How to backup the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray data, contacts, apps and everything else

In today’s guide I will teach you how to safely backup the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray data, contacts, apps and everything else stored on its internal memory, or on its SD card. You have the whole procedure detailed and explained during the steps from below, so make sure you read all my explanations. This is a basic operation, meaning that after understanding how to backup your Xperia Ray data, you will be able to do it again for any other Android powered smartphones. That being told, let’s begin the proper guide.

You must know how to backup the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray if you are looking forward in unlocking its bootloader, rooting it, installing a custom recovery image, or flashing a custom ROM (such as CyanogenMod) into its system, as all these processes might wipe the data out from your phone. Also, you have to do a backup if you want to keep your personal info (whether we are talking about the contacts, messages, apps, or calendar details) in “safe hands”. Remember that it is recommended to save the data stored on your phone’s SD card too, so be careful.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray handset

Now, in order to succeed, you must download and use some free distributed applications from the Android Market. The tools are designed especially for the backup operation, its purpose being to ease our work. That means that while you will be relaxing on your chair, the apps will be working on saving your information. As already stated, the best part is that these services are free distributed, so you don’t have to spend your money.

First, you will use the Android cloud. It’s not an app, being a service provided and developed by Google for its Android users. It’s my favorite because it’s easy to use and to understand; for using it you must sync with Google; when you will want the data to be restored on your Xperia Ray / on its SD card, you will just have to sync once more and that’s it (further aspects are detailed during the steps). Then, it will be necessarily to download two apps from the Android Market, the Astro File Manager and the SMS backup by Jan Berkel. We will see how at the right time.

If you have problems in understanding one of the steps, or if somehow something is going wrong share the issues with us (in the comments area), so we can help you through.

How to backup the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray

Contacts and Calendar

For saving the contacts and calendar I recommend the Android cloud. For using it properly, follow:

Go to: Menu->Settings-> Accounts & sync; choose “Add account”; enter a valid Gmail address and then choose what you want to backup.

Google Docs, Contacts, Gmail and Calendar is available for you, meaning that you can save whatever you need to. The operating system will make a copy of your data and when you will want it back you will have to sync once more.

SMS / MMS messages and call logs

For this section, you need to go on the Android Market. There, search for the SMS Backup + by Jan Berkel tool and download it. The software will use a separate label in Gmail/Google Calendar and allowing later restoration. You need to have IMAP enabled in Gmail and the correct time zone set.

Saving Market Apps

For backing up your apps you must download the second tool from the same Market. This time search for the Astro File Manager and download it. After that, for installing it, follow the steps:

Open Astro.
Press Menu.
Tap on Tools.
Select the Application Manager / Backup.
Select the apps you want to save and click Backup.
In order to restore them, install Astro again and follow the same steps. Then, click “Backed Up Apps” and choose what you want back on your handset.

Saving Data

Finally, saving the data; well, for this part you can use the cloud, the SD card, or the computer (Windows/MAC/Linux). For the cloud you must redo the steps explained on our first section.

For the SD card and the PC/MAC just copy/paste (drag and drop) the stuffs you want to backup from the phone on the computer/MAC/SD card. When you want the data restored do exactly the same thing, but starting from the end (PC/SD card/ MAC->smartphone). That’s it.