I use rsync normally but I want something similar for my Android (GrapheneOS) smartphone. I want to just click and backup everything that I set up earlier. For now I manually copy folders to one and then upload it to external drive. What are your recommendations?
I run rooted just so I can backup/restore apps, using NeoBackup. It backs up to a local folder.
That folder, along with pretty much every folder on my phone is synced to a server at home using Syncthing-Fork. This way new data (photos, downloaded files, etc) are always replicated, and I can effectively manage the phone file system by moving files around at home. Any changes I make will sync back to the phone.
I don’t want to root my smartphone but I do know NeoBackuo.
So the Fork is still maintaned? And you have 2-way sync yeah?
It’s really frustrating there’s no proper backup/restore without root - that’s my primary reason for having root.
Yea, Syncthing-Fork is still maintained, though there hasn’t been an update for a while. The company that makes Möbius Sync for iOS is a big supporter of Syncthing, hopefully they’ll help in some way. Alternatively there’s Resilio Sync, but it’s hard on phone ram - I’d have to manage it a lot more often. Though it has Selective Sync - I can browse a shared folder from my phone and tell it to sync specific files. This is great for my media server - I can grab any movie/music anytime.
I like Syncthing-Fork better because it moves sync conditions to within each folder. So my DCIM folder syncs on any network or battery condition (so I don’t lose photos), but NeoBackup folder only syncs on wifi and while charging.
Pretty much all folders now sync 2-way, and I export the Syncthing config on the phone whenever I change something. That export folder is also synced, so when I switch phones I just install ST, import that config, and after a couple hours the new phone has all the same stuff as the old phone. Then I launch NeoBackup and start restoring.