Automatically backing up your savegames
Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 11:35 pm
It comes up a little too often that someone lost their savegames because their phone broke, or because they switched device, etc.
To create a backup you need the contents of the folder "andors-trail" that is on your device. This contains file names "savegame1", "savegame2", etc, and a subfolder called "worldmap" (and possibly also a subfolder called "log", but you can ignore that). Make sure you get the worldmap subfolder! Without it your savegames will load, but when you look at the worldmap you will not be able to see all the places you have visited.
It is possible to back up to a PC.
1. Plug your phone into your computer.
2. Turn on data transfer over USB on your phone if needed.
3. Open the file explorer on your computer and find your phone.
4. Navigate to either internal storage or sd card storage depending on your device.
5. Look for the andors-trail folder and copy/download it, with all it's contents to your computer.
That is not automatic though, and not everyone has a PC. So here is an alternative method:
Everyone that has an Android phone (except in China) has a Google account, so this uses Google Drive for the backup.
1. If you don't already have Google Drive installed, install it https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .apps.docs.
2. Install this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .drivesync
3. Follow the instructions here: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/co ... gle-drive/, with the following changes:
a) At figure C, choose "Let me create my own folder pair"
b) At figure D, the folder on your device should be the "andors-trail" folder that is already present. Despite what the instructions say, you do not need to create a folder to upload to using Google Drive. When you choose "Remote Folder in Google Drive" there is a small icon at top right that lets you create a new folder from within the autosync app. The default name is the same as the name of the folder on the device, "andors-trail". You can choose any name you want, but that is generally a good choice (for exceptions see below). Set the sync for "Upload only", because you don't really want to sync, you want to backup. Make sure the "Exclude subfolders" checkbox is NOT checked.
Done! You can just wait, and if you have "enable autosync" turned on, your savegame folder will be backed up to Google Drive. Or you can tap the sync icon (two arrows in a circle) and start it immediately.
So what are the exceptions to calling the folder on Google Drive "andors-trail"? Mainly, if you have more than one device then you do not want them both backing up to the same folder, because one backup will overwrite the other! So use, for example, "andors-trail-p" for your phone, and "andors-trail-t" for your tablet. I also do not recommend using the autosync app to sync your savegames between devices unless you are very careful when doing that, for the same reason. You may accidentally overwrite a savegame you wanted to keep.
If you need to restore your savegames or transfer them to a new device it's pretty much the same recipe, but set the sync method to "Download only."
To create a backup you need the contents of the folder "andors-trail" that is on your device. This contains file names "savegame1", "savegame2", etc, and a subfolder called "worldmap" (and possibly also a subfolder called "log", but you can ignore that). Make sure you get the worldmap subfolder! Without it your savegames will load, but when you look at the worldmap you will not be able to see all the places you have visited.
It is possible to back up to a PC.
1. Plug your phone into your computer.
2. Turn on data transfer over USB on your phone if needed.
3. Open the file explorer on your computer and find your phone.
4. Navigate to either internal storage or sd card storage depending on your device.
5. Look for the andors-trail folder and copy/download it, with all it's contents to your computer.
That is not automatic though, and not everyone has a PC. So here is an alternative method:
Everyone that has an Android phone (except in China) has a Google account, so this uses Google Drive for the backup.
1. If you don't already have Google Drive installed, install it https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .apps.docs.
2. Install this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .drivesync
3. Follow the instructions here: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/co ... gle-drive/, with the following changes:
a) At figure C, choose "Let me create my own folder pair"
b) At figure D, the folder on your device should be the "andors-trail" folder that is already present. Despite what the instructions say, you do not need to create a folder to upload to using Google Drive. When you choose "Remote Folder in Google Drive" there is a small icon at top right that lets you create a new folder from within the autosync app. The default name is the same as the name of the folder on the device, "andors-trail". You can choose any name you want, but that is generally a good choice (for exceptions see below). Set the sync for "Upload only", because you don't really want to sync, you want to backup. Make sure the "Exclude subfolders" checkbox is NOT checked.
Done! You can just wait, and if you have "enable autosync" turned on, your savegame folder will be backed up to Google Drive. Or you can tap the sync icon (two arrows in a circle) and start it immediately.
So what are the exceptions to calling the folder on Google Drive "andors-trail"? Mainly, if you have more than one device then you do not want them both backing up to the same folder, because one backup will overwrite the other! So use, for example, "andors-trail-p" for your phone, and "andors-trail-t" for your tablet. I also do not recommend using the autosync app to sync your savegames between devices unless you are very careful when doing that, for the same reason. You may accidentally overwrite a savegame you wanted to keep.
If you need to restore your savegames or transfer them to a new device it's pretty much the same recipe, but set the sync method to "Download only."