Do apps save data "locally" all the time? Possible to find even if not logically named?

[Tristan Raghnall]

Just curious as to something. I had an app the other day that I'd had a data wipe happen somehow (don't know how as I hadn't used it in quite a while, and didn't delete or do anything in any way ... hmmm ).

I contacted the dev as I'd purchased the app a little over two years ago - in fact it was my very first app - but no luck. It has no backup or even syncing abilities built in and is very basic. I get the impression that no more development will happen, either. Bummer. I was very lucky, though. I started diligently trying to figure out how to back up my Android data myself a couple months back and I did have an older copy of the files I'd found 6-8 months ago or so for this particular app. I just copied everything back into the main folder just overwriting what was there and then did some fine-tuning of the data and it's back like I had it. So the day was saved! But that's because he kindly labelled the folder with his app's name so it was easy peasy to find when I went hunting around.

Was wondering if anyone knew how to find information such as this on our phones but that isn't named logically and perhaps is just numbers and letters or something, so that a human can't read/figure out? Is there anything that can be done? I have another trouble app, the second of these two, but where I can't find the data store. It must be there. I don't work online and it's been saving all alone. Granted, this one won't be as good a retrieval/save as the above but if I can "extract" the later data, even if I have to re-type everything copying what is on the screen, that would allow me to go back to the old version I should never have upgraded from, the one that had the import/export option and didn't require being online or being on a service! I've invested a lot of time into the app so don't want to lose the data I'd been so assiduously backing up all along not realizing the import feature had been taken out (somewhere during one of their gazillion updates, no doubt!!). Lesson learned, too! I don't care about going back to the lesser functionality of the older app. I was even considering paying for this but glad I found out the direction it went esp. when the old functionality was good enough in the free version before they made it so that we'd be forced to pay for importing/exporting our own data without telling us!

Appreciate any help in this regard.

Thanks guys.

 

[steiny180]

I bet it's in .../Android/data/... usually in a folder with the app's / developer's name imbedded in it.

Good luck

 

[mikedt]

Google has a backup and restore app data, but that's only if the particular developers choose to use it, occasionally they like to do their own things. So something you might have to check, if you're committing valuable data to a particular app, like a notepad app or something.

No Google backup in China of course. I use Oppo phones, and they have a local and cloud backup of all app and user data, Which is available for Vivo phones as well, as they're the same company.

 

[Dannydet]

Depending on the app, it may save locally, or externally to an SD card, or to a cloud storage.

 

[Phoenix777]

Depends on the app and the developer. Some (most) apps will save to the local device storage...other apps will save (or at least have the ability to save - and you can save them manually) to the SD card. To find out where the app has saved by default, you can do 1 of 2 things: 1. Look in My Files (or whatever file manager you use) and look in Device/Android/Data...if it's not there, look in SD/Android/Data...or...2. you can look in Application Manager - if it's stored on the SD card (or has the ability to be stored there) you will find it in the SD Card column...here you can select it and move it to the SD card. If it's not in the SD card column, that means in the Downloaded or All column and more than likely cannot be moved to the SD card.

Hope this helps!