Backup Star Wars Commander on Android devices (& emulators) FAQ:Why ?When you've got a (useful) Backup you can "simply" restore it as last resort. Backups may also help retrieving important data (i.e. player-id) to help restoring your account.
The downside is that backing up your apps settings can be complicated and unreliable on Android.
The purpose of this FAQ is to help you getting a working backup from your game. It may also help experienced users retrieving their player-id from a backup or the device in case they didn't note it and need it to contact support.
Does this help me when I'm already in trouble with the game?If your Star Wars Commander app isn't uninstalled yet then: Yes, I advise to backup up the game. A backup can be used to retrieve vital information and may be helpful when other measures of account restoring become available/known in the future.
If you didn't note your player-id, some backups can be used to retrieve your game-settings file containing the player-id. Even if the game isn't working (but still installed) and the device is not rooted.
I already synched my game to Facebook/Google/Game Center isn't that enough?A Backup is an additional measure of safety. Synching may fail and there's a possibility of accidentially overwriting a snych with another game.
I have an old backup. Is this still of use?Yes, but be careful when restoring! If this is a full backup of your device then other important data on your device may be overwritten with old data.
If you can selectively restore only the Star Wars Commander app+data then this should be fine. This is because Disney stores your base on their servers and uses your player-id (and a player-secret for verification) to retrieve the current base to the devices. So any old backup of SWC should restore your most current version of the base. (you would need to upgrade the app though)
Also, if the backup file is in the "AndroidBackup" (*.ab) format, then the player-id can potentially be retrieved from such a backup.
How do I backup?Google BackupIf you device uses Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or newer then an existing backup of Star Wars Commander may actually be possible & useful. (I don't have such a device so this answer is theoretical.) Google Backups on older Android versions usually don't backup the preferences of SWC and therefore are of no use here. (to my knowledge)
Manually retrieving specific data (i.e. the player-id) from Google Backups is not possible to my knowledge.
Manufacturer provided backup softwareSome manufacturers put own backup software on their devices or offer some PC-Software for backup up the device on PCs. These may be helpful but I am not using them so I can't tell.
Backup software for non rooted phones/tabletsThis software usually relies on the Function "Android Backup" of the developer tool "adb". You also need to enable "USB debugging" on your phone. This backup often requires a link via USB to a Windows/Linux PC or Mac. Backups are then transferred to the PC or to internal memory/SD-Card.
Helium BackupThis backup software actually saves what we need. The free version should be sufficient. You can restrict the backup on Star Wars Commander (or "com.lucasarts.starts_goo") only to speed it up.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... tta.backupTotal Commander (Windows) + ADB PluginPersonally, I use the Windows software "Total Commander" (a File Manager) combined with the Plugin "Android ADB" to backup android files via USB to a Windows Computer. Total Commander is shareware but is completely usable after acknowledging the nag screen.
Use the following settings: "Include APKs, Do not include devices's shared storage, Do not include all system applications, Backup selected packages: check: 'com.lucasarts.starts_goo'"
http://totalcmd.net/http://totalcmd.net/plugring/android_adb.htmlUltimate BackupA free Backup utility. But beware! The download sources are highly unreliable and downloads may even contain malware!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=1844032adb: (from Android SDK, for more experienced users)Backups can be made by PC-commandline after having installed the Android SDK and USB-Drivers suitable for your device.
See here for instructions:
http://www.howtogeek.com/125375/how-to- ... ur-device/(adb backup -f SWC.ab -apk -noshared -nosystem com.lucasarts.starts_goo)
Backup software for rooted phones/tablets and emulatorsBacking up data from a rooted Android device is far easier and more reliable but not everyone can or wants to have a rooted device. On Emulators you have the additional possibility of simply copying the whole emulator image (or retrieving it from an older PC backup).
Titanium BackupThis is the most popular backup software for rooted devices. There's also a paid "Pro"-Version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... niumBackupCan I extract my player-id from a backup?If you use a backup utility based on "Android Backup" then there's a java based tool to unpack (&pack if you change something):
"AndroidBackupExtractor"
https://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/This tool needs a technically able user who can work with command line utilities and archivers (tar). But it allows to access the settings file of Star Wars Commander which contains the player-id.
You find the player-id as "prefPlayerId" in the file "com.lucasarts.starts-goo.xml".
It is most certainly not possible to "implant/edit" an existing player-id (alone) to a backup made of a installation with another player-id.
Extracting Data from other Tools (like TitaniumBackup) may also be possible. But if you've root access on the device you can easier retrieve the player-id from the device itself (\data\data\com.lucasarts.starts.goo\shared_prefs\com.lucasarts.starts_goo.xml).