What is the right way to manage Android phone on Ubuntu?

**flkbber** · April 18th, 2018

New to Ubuntu and look for an efficient way to manage my Android phone. Any recommendation? One core feature is to backup data. Thanks

**Dragonbite** · April 19th, 2018

Does Ubuntu see the phone when you plug it in?

I don't have an Android phone (yet) but am looking at moving over soon and will have this question too.

I know there is KDE Connect application that connects with Android phones and also enables remote using. There is an article I found here titled Using KDE Connect to Sync your Android Device with Your Linux Computer t to ( https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kde-co...android-linux/ ).

In case you didn't know before, even though the application says "KDE" it should work in Gnome (which Ubuntu uses), except may look a little out of place if the theme isn't able to be applied to it.

**flkbber** · April 19th, 2018

Originally Posted by Dragonbite

Does Ubuntu see the phone when you plug it in?

I don't have an Android phone (yet) but am looking at moving over soon and will have this question too.

I know there is KDE Connect application that connects with Android phones and also enables remote using. There is an article I found here titled Using KDE Connect to Sync your Android Device with Your Linux Computer t to ( https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kde-co...android-linux/ ).

In case you didn't know before, even though the application says "KDE" it should work in Gnome (which Ubuntu uses), except may look a little out of place if the theme isn't able to be applied to it.

Thanks. checked the post and it is great for sending files between Android and Linux. however, the function is so limited

**mastablasta** · April 19th, 2018

what do you need to "manage" the phone? Andorid phones are sophisticated computers. you can do on them practically all that you can on a PC. so you can automatically back them up or whatever you want.
i usually just connect them with USB cable and move the data from SD card to PC. whne on P Cit get's backed up automatically to server. not sure what more would one need?!

**Dragonbite** · April 19th, 2018

Originally Posted by mastablasta

what do you need to "manage" the phone? Andorid phones are sophisticated computers. you can do on them practically all that you can on a PC. so you can automatically back them up or whatever you want.
i usually just connect them with USB cable and move the data from SD card to PC. whne on P Cit get's backed up automatically to server. not sure what more would one need?!

On my phone (Windows phone... don't judge me!!!) the only thing I plug in is for transferring my photos and the computer backs it up to my ownCloud server and Google Photo (if my Windows laptop, not my Linux laptop unfortunately) and to manage/add music and edit the meta-tags.

Otherwise I agree with you, most everything can be offloaded or synchronized with online sources. Plus I set up just about everything I can to save to the SD card so at option I can pull out the SD card instead of using USB.

**flkbber** · April 20th, 2018

Originally Posted by Dragonbite

On my phone (Windows phone... don't judge me!!!) the only thing I plug in is for transferring my photos and the computer backs it up to my ownCloud server and Google Photo (if my Windows laptop, not my Linux laptop unfortunately) and to manage/add music and edit the meta-tags.

Yes. The same here. You can only transfer photos and files once connected to a computer. However, need to backup contacts, text messages, etc.

**mastablasta** · April 20th, 2018

there is probably an app for that (dump data to SD card...).

on the other hand contacts are or should be synced if you use a more complete email service.

i don't have much need for SMS messages. i usually just delete them every one in a while. in any case the NSA keeps a backup of them

**vooker** · April 24th, 2018

Originally Posted by mastablasta

i usually just connect them with USB cable and move the data from SD card to PC. whne on P Cit get's backup automatically to server. not sure what more would one need?!

Like you said ,there are many potential dangers since i have done it before ,but some phone data was lost ,until now i haven't found them ,that is said , the OP'd better find a safe way to transfer data to computer

**flkbber** · April 25th, 2018

Originally Posted by vooker

Like you said ,there are many potential dangers since i have done it before ,but some phone data was lost ,until now i haven't found them ,that is said , the OP'd better find a safe way to transfer data to computer

Yes, that is something I am looking for. Backup is just part of it.

**uRock** · April 25th, 2018

For data transfer, I plug it in and drag'n drop. I have never had data corruption or lost files. Phone numbers are already backed up to the SIM card and to Google. I don't care about any other data on the phone enough to back it up, but if I did, then I'd back it up to Google.