Now What?
And to be honest, there is no right answer to that question. One great way to utilize the root privileges is by using Titanium Backup. Android is the most liberating operating system you will use on a mobile device. The best part is, it can be made more adaptable and customizable by rooting your device.
If you want to know why you should root your device, we have already written an article about everything you need to know before rooting your Android phone. This article will tell you what is so great about rooting your device.
Now let’s get back to Titanium Backup. This is an app that’s designed by a talented XDA developer and has been around for a while now. I first used this app back in 2012 when I was getting into the whole ROM business. It is basically a backup app that backs up everything, and I mean everything on your smartphone.
Want to back up your Facebook data for some reason? Yes, Titanium Backup has the capability to do so. Want to save all your text messages in a handily archived file? Yep, Titanium Backup can do so without breaking a sweat.
Best of all, you can even backup video games which for some reason don’t upload your saved data to cloud servers. Now, I simply backup a few apps before tinkering with a new ROM and Titanium Backup helps me in restoring everything back to normal if something goes wrong.
There are a ton of other options on Titanium Backup and the app is able to do incredible things that are not natively available. What is the right way to use Titanium Backup? Simply put, it is by rooting your device; otherwise, Titanium Backup is extremely useless. Let’s start with the main features of the app and expand on them from there.
The Interface
Titanium Backup is a very serious app and isn’t meant for everyone. The developer has kept things low-key when it comes to the interface and I think it’s the best way to go. Because this app is most definitely not for the casual users and this straightforward interface does not seem welcoming to newcomers. Honestly, if you are using Titanium Backup you will have intimate knowledge about rooting your own device and you will also know the risks of rooting and using third-party apps to tinker with system files. In short, the interface is kind of dull and boring. In the big picture, this it doesn’t matter at all. It might be surprising for you to hear this coming from me because I have dissed a lot of apps for using similar interface design, but Titanium Backup is a wonderful exception.
There are three tabs on the top of the interface. The first one on the left is called Overview and it lists some important information about your device. As you can see in the screenshot, my smartphone has root access available. This is a great way to check if you are devices rooted or not as well. There is some other information available but you can get that from other apps as well.
The backup/restore tab is where the real magic happens. This section will show you all the apps installed on your Android device. While the initial impression might leave you confused, but after you long press on an app, you get to know the real depth of Titanium Backup.
Deep Options
Usually, you can either delete an app or install it on Android. If you are resourceful, you can use the options to wipe the cache of the app or delete the data it is storing on your device. With the power of Titanium Backup, you will be able to do much more than the basic options available.
One of the best options available with Titanium Backup is the freeze option. It allows you to freeze the functions of an app without deleting it. For example, if you don’t want to delete a particular game because you want to play it another time, but it is constantly harassing you with notifications, you can simply freeze it using Titanium Backup. Titanium Backup will freeze any functions regarding that particular app, and it won’t harass you until you unfreeze it from Titanium Backup. It is an amazing way to stop some of the bloatware your manufacturer might have loaded onto your smartphone. I get it Samsung; you made an app that probably five people use and that too in your office, and you want to shove it in our face, well not today.
A point to be noted here is that you will need to unfreeze an app before uninstalling Titanium Backup otherwise it will remain frozen. This virtual stasis has helped me stop rampant and annoying notifications from apps without deleting them from the storage.
Deeper Options
That is just scratching the surface; Titanium Backup goes really deep into the rabbit hole and explores the apps like no other backup app will ever do. The special features include force close option, label assigning and enabling multiple profiles for a single app.
You can even convert a downloaded app into a system app. This will make the app protected, and it cannot be deleted by any normal means. This feature comes in really handy when your kids are always deleting an app you need from the family tablet. All you need to do is long press on an app, and the menu will pop up then simply select convert to system map option, the rest will be taken care of by Titanium Backup.
Backups
Titanium Backup is actually a backup app so it must be amazing that everyone is drooling over it. Let me assure you, this is the most thorough and detailed backup app you will ever find. Sure there are many cloud storage apps on Android as well as backup apps but no other app will backup whole apps. That’s right, apart from backing up your photos, videos and text messages, this app can back up full apps. And the best part about that is you will be able to restore the backups and use the apps just like you left them. It’s like freezing an app and then unfreezing it to fry.
You will also be able to schedule backups that will run in the background or when you are asleep. This allows the app to use resources when you don’t need them. Everything will be backed up and stored in the location you specify. I highly recommend that you pick up that significantly large backup file and put it somewhere safe on a PC. This way if everything goes to hell, you still have a system image of your Android smartphone backed up and ready to use.
Conclusion
Titanium Backup is the very definition of feeling free. By using this app, you are free to experiment with the device you bought and do whatever you want with it. Want to try custom ROMs? You know that no matter how hard you screw up, at least, your installed apps will be kept safe. However, I do recommend that you make sure the file is backed up in the recovery menu first so then you can really go guns blazing. I hope that this little introduction toTitanium Backup will have eased your mind about using it on apps. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about Titanium Backup feel free to talk to me in the comments below. Feature Image Credits
