Download started
Thanks — your download is on its way.
It should be in your Downloads folder in a moment. Here is what to do with it.
Resolving the latest release…
Download didn’t start? Get it here
Installing on Windows
Four steps, and one of them looks alarming.
- Open the downloaded .exe from your Downloads folder.
-
Windows will say “Windows protected your PC”. Click
More info, then Run anyway.
Why that appears. SmartScreen shows it for any installer without a code-signing certificate, which costs a few hundred pounds a year. This one is unsigned, so you get the warning. That is a real gap, not a false alarm — the checksum below is how you can confirm the file is the one that was built.
- Finish the installer. It goes in your user folder, so there is no admin prompt.
- On your phone, turn on USB debugging in Developer Options, plug it in, and tap Allow on the prompt that appears.
If your phone is not detected. Windows usually needs the manufacturer’s USB
driver — Google’s covers only Pixel and Nexus. And if
adb is missing,
the app offers to fetch Google’s official platform-tools for you on first run.
Installing on Ubuntu
One command, then replug your phone.
-
Open a terminal in the folder you downloaded to — usually
~/Downloads. -
Install it:
sudo apt install ./android-backup-manager_*.deb -
Unplug and replug your phone. The package adds udev rules so
adbcan reach it withoutsudo, and they only apply to a device connected after installation. - On your phone, turn on USB debugging in Developer Options and tap Allow on the prompt.
- Launch it from your applications menu, or run
android-backup-manager.
This file is for one Ubuntu release. The app draws its interface with the
system’s WebKit, which is tied to that release’s GLib, so packages are built per
release and are not interchangeable. Installing the wrong one is refused rather
than left to fail on launch — if that happens, go back and take the other file.
Check you got what we built
Neither build is code-signed yet, so this is the honest way to confirm the file is intact. Run the command and compare it with the digest below.
sha256sum <downloaded file>
Fetching the published checksum…
What this does and does not prove. The checksum is published with the
release, so it catches a truncated, corrupted or tampered-with download —
not a compromised release, since both would come from the same place. Only code
signing fixes that. It is still worth thirty seconds before running an installer.
Nothing leaves your computer
No account, no upload, no telemetry. The only network request the app ever makes is asking GitHub whether a newer version exists — and it asks your permission before the first one. You can turn it off in Options and it will never contact anything again.