How to Backup and Restore Samsung Galaxy Watch Data

It’s crucial to back up your device periodically, whether it’s a phone or a smartwatch. Taking backups regularly can benefit you in case you lose your data or your device requires formatting.

If you use Galaxy Watch, this guide is for you. Here you will learn how to backup Samsung Galaxy Watch. You see, Samsung has removed the manual backup and restore option, and we don’t understand the reason behind it. Backing up and restoring data has never been this confusing. Many users are complaining that Samsung has degraded the experience.

Samsung Galaxy smartwatches run on the custom One UI Watch based on Wear OS. The custom UI is quite simple to use; even taking a backup was an easy task, but not anymore. And so, I will try to cover everything related to backup and restore in one place.

You should take a backup before making any major decision for your Watch, such as installing a beta update, resetting the watch, selling it to someone else, or even upgrading the watch. You can back up your Galaxy Watch data and save it on the cloud.

How to Backup Galaxy Watch

Before One UI 5 Watch, there used to be manual options to back up and restore watch data. However, since One UI 5 Watch, the backup page option has been changed, which might be confusing for some. Don’t worry, here you will find the answers to all your doubts.

You can take a backup to your Google account or a Samsung account. There is no option to manually backup your watch, the backups are now automatic, but you need to add your account. Here’s what the backup page says:

When your watch is connected to your phone, Smart Switch automatically backs up your watch data and files to your phone periodically. If you uninstall Smart Switch, backups saved on your phone will be deleted.

Sign In to your Account

1. Connect your Galaxy Watch with your phone.
2. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your Phone. You must have installed it during the setup of your watch.
3. Navigate to Watch Settings > Accounts and backup.
4. Here make sure that you are logged in to your Samsung account. If you don’t see your account, tap Samsung account option, and then add your account (same as your watch).

Install Smart Switch on your Phone

Samsung has made it mandatory to use Smart Switch for Galaxy Watch backups.

• You can install Smart Switch from Galaxy Store, or Play Store.
• Open the app, and make sure to give require permissions to the app.

That’s all you need to do in the Smart Switch app. Your Watch backup will be automatically taken at specific intervals. However, the backup will not be stored in the cloud; instead, it will be stored in your device storage. To save Galaxy Watch backup to the Samsung cloud, you must enable the option mentioned in the next section.

Setup Auto Backup with Samsung Cloud

1. Open the Galaxy Wearable app on your phone while your Watch is connected.
2. Go to Watch Settings > Accounts and Backup.
3. Here enable the toggle for Save backup to Samsung Cloud under the Backup option.

Note: The backup will be uploaded to the cloud when certain conditions are met like your device should be connected to WiFi, the battery is at least 30%, and the screen is Off. This means leave your phone and watch connected at night.

Tips for Manual Backup

As you know, there is no option to manually backup your Watch data, you have to follow some other tricks to force the backup process.

• You can trigger automatic backup by tweaking some interfaces or settings on your Watch such as changing Watchface etc. The backup will not happen right away, but you can expect it soon.
• Another trick that you can use is to put a pattern lock on your Watch. And then try to reset your Watch which will take backup at the same time (don’t select reset before applying lock). After backup it will ask to unlock your Watch to reset, you can just ignore it and press the home button.

How to Check for Existing Backup

If you don’t know the backups are created automatically or not, then you can check for it manually.

1. First open the Galaxy Wearable app and the open Watch Settings.
2. Scroll down and open the Accounts and backup option.
3. Under Backup, you will see the Last backed up date, tap on it.
   
4. This will open page, where you can see some of your recent backups.
5. If you see a cloud icon next to a backup that means the backup is available on your Samsung account cloud.
6. You can delete the backup you want by long pressing and selecting the delete icon.

How to Restore Samsung Galaxy Watch Backup

Restore option has been also removed from the Galaxy Wearable app. This means you can no longer restore your Watch data unless you reset or setup a new device.

• The first way to restore data is when setting up your new Galaxy Watch. During the setup you will get an option to Restore. It’s easy, all you need to do is sign in with you Samsung account and follow the on-screen instructions.
• The second way to restore data is by resetting the watch and then setting it up again.

However there could be a situation when you skipped the restore option during setup:

If you skip the restore option during setup of your new watch and then try to reset your Watch to get the Restore option again, it will create a new backup that will override the backup from your last watch. This means now when you try to restore the backup, it will restore the backup from your new watch and not from your old watch. This happens because, on resetting, the watch automatically creates a backup. You need to avoid this in case of new Galaxy Watch.

So, what should you do if you want to restore a backup from your old watch and not the new backup from your new watch? You need to delete the latest backup (the backup that is not required) from your account.

To do this, connect your Watch and Phone, then open Galaxy Wearable app. Go to Watch Settings > Accounts and backup. Tap on Last created backup, and it will show old backup as well. Delete the first backup which will be from your new Watch and also it will be a small backup. After deleting backup, make sure the backup you want to restore is the latest on the list.

After deleting the backup that you don’t want to restore, go back to the homepage of Wearable app, and tap on three bars to open side menu. Tap on the Unpair/Disconnect icon next to your Watch. Now, on your Watch go to Settings > General > Reset. This time it will not create backup since your phone is not paired.

After reset, setup your Galaxy Watch again, and now you can restore your data from your old Galaxy Watch.

Yes, simple things are now complicated in Galaxy Watch. They should reverse this with next upcoming major update, One UI 6 Watch. But I am keeping my hopes low.

What do you think of new backup, and restore? Let us know in the comment section below.

Also Check:

• One UI 6 Watch Beta Program Goes Live for Galaxy Watch 6 Series
• These Galaxy Watches are eligible for One UI 6 Watch (Wear OS 5)
• How to set up Google Assistant on Galaxy Watch 5
• How to get Pixel Watch faces on Galaxy Watch 4 and 5

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