Contents
Warning
This process is not intended to allow you to play the same saved games on multiple devices simultaneously. Backup and restore procedure allows you to transfer saved games from one device to another. This will wipe the saved games from the device onto which the games are transferred. Please use this procedure as document, for the intended purpose – to migrate games from a retiring device to a new device.
Note:Also note that this procedure ONLY works if the apps are on internal storage and not moved to an external SD card.
Please read the entire procedure carefully before proceeding.
1. Preparation
Get Your Devices and Latest Drivers
Get both devices and get them charged. Decide which one you are backing up and which one will restore the backup.
Be sure to have installed the latest USB drivers for your device.
Install the App
The Backup and Restore app that we recommend is called Helium, made by ClockWorkMod. Download and install Helium from Google Play on both of the devices.
Helium offers a paid app version, but it is not required to complete this procedure. If you wish to use a cloud backup service like DropBox, then you may be interested in the paid app. Otherwise, you can do 100% of the procedure using a desktop computer, a USB cable, and your two devices.
Be warned that Helium requires a boat load of permissions. But it does amazing things!
Enable USB Debugging
Turn on Developer options for your phone. You can read a quick walk through on this here. You will find it under your Android Settings as “Developer Options”. It is close to the “About phone” link.
From the developer options, enable USB debugging. It is done by clicking on a check box and confirming it.
Do not enable anything else, especially if you are not actively a developer. These options break things. Classic options like “Don’t Keep Activities” break many apps and games, including all Trese Brothers games.
2. Enable Helium on Devices
If you are using a non-rooted device, you will need to enable Helium. This requires you to install a small app on your computer and then plug your Android device into your computer.
The Helium app for your PC, Mac, or Linux box can be downloaded here.
Once installed, open the application and it will show a small window indicating that it is waiting for your Android to connect.
Now, connect one of your Android devices and wait until it becomes active. This will activate the Helium App until the next time you restart your device. Repeat for the other Android device.
Your devices are now ready!
3. Create Backups
Pick the correct device. You will be creating a backup of the device that has the saved games you’d like to copy or transfer to the second device.
On that device, open the Helium app. There are lots of different ways to make this work, but I am going to show the easiest one, and the one that is free. The app is actually dead simple to use, so if you’ve paid for premium, then you can do this through DropBox or Google Drive with a few simple taps.
For us free users, tap the menu button in the top right of the app and select “PC Download”. This will start a small web-service from your Android that your PC (which is still connected by USB cable) can access.
Return to your PC. Make sure it is still connected to the device by USB. Now, type the displayed web address in your web browser on you computer and it will open a simple web page. From this web app you can select which apps you’d like to backup. In this screenshot you can see that I have selected Star Traders Elite, Heroes of Steel Elite and Heroes of Steel RPG from my Nexus 7 device. When you’ve selected all the apps you want, click “Start Backup” and the app will download a “backup.zip” file.
Now you’ve created the backup. You can tap “Back” from the Helium app and then disconnect the first device.
4. Restore Backups
For safety’s sake, it is not a bad idea to run Step 3 against your second device as well. Just in case there are saved games you didn’t want to lose, then you’d have a backup!
Plug the second device into your PC with the USB cable and get the Helium app to activate from your PC. Then open the Helium app on your device.
Tap the menu button in the top right of the app and select “PC Download”. Enter the web address into your web browser bar.
This time, we will initiate a restore. On your PC, click the “Browse” option under Restore and navigate to the “backup.zip” that was created in step 3. The zip will then upload to your device in preparation for restore. Be patient. Once the upload has completed, you will be presented some options in your web browser, allowing you review the restore before proceeding. This is a great time to double check that you really want to restore this data and a lose all the saved games that were on this second device. Proceeding with the Restore will delete all saved games on this device for the games which you restore.
When you are ready, continue with the Restore. Your phone will be busy for a bit, but when its complete, any old saved games will be gone and the games from your original device will have been transferred to this second device. As you can see, the invaluable “fesd” game from my Nexus 7 has arrived safely on my HTC One for Heroes of Steel RPG!
