All of us know at least one person who failed to back up their important data and then had some kind of system crash and lost that data  Well if you use Wandrous for more than a day you will soon have data that you want to protect. And that means you need to BACK IT UP.

Wandrous uses a database on your Android phone. If you ever uninstall Wandrous, that database goes away. If something tragic happens to your phone, you may also lose that database.

Believe us, you do not want to lose the data in that database. Databases and Android devices being what they are, you may lose the database itself, or it may become corrupted, or the SDCARD may fry, or whatever! To guard against those situations, you want to save the data in the database using the Wandrous Backup command. If something then happens to the database, if you have backed up the data, and saved it offline, you will be able to recover.

Additionally, the photographs you take, and use with Wandrous, are something you want to protect. Those images are not saved in Wandrous, but instead, inside the "gallery" of your Android.

So a complete backup means:

1. Performing a Backup command in Wandrous
2. Saving the wandrous folder from your Android
3. Saving the images from your Android gallery

Wandrous Backup

Wandrous has a very simple Backup command. You can access it by selecting the Tools command from your Menu button on the home screen. You can also access it by tapping the More compass point, then Tools.

This Backup will write all of your database data to a special export file. This file is saved with the name "Backup.wand", inside the wandrous/backup folder. This file is never uninstalled, and can only be removed if you intentionally delete it.

Whenever you start Wandrous, if it cannot find its database, it will look for the Backup file. If it exists, it will then recreate the database from that file. So this is a very good file to save to an offline storage area.

There are some other folders inside the wandrous directory that you will want to save. If you ever export your expense or trip logs, they will be saved in this directory. Whenever you record an audio clip, it is saved in this directory. So the simplest thing is to just save that entire wandrous folder, and its subfolders, to a nice, safe, offline storage area.

Photograph backup

The photographs you take with your Android are saved in a folder on your SDCARD called DCIM. Take a look and you'll see them all there. So if you want a complete backup of Wandrous, you should also save these photographs to offline storage.

How Often Should I Backup?

The Wandrous Backup command takes only a few seconds. Here is a simple test to determine how often you should tap that Backup button. After you make changes to any of your Wandrous Travel Books, or Trips, ask yourself, how sad will I be if I lose those changes? Let you answer be your guide.

But How do I Save to Offline Storage?

Every Android device comes with some kind of cable (typically USB) to connect it to a computer. Once you do that, you will see an icon at the top of your device. Pull that down, and select the option to copy files from your Android to your computer. Depending on the device, the option may say "copy files", or "disk drive", or something similar.

Once you do that, you will be able to see all of the folders on your Android. Look around for the wandrous and the DCIM folders. They are usually in the sdcard folder, but again, that will vary from device to device.