What can be backed up?

Question

I just read this Q: How can I backup my SMS

I am curious about what any other thing IS or IS NOT possible to back up in my phone?

I expect a list of things that CAN be backed up a list of those that CAN'T be.

I can think of these data:

• SMS
• phone calls history
• people / contact list
• connections in contact list (more accounts associated with one person)
• music
• pictures
• general settings
• home screen tiles
• installed apps/games info
• apps/games data

If you can think of anything else, feel free to add it.

Answer 1

Music & Pictures Your music and pictures can be synced through zune so you have a backup there.

Contacts You can store your contacts in your live account or exchange account. This way your contacts will always be synced through all your devices / computers

Connected contacts won't be stored anywhere

Apps All the apps you bought/downloaded are stored by microsoft. On the windowsphone.com website you can see a list of all the apps you've installed before. There is an app called reinstaller that can help you reinstall all the apps in a quicker way than just browsing the marketplace searching for your app: Reinstaller

You can view a list of bought/downloaded apps on the WindowsPhone.com website here: https://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/account

Your home screen tiles won't be backupped anywhere since this connected to your installed apps which aren't backupped aswell (only complete list of downloaded/bought apps available)

App data will also not be backupped.

SMS & Call History Not possible at this moment

Settings Not possible at this moment

Answer 2

Just an update in case anyone comes across this question: as many likely know now, WP8 has since updated the ability to backup sms/calls/settings by default - you simply need to turn on the feature in the backup menu within the settings hub; backups will be stored with the associated M$ account, and can be restored by linking up the account with your new/restored phone.