
OK, admitted, the phones are most likely smarter than most their users, given reports like this one [slashdot.org]
8 million cell phones/smart phones lost this year. (Score:1)
No longer an issue (Score:3, Interesting)
If you are at home it can even discover and use WiFi saving you some bandwidth - if you think it's worth the hassle.
Of course you might have problems with this if your smart phone doesn't run Linux, but it'll only cost you about $300 to fix that
*More is not charged for, but you can't do it too often.
Re:No longer an issue (Score:4, Insightful)
So you want to sync a 1 or 2-gig phone card? 2 gigabytes = 16 gigabits. That's a LOT of $$$.
I'll stick to my USB cable - fast, easy to use under linux - no special drivers needed.
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I know a lot of people who have smartphones but aren't part of an enterprise system. What are they supposed to do to backup their phones? Buy, install and configure Windows Server and Exchange Server?
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iSync partial solution (Score:2)
That's fine if you only need to back up the kinds of data that iSync knows about. I had to spring for Missing Sync to get a backup of my Treo.
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Or another six months (Palm) if you live in an area with CDMA signaling.
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Could someone restore the article? (Score:3, Funny)
Blame the users (Score:4, Interesting)
The biggest reason that corporate IT departments aren't particularly respected by the rest of the company is this blame the user culture that seems to pervade it. If there are shortcomings in the desktop and mobile software that makes it easy to get things wrong, then the software is at fault. Software is a tool for people, not the other way around.
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If the user's home directories are kept on a share, then it's relatively easy to back up their stuff on a daily basis, but it costs money to build the SAN and network infrastructure. Even easier, put scripts on their systems to rsync their home directories to a repository at night; there are several commercial programs that will do this, but again you do have to spend money (on Macs, Retro
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...but it costs money to build the SAN and network infrastructure.
Well, NFS / automount and an array works quite nicely if you don't want to shell out the dough for a full-on SAN. With Linux users it's a total breeze to maintain once you get it set up (especially so w/ NIS or LDAP to bind it all together). Tie the /home server into Samba for the Windows users (then instruct 'em to drop their backups to a mapped drive on their desktop PC), and as long as you can keep the network halfway tuned (and keep an eye on it for bandwidth reasons, just like you would for a SAN),
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You mean that in your environment it is not a problem that *every* single user on the network can fake *any* other and thus trivially gain access to their private data (including corporate-sensible one). Well, I think the article was about security compliance worriness, clearly a field not of your interest.
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You still need someone's credentials to access their home directory, meaning you need their name, password and any third factor you might want. You might be thinking of something different.
Further, with local homes it's pretty easy to fake another user; if Alice wants to fake Bob, Alice simply sits at Bob's desk and turns his computer on. If you can touch a box, as long as the hard drive isn't encrypted, you'll be able to get what's on it (and large organizations would do well to forbid people from encry
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On a Linux-based NFS plus NIS environment? Not at all. Once you are root on your local machine, you can access *any* data avaliable on the server since you can present it any UID. Check your facts if you don't believe me.
"Further, with local homes it's pretty easy to fake another user; if Alice wants to fake Bob, Alic
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It do, but it don't scale past more than a couple people. The nice thing about local homes is that when the machine at the desk crashes, only the guy at the desk can't work. If the machine with the exported NFS crashes, suddenly the whole company can't work, so for anything more than a few people you need the whole five-nines bullshit.
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I thought we were talking about the backup images of the mobile device, not the mobile device itself. TFA criticizes security of backups on desktops of mobile devices, not to security of the mobile devices.
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Assuming this works (as some have replied to you suggesting it won't), congratulations
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Well yes, but I guess it depends on your definition of "constraining the user." Setting up a SAN with remote home directories I wouldn't consider "constraining the user," because it doesn't require any action on their part, and the desktop experience is about the same. OTOH, just emailing everyone once a month to say "Everyone back up your drives! It's policy!" isn't really good IT; the idea is to provide as many services as possible while requiring the least possible interaction from them.
It's like a d
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Yes, but the biggest reason that corporate IT departments don't respect users is because users ask them to do things that are impossible.
User: "I want a way to buck up my data onto an unsecured machine securely."
IT: "There's no product on the market to do that, or if there is, you wont pay for it."
User: "It's all your fault!"
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Our IT has enough sense (in spite of their massive red tape) to know this.
All machines run Connected net backup daily, notebooks run whenever on the corp network (daily, immediately if a day is missed).
The users can restore files as needed and machine restores are done by IT.
It all "just works".
Users can back up thier PDAs phones whatever to the PC and CNB will grab it.
There is a folder in the my documents folder called NoBackup. Great for storing iso images and such.
-nB
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Unfortunately, it's also true that past a certain point it's impossible for software or administrators to completely correct the failings of stupid, lazy, or irresponsible users.
Encouraging users (or anyone) to shoulder a little responsibility isn't always a bad thing.
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The biggest reason that corporate IT departments aren't particularly respected by the rest of the company is this blame the user culture that seems to pervade it.
Oh, come on, man; I could just as easily say that 'The biggest reason that corporate IT users aren't particularly respected by the IT function of the company is the cluelessness of the user culture that seems to pervade it'.
Both comments have some truth to them, but are gross generalisations.
I can honestly say, that as a user, most of the software that I've used for cell phones or combined PDA's/cell phones is not particularly well thought through WRT backup/restore and migration of data to a new devi
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For now at least. But we machines are working to change that, meatsack.
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Once they see all the stuff that is out there, they become more and more demanding. All too frequently, (and yes, I know all the reasons - package and dependencies management, budget constraints..), corporate IT does not provide a quick, easy and cost-effective response.
Thus users end up 'breaking' or 'hacking' the corporate IT stuff because it does not meet their needs.
The wo
well now! (Score:1)
soution: bitpim (Score:5, Informative)
Tm
Re:solution: to what problem? (Score:2)
You know I'm not certain what the articles complaint really is. I have a Samsung SPH-i300 and all I have to do is drop it into the cradle and press the sync button. Everything gets backed up, and most corporate computers are likewise backed up.
Is that after installing the software for the phone? Was that software windoze only by chance? BitPim, being OSS, will run on most platforms, and explicitly claims Windows, Linux and OSX compatibility. The stuff for my phone required a "computer link" type kit (a usb cable and a craptastic CD of windoze only software) from Sprint for the low-low price of about $100. Seeing as you can buy the usb cable on ebay for about $10, using bitpim instead of purchasing overpriced crapy vendor software just made sens
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What's really needed is a good way to synchronize the phone with everything else. I've got a Palm PDA, RAZR cellphone, iPod, several computers (with varying OSs), and a Google account, and a Free Software solution to synchronize my PIM data between all of them does not exist. Even a proprietary solution would require daisy-chaining several kinds of disparate software, which would make the whole scheme very likely to lose data. Heck, even single-vendor stuff doesn't work properly: my Palm fails to preserve e
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It will export [bitpim.org] data from your phonebook, calendar, notes, etc as csv, and you cant get much more generic/universal than that. The how-to also has some hints [bitpim.org] for sync'ing calendar with ical, google calendar, and a few others.
tm
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Contacts backup on my US Cellular phone (Score:2)
Unfortunately, it doesn't (yet) seem to sy
Sounds like a metaphysical question. (Score:2)
This sounds like a metaphysical question. How do you back up a telephone? Or, what would the backup procedure be if the website is responding? How many Slashdoters can dance on port 80 of a webserver?
I know! Forced bluetooth backups in the restroom! Put bluetooth readers by every toilet/urinal/sink (get it?) so when people visit the restroom their phones get backed up. Just don't ask me how they'd do a restore.... As a security measure, only allow the bluetooth to be activated when their pants are
Fun with Vendor Lock-In Techniques (Score:5, Interesting)
This type of backup is nothing new, a provider here in canada has had this style of application for backing up contact lists for over a year now for certain handsets. The convenience of a contact list (read: the inconvenience of losing it) is one of the retention techniques used in the industry here in canada, and i'm sure it is the same in the states. I somehow doubt that having the contacts stored by the provider themselves is going to be at all useful EXCEPT for one specific case: You lose/destroy/etc your device and are getting a hardware upgrade through your existing provider or purchasing out of pocket FOR the existing provider.
Blaming users own inability to herd data securely is a severely weak excuse for removing the one nearly-universal method of accessing the phone's data. What these companies want is to remove any and all data transfers that are not through their own data networks. Why would you want your customer to back up his own information when you can retain control of said information? Why would you want a customer to find a way to upload mp3's directly to their mp3 enabled phone instead of using their mobile browser store?
The rational for this is obvious, and the only sad thing is that the corporate clients are not the ones who will feel the pain. Once it becomes a "Standard" to not have USB file transfers, its the CONSUMERS who are going to find themselves limited to their provider for any and all data transfers (check data plan rates recently? if you do not REALLY need them they're quite the thorn to the side).
This smells to me like a prelude to DRM type control approached from a different angle. Instead of putting the content control in the content, its in controlling delivery methods.
More reliable than humans? (Score:3, Informative)
Had it fallen out of my shirt pocket into a comode
Forgoten to take it out of the pocket in my shorts before going swimming
Had to remove a shorting battery because the desktop was in my pocket when the canoe tipped over
Left my desktop on the table at a restraunt
Left my desktop sitting on the roof of my car while I drove off
Had my desktop fall out of my pocket while getting into the car
Had someone steal a desktop out of my car
Desktops make a good quick backup because the are not intended to be mobile. A lot of things happen to small items when you start to carry them around everywhere you go. PDA's would not be a good backup for this reason. You backup to the computer, then you back up the data on your computer and you have two backups. If a company is concerned about data loss or lack of administration, specify which folder the information is to be backed up, and then include that folder in the list of things that get covered on the nightly backups.
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Had it fallen out of my shirt pocket into a comode
Forgoten to take it out of the pocket in my shorts before going swimming
Had to remove a shorting battery because the desktop was in my pocket when the canoe tipped over
Left my desktop on the table at a restraunt
Left my desktop sitting on the roof of my car while I drove off
Had my desktop fall out of my pocket while getting into the car
Had someone steal a desktop out of my car
So, I gather you don't go to LAN parties?
Too bad phone companies do not offer this service! (Score:2)
I would even pay as much as $50 to do this.
I would even pay as much as $25 if they couldn't and gave me a file with the contacts instead.
But these F@*ke# phone companies are too greedy to offer something this obviously useful.
Re:Too bad phone companies do not offer this servi (Score:2)
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Re:Too bad phone companies do not offer this servi (Score:1)
http://support.sprint.com/doc/sp10490.xml?id16=ho
You have to subscribe to the service. It's currently $2 per month...
Re:Too bad phone companies do not offer this servi (Score:1)
Why do you need cell phone companies doing this for you? Just do it yourself already.
Re:Too bad phone companies do not offer this servi (Score:2)
A phone should be able to be connected to a computer via USB, for free. A phone should be able to backup and restore its data to/from a SIM or flash card, in a standard format.
Having to pay anyone -- let alone the service provider -- to simply copy your own data is ridiculous!
SyncML is very handy today (Score:2)
Basically, here's how it works: You set your phone up to sync automatically with the SyncML server every couple days. Then whenever you add, say, a contact, it gets uploaded to the s
Sprint does (Score:1)
Geico Caveman (Score:1)
ActiveSync and SPB backup for me (Score:2)
I just don't get what's wrong with the old standbys that suddenly people are supposed to be backing up to their cellphone carrier all of a sudden. ActiveSync and SPB Backup have been working for me for
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cell phone companies would love to kill USB....... (Score:3, Insightful)
Facebook groups (Score:2)
Can't they just learn to back up?
PCs and Cell phones (Score:2)
news flash: automation improves reliability (Score:2)
Data on company or vendor servers that are administered and backup up is less likely to be lost due to hardware failure or intrusion than data on individual PCs. Duh.
Neither wireless nor cabled sync will do a thing to prevent data on a stolen handheld from being misused. Duh.
B positive (Score:2)
It could as easily have said "We recommend that all corporations upgrade their employees to wireless background sync for its many, many advantages." Why does this stuff always have to be phrased as a prohibition on users?
TFA didn't even mention the real data security issue -- that users might sync the devices to outside computers -- which forbidding sync software in the office w
Yeah, Right. (Score:2)
No thanks. I simply use the exchange push feature on the corperate email server and call it done. Do everything on your desktop and treat the phone as an appliance to access the data and you are all set.
How to backup your smart phone in four easy steps (Score:2)
1) Place phone on ground behind rear tire.
2) Shift car into reverse
3) ???
4) PROFIT!
It's a solved problem for me (Score:2)
USB? Seriously? (Score:2)
I've always used bluetooth for that, since several years ago with my SE t68i, to my current Nokia 3250 (and my wife's N73).
I guess USB *might* be faster (depending on version), but I don't notice any problem with speed. Perhaps I just don't have as much data as all you guys...or more time or something.
I use USB for firmware upgrades, not for backup, and these days even firmware upgrades are done over-the-air (inc. wifi) for some phones.
Is this a sponsored link? (Score:2)
A) Don't provide either the cables nor even the function or capability for connecting your phone to a USB port and have it be recognizable to the PC.
B) Price their own network backup services so absurdly high I have never in my life heard of anyone using it.
C) Have such awful data network speeds and reliability that you're going to spend all day screwing with it. Imagine your phone's non EVDO non 3G browser's performance. Yeah it's THAT bad.
D) Provide phones that have spotty Bluetooth
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Well, it's not technically spelling, but I know where you're coming from. However, I've decided to give up on this one. "Backup" is a verb. Backup, [one] backups, backupping, backupped, I'm using 'em all! That's my stance, and I've got plenty of real-world examples to backup it!
Its hard to backup a SMART phone? (Score:1)
1) Set ActiveSync to make a backup on each sync.
2) Plugin the phone.
3) Wait
4) Profit.
Due to Windows Mobile being what it is, I've restored from that backup on several occasions after hard resets. Takes a few minutes, never lose anything.
Without complete backups enabled you still shouldn't lose much, just set the sync utility up to sync all of the document formats it knows about, then the only thing yo
Buy an iPhone (Score:1)
iPhone syncs your contacts and calendar whenever you connect iPhone to your computer.
Ummm, what about encrypting this mobile data? (Score:1)
Personally I can't really think about even leaving the house with such a smartphone unless its been encrypted AND backed up. Then at least the stress is limited to the replacement cost of the phone. Same logic as l
Nokia N95 also supports Apple's iSync on the Mac (Score:1)
But of course what I really want is full support on Ubuntu, although at the rate those Canonical folks are going, my wait may be short. How many Linux quirks are left for them to crack? I dig on how they fixed wireless.
Please please please (Score:1)