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Help Couple questions from an android noob

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bennylava

Well-Known Member
Hi all, new here. I just got my samsung galaxy S phone and I had a couple of questions.

1. Is there a quick, easy backup program that will safely backup all my contacts, pictures, music, and video? I am looking to update the phone to the latest version of android but I hear that it wipes out all your data.

2. Did samsung quit supporting PC studio? I was looking to tether my Samsug Galaxy S phone to my PC, to use as a modem for an internet connection. But it appears that samsungs program isn't up to the task. Anyone know if they abandoned the software? Or are they just calling it something else these days?
 
1. Would you like to cloud sync for contacts? That IMO is the safest and easiest for that. For the others you can just use Kies.

2. Kies is the new Samsung PC Studio, been around for a couple of years already I think.
 
1. Is there a quick, easy backup program that will safely backup all my contacts, pictures, music, and video? I am looking to update the phone to the latest version of android but I hear that it wipes out all your data.
Click to expand...

Contacts should already be backed up to Google. To check and see, look at all your contacts, if they are "Google Contacts", then they are backed up to Google. You can also check your gmail on your pc to see if the contacts are on the web.

If not, you can backup contacts by going to your people app, and hitting menu-export. This will export to the sd card.

As far as pictures, music, and video, just connect the phone to a pc via usb in Disk Drive mode, and copy all of that onto your pc for a backup. Camera pics and videos will be in the DCIM folder.

Not sure about your second question.
 
Ok cool thanks a lot guys. Do you happen to know how to back up all the bookmarks in the little web browser? The one that comes with android.

Also, do I want to update to android 2.2? Or is that even the latest version? Maybe I should wait for android 2.3?
 
bennylava said:
Ok cool thanks a lot guys. Do you happen to know how to back up all the bookmarks in the little web browser? The one that comes with android.

Also, do I want to update to android 2.2? Or is that even the latest version? Maybe I should wait for android 2.3?
Click to expand...


I got app called Bookmarks to SD, creates a backup of your bookmarks. For updating, yes, you would want to update. Its got better performance and battery optimization. I'd suggest updating before cutomizing the phone as the update procedure would also wipe all data on the phone.
 
Do yall think that the Galaxy S has the hardware capability to run Android 2.3? Run it well, I mean. I've seen some guys do some updates to various other phones and after that, the phone ran way too slow. Cause the new update was too demanding on the phone's limited hardware.
 
Yeah I used Kies to update from froyo 2.2 to gingerbread 2.3.3. Phone feels noticeably snappier (downloads, web pages) I backed-up with Appmonster and performed a factory wipe first.

You CAN tether a pc to your phone using "Mobile AP Settings" (access point) in Settings-Wireless and Networking-Tethering and Portable Hotspot, using your pc wifi to connect to your sgs.
 
Well for some reason, Kies says that the samsung galaxy S is not a supported phone, and won't do anything. Am I doing something wrong?
 
@bennylava

Is Kies telling you " This version of the device cannot be upgraded " (or words to that effect) ?
If so then you are screwed I'm afraid. Kies will never let you upgrade because it doesn't recognize the firmware version on your phone.
Manually flashing a newer firmware with Odin will be your best bet.


Ray.
 
No its saying "The SGH-I897 is not a supported phone" and the phone never appears on in Kies for anything. What is the latest version of Kies? Is it 2.0?

Anyway, I went ahead and got Odin, but how do you put the american version of the samsung galaxy S (aks the captivate) into download mode? I can't seem to get it ready to flash the new gingerbread firmware.
 
For some reason, the upgrade button is grey'd out. I connected it, disconnected it, and tried again. Not real sure why its grayed out.
 

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That screenshot says your Firmware version is an unregistered device. That's why the upgrade button is grayed out. Did you follow these steps exactly from the link I posted.


1. On the phone, USB Debugging should be enabled. To do this, go to Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging. Tap Ok to the message.

2. Plug the cable into the phone and then into the computer. The computer should detect new hardware and install automatically. It will do this for several devices and may take a few moments.

3. Unplug the cable from the phone and power off the device. Hold down both the volume up & down keys while inserting the data cable. The phone will enter a Downloading mode. The computer will then install the rest of the driver files. If there is a problem with Windows finding the driver, let it search online to grab them. Once the computer has finished, unplug the device from the computer, remove the cover, remove the battery, insert the battery, and place the cover back on. Lastly, power on the device.

4. Restart the computer.;

Ray
 
I did not do all those steps but before I try, I can say this much: The phone isn't "registered" with AT&T yet. I have yet to swap over to this new phone, from my old samsung solstice. So I hooked up the wife's captivate which is a working cell phone. The button was no longer greyed out, so I went ahead and upgraded her firmware after backing up all her stuff.

The weird thing is, it still says that the version is 2.2 froyo, and she still has a pic that she took with the phone, set as the desktop background. Shouldn't all that stuff be gone? And shouldn't the version be 2.3 gingerbread instead? Kies says that the phone is updated to the latest version. Odd.
 
Ok thanks for the info. I guess she was still on 2.1 cause her phone is now quite different lol. I guess... I don't know... it took its sweet time making its changes and installing things. Cause when I first looked at her phone, it looked the same. So I went to bed, then when I woke up it looked like froyo.

But anyway, I think I'll wait until gingerbread hits the states, just in case they make any revisions.
 
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