As I said before, years ago these conversations were unnecessary. Manufacturers like Samsung provided tools like the Samsung Kies PC Suite (circa Galaxy S1 to to Galaxy S5 on Kitkat) to allow backups. However over the years, it's become apparent that phones need to be more idiot proof. You're a PC Tech, so I wonder if you've seen anyone come to you and say they accidentally deleted something important in their PC by going into the Windows installation folders and were able to because they were admin (which, from reading the horror stories on the net, it seems likely you had). That was almost a daily occurrence in old Android days. People buy cheap phones then they delete stuff they don't understand with too little memory and then delete stuff because they think it's unneeded and end up with a paperweight. Over the years, more and more restrictions have been put in place and this is the result.
However, with a more modern phone, nearly full cloud backup is available, including your setups. In some cases your issues is because you're using an older phone when these features were not yet in place. For example, Samsung Cloud was only released for the S7 onwards (not sure if S6 got it, but I already got the S7 Edge for like several months before that launched). That created an online backup of your phone, including settings and layout on the Samsung launcher in the cloud. So signing in into a new phone essentially creates a near copy of the phone except for certain secured apps.
Phones also need more security than PCs. It's easier to lose or steal a phone, and it contains several sensitive information inside it, which also makes it more restrictive.
In my experience though, moving from an S7 Edge to an S9 was completely flawless. Just plugged the S9 to PC, restored from my latest backup, and boom was ready to go. I don't have any app that doesn't do cloud save anyway.
I used to use Kies on my PC. Talk about your total piece of crap software. I never had it ever function successfully, especially if I was moving to a new phone of a different model. And talk about SLOOOW and boggy.
The S6 Active does offer samsung cloud backup. I have never tried it because it seemed like an exercise in Redundancy. It really bugs me that when I buy a phone, it comes preloaded with redundant apps from three different companies that are all trying to get you to use THEIR system which offer the same basic functions. Samsung, Google and AT&T all want you to use THEIR Backup service, Mapping Service etc, etc, etc. I buy a phone with 3 GB of ram that comes preloaded with TRIPLE REDUNDANT crapware using up most of the ram.
I understand that there are a lot of people that commit ID-10-T errors. But do you know what happens when you idiot proof the world? You end up with a world full of idiots. When I was a kid growing up in Mexico, I could buy firecrackers at pretty much any store 365 days a year. I am not talking about these wimpy little Black Cats they sell here in the US. I am talking about stuff that could blow your hand clean off. There was no restrictions to buy these things. Me and all my Mexican buddies (around 10 years old) would buy a bag full every week and blow stuff up (like old metal automobile oil cans. Yes, I am that old!). Every other kid I knew of played with firecrackers all their life in Mexico growing up. Not once did I see anyone lose a finger, an eye, burn a house down, start a forest fire, etc, etc, etc. Now you take the US where fireworks are highly restricted for "Public Safety". Each year during the 4th of July season when they are allowed, tens of thousands of fireworks related injuries are reported, houses burnt down, thousands of acres of land are burnt down, etc.
So why is this? It is like I said, when you idiot proof the world, you end up with a world full of idiots. I chose Android, because it was NOT Apple. I hate apple because it is exactly what you are describing; a place where idiots can feel safe because, "Mother Apple" is protecting them form their own stupidity. YUCK! And now you tell me that Android is doing the same thing! Double YUCK! People only learn when they SUFFER consequences for being stupid. If they never suffer, they have no incentive to learn to take responsibility for their own self. Bottom line. Suffering makes people smarter! JMHO
I need a way provide full back ups for my 6S active. I was stupid to trust Google to do that for me. I have suffered for being stupid, and now I want to take responsibility and make sure this does not happen again. So tell me how Samsung Backup is different then Google Backup? Google "CLAIMS" to backup your phone, but does not work. Kies also "CLAIMED" to provide complete backups, but like google, it also did not work reliably, or at all. Samsung offers a New Phone Transfer service when you first set a new phone up by placing the old phone and the new phone back to back, I have never once got this system to work, So that is a waste of time.
But let's get down to the brass tacks here. When a say "Backup", I mean "State of being backup", not "Data Backup". What I want is way to restore my phone to the exact state it was, including all my personalization. What do I mean by "Personalization"? Well, for example, I use my phone for business, not fun. I use very few of the apps that come on a phone. I use business apps like, CamScanner (business receipts), Aquamail (manage 10 different email accounts), Acar (automobile expense tracker), etc, etc. When I get a new phone I pretty much delete all games, disable all redundant apps and non-essential apps, and delete all the icons on the home screen (desktop) and replace them with only the apps that I want, in the exact order I want them. I have one home screen dedicated to nothing but Contact Picture Icons of the people that I call most frequently all ordered in an exact order of priority. Bottom line, it takes me 8 to 10 hours of work to setup a new phone exactly the way I want it. I don't want to have to do that every time my phone breaks and I get a different phone.
When I get a new PC, after I get it all set up (days of work), I create a full back up image of that state and call it, "Bare bones backup with all apps installed", then I set up a periodic incremental monthly backup system that keeps an incrementally updated image of my computer. I also have triple redundant critical data backups that back up all critical data and images to a second internal drive, and then is backed up to an external drive that is not connected to the computer at the time of the backup, after a complete deep security scan has been performed. This external hard drive is stored in a fire proof safe. I also have cloud backup. So basically, my hard drive could crash, my house could burn down and a hurricane could wash way the debris and I could build a new computer and be up and running with everything configured exactly the way I want in less then an hour. This is what I want for my phone, but it seems that nobody else has every thought of this out of the billions of people that use phones out there. Go figure.
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