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Use Kies to back up and restore your Samsung mobile device

The Samsung Kies desktop software can do more than just sync your media. You can also use it to back up the data on your Samsung smartphone or tablet.

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Ed Rhee
Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an IT veteran turned stay-at-home-dad of two girls. He focuses on Android devices and applications while maintaining a review blog at techdadreview.com.
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Ed Rhee
2 min read
Samsung Kies Desktop
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET
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Samsung's Kies desktop software can sync your Samsung smartphone or tablet to your computer. If you haven't used Kies before, then you may not know that it can also back up the data on your Samsung device. With a Google account, a lot of your data already syncs with Google's servers, but Kies can also back up Samsung-specific apps, like S Planner and S Memo, which come on the Galaxy S3. Additionally, Kies can back up your contacts, call log, SMS/MMS messages, and media files. Here's how:

Back up

Step 1: After installing Kies (Windows | Mac) on your computer, connect your Samsung smartphone or tablet to your computer via a USB data cable.

Step 2: Confirm that Kies is connected to your Samsung device. Once connected, you'll see basic information about your device in the first tab.

Samsung Kies Basic Info tab
Click to enlarge. Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 3: Click on the Back up/Restore tab and choose the items you want to back up, then scroll to the bottom of the window and click the Backup button.

Select items to back up
Click to enlarge. Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 4: Wait for your backup to finish, then click the Complete button.

Kies backup complete
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Restore

Step 1: In the Back up/Restore tab, scroll all the way to the bottom and click the Restore button. When you get the warning message about closing running applications, click Continue.

Samsung Kies restore
Click to enlarge. Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 2: Choose the backup file to restore, then click Next.

Choose backup to restore
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 3: Select the data you want to restore, and make sure you want to restore the backup to your device. This is your last chance to back out of the restore. If you're sure you want to restore your data, click Next.

Select data to restore
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 4: Once the restore completes, you'll see a confirmation dialog box, and your device will reboot.

Kies restore complete
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

That's it. Now you know how to back up and restore your Samsung mobile device using Kies and your computer. We've confirmed that Kies works with a Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone and a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. If you have another Samsung device that works with Kies, let us know in the comments.