Titanium Backup may not be top of mind for anyone who’s not into tinkering with their device or even if they are, won’t be top on the list for those that only started doing so recently.
You see, while the popular application, which is like a Swiss Army knife (any coincidence that it’s developed by a Swiss firm?) for those with a lifetime subscription to the indefatigable root and ROM brigade, is still the same old one that we used and loved 6-7 years ago, times have changed and it has not. Its user interface is very outdated and newer Android users or anyone who doesn’t buy into the ‘function over form’ mantra, will find it hard to stand.
Which is why there are lots of options that others have gone for over the last few years. Like Swift Backup, for instance. Or Migrate. There are several others.
Much as that is the case, there is still something special about “TB” as we fondly call it, if one manages to look past what’s pleasing to the eye. It still does backups – both for entire installations as well as for individual apps – so very well and still does restorations in a similar manner. For a small fee to upgrade to the Pro version, one can even send such backups to a cloud service of their choice.
Need all your texts in one place even when you switch devices? It will still do that. It will even protect the said backups from being deleted accidentally. It will keep all the logins to wireless hotspots you’ve ever connected to. It will remove all the bloatware that your device maker and their partners think you care about. And like 1,000 other things. You get the drift.
That is all good until an update, like the recent bump to version 8.4.0.1, borks everything.
Early reports from those that have updated their apps indicate that things are breaking left, right and centre for many of them who are running on recent Android OS versions, 9 Pie and 10, with only a few reporting no issues at all.
The issues vary from a never-ending licence verification check to a freeze upon initiation after the update to the usual force closes.
With no fix being available immediately, a temporary solution is to uninstall the app and install an older version. Since these aren’t served via the Play Store, the best option is to source for them from credible third-party app repositories. Like APKMirror. For those that haven’t upgraded, it is advisable to avoid the temptation to be on the latest software at least until these issues have been sorted, probably via another update. Fingers crossed that that happens soon.
PS: Titanium Backup only works on rooted devices. It’s kinda obvious but always worth emphasizing.
