Apparently I need to flash the firmware on my Pipo Tablet (Phablet). Never done it before. Currently running jelly bean. I think the update is KitKat. Will I lose all my apps, photos, contacts (basically everything?). If so, is there any good generic backup software etc. Any advice? Cheers all in advance
Do I need to backup before firmware flash? if so what to use?
tunzafun001 on 13/01/2015 - 23:36
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You'll lose your apps, but you can just redownload from Google Play anyway. Contacts are saved to your Google account, if you didn't turn sync on, do it now.
All you need to backup is photos, and music if there's any. (Just make a folder on your PC and drag in, don't bother with backup apps)So just manually copy to PC? Apparently the Mac address changes when updating to KitKat, so Google backup doesn't work. Just hoping there is something similar to proprietry software out there?
To backup contacts
No app is required. Simply turn on Contacts sync in your Google Account settings and make sure the contacts on your phone matches the contacts found in your Google Contacts web page.
You can try the various contacts backup apps found on Google Play, but I cannot see a 5 star rated one and can't recommend any myself.To backup SMS and call logs
SMS Backup Plus worked fine for me. It backs up to google cloud and can be restored from the cloud.
Titanium Backup is also able to do this.To backup apps, call logs and messages, and basically everything on your phone related to app data
Titanium Backup. This requires you to have root access. Instructions are here. Can store your backups to cloud or to local SD storage.To backup photos and media files
Connect your phone to your computer and browse it's contents. Everybody's phones are different, so you will have a variety of folder structures and names, but the most common are the DCIM folder (where your Camera will store it's photos), the Download folder (where Browsers store downloaded files), Music or Movies.
Thanks kindly. Probably my calendar would be most important. Titanium it is I guess. I will just need to learn to root it, and maybe back up my imei / Mac address somehow?
IMEI does not change…. you cannot change the phone's IMEI. It is like a digital fingerprint for phones that allows the telco to identify the device.
You can't backup the MAC address, it's simply a unique identifier for your phone's networking adapter. There is no need to restore it to the previous Mac address if it does change (which is not possible, but I digress), google will still restore your data regardless.
Calendar should also be synced. To check if your syncs are working, simply make a new calendar appointment on your phone, then go to the Google Calendar website and check if your calendar is updated with the new appointment. If it is, then your calendar is synced properly. If not, you need to make sure your Google account on your phone is syncing calendar (check Account settings).
Apparently it can be an issue ?? Maybe BS?
"Update 2014/10/27: You should backup your MAC-Address and your IMEI with MTKtool before flashing the upgrade. This tool can change them. This may cause some problems like mentioned above (google backup not recognised/ device no longer paired to router) and more.
Thanks Scrimshaw for your help. I'll have a crack at rooting this thing. I believe I will have to re root it after flashing to KitKat…. All just to get Googlemaps working again :-(Ahh, MediaTek woes, after having some major problems with this chipset I'm never buying another MTK device ever again. It's probably one of the most unreliable chipsets around.
If you are flashing a custom ROM (i.e. the ROM is not provided by the manufacturer) then it may be a good idea to follow this thread and use MTKDroidTool to do a complete backup of your phones ROM before you do any flashing. This way, you can rever to the old ROM if something screws up, which usually has a high chance of happening since it's a China-phone we're dealing with.
http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?15148-WARNING-Backup-…
Personaly I don't as my contacts and always synced with my Google account and if I have any photos I want to keep I copy of my pc and apps can just be redownload.
But yes flashing loose everything.