[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] ntrweb:
Full Android adb backup mac - no root

Thanks Hipe0ples555 for the Mac instructions http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1436846

Much appreciation goes to both you and copkay http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1420351 (windows version) for putting these instructions together.

To share my experience with adb - I merely download the developer tools for android and expanded them, then placed them in a folder on my desktop. No update was necessary.

After downloading the adt bundle and expanding it I placed it in a folder on my desktop called androidbackup. I'm using it for both an S3 and a Galaxy Note 2 that I'm trying out this weekend. This way I'm able to verify the backup process works the way I want using the second device as a test bed before I do it to my primary.

Before starting with adb I did a final backup of each phone using Kies. Then I flipped to airplane mode, removed the SD card, turned on USB debugging and set my desktop backup password in the Dev options menu.

From the terminal:

(first get to the path where adb resides)

cd /Volumes/Quick/Users/ntrweb/Desktop/androidbackup/adt-bundle-mac/sdk/platform-tools

I had about 3GB of data on my S3 and once the backup started it took well over 45 minutes during which time the screen would shut off and when I woke it up it looked like the process had stalled. Open your activity monitor on your mac and look at both CPU usage for adb - two instances will be running during the backup or restore. It will eventually finish so be patient!

./adb backup -apk -shared -all -system -f ~/Desktop/androidbackup/galaxy-s3/112412-1645.ab

Note: I tried the backup both with -nosystem and -system and found that more of my settings were preserved with the options set as above. The filename of 112412-1645.ab was date and time so I could easily see which backup was my last.

Once the backup was completed I reset the phone and erased the contents back to factory default then tried the restore:

./adb restore ~/Desktop/androidbackup/galaxy-s3/112412-1645.ab

It works beautifully - photos, sms, settings apps and backgrounds even put everything back on my homescreens! I had to do some minor setting adjustments but I'd count this as a complete backup / restore option. Given that Kies doesn't have the ability to do this I'm REALLY happy you guys figured this out!!

To push the boundaries a bit further, I took my S3 backup and I'm restoring it onto the Note - wouldn't this be a great way to move from phone to phone? I'm guessing there may be some issues and will post back once it completes.

Ok so after reboot, the layout of most of my apps was correct - my gallery didn't transfer properly (when I open the camera album where the majority of photos were, the gallery immediately closes with an error). Not too big of deal, I'll just use Kies to delete the photo contents and replace it from a copy from my desktop. My apps look good however, retaining their preconfigured settings. When pulling the stylus out the S Pen page comes up with no entries which makes sense as the S3 doesn't have any data for this section. Also no biggie.

Overall a 10/10 for same device backup and restore and a 9/10 for using adb to switch from an S3 to a Note II.