Google warns that ADB backup and restore may be removed in a future Android release – I’m worrying Android is moving toward iOS lockdown and that was why I left iOS for Android…

Setting up a new Android phone has gotten a lot easier over the years. Android Oreo‘s Autofill feature has made it much easier to sign in to all your apps, and some apps even carry over all your preferences too. Switching between phones from the same OEM is especially easy as most have their own backup and restore tools. However, the experience is not perfect and switching between phones from different OEMs can be a pain. That’s where ADB backup and restore comes in.

ADB backup and restore is a handy tool that allows you to do much more than the typical OEM backup options. You can save private data and installed applications without needing root. Unfortunately, it looks like ADB backup and restore may be going away. A commit in AOSP is titled “Add deprecation warning to adb backup/restore.”

With Android Q I’m seeing lost of warnings about background activities being depreciated in future. I’m just getting that niggling feeling now that Android is moving towards iOS in terms of locking down activities in the name of security, stability, etc. I wanted to use a screen recorder now to show off some of the new Google Maps AR functionality but every one I tried was blocking the video screen recording. I was hoping it was just a bug but I’m getting an uncomfortable feeling. I left iOS mainly because too many things were locked down and Android offered freedom and options.

It’s not to say though that all is lost as there is LineageOS and other 3rd party Android ROMs that I would expect to honour freedoms and power users. But if all else fails I see Ubuntu Touch has had another update released. For now, we do still have developer options, rooted capability, etc but some restrictions are starting to intrude already in the guise of “protecting” us. But let’s give Android Q a chance to mature and see where it goes.

See www.xda-developers.com/adb-bac…

#android

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