Back up and restore your Start Screen in Windows Phone 8.1

Yes I too would like to know the answer. Waiting...

-backup of data(!!!) and live tile position on start screen -notification center and action center -storage sense Very happy about them. Though i wont be using storage sense, i have L920 and will very likely upgrade with L930.

Those were the other two???

He already stated his three things he wanted to see being done, with the first one mentioned as his most important thing. Read properly guys...

Probably number one is notification center + action center, 2) backup as said 3) storage sense. Just because you use notifications everyday while backups hopefully only few times. I had to hard reset many times for my L920 hardware problems, i wish i had the backup option to save so many hours of my life!

Agreed!  Most important thing for me was Notification/Action center.
2nd: was the ability to store applications on SD Card.
3rd: was the home screen customization.
4th: was differentiated volume controls (not the most important feature but useful).

Cortana is number 1 for me by a landslide.

For me, 1st = Ability to store apps on SD card (Just bought a 64gb SD for the purpose) 2nd = Cortana 3rd = Notification / Action Center

I wouldn't hold your breath with apps to sd

Thanks. Though I've doubts about MSFT....

I hope you had bought Class 6 or Class 10 one...else there is a bad news for you

I have a class 6 card on my phone. Do we know anything about the requirements?

That's fine! Class 6 or Class 10 SD card is required by WP8.1 to store apps in them. Class 4 won't work. You can find more details here.

Yep! Bought a SanDisk class 10 64GB.

may I ask howmuch is the price ? I'm planning for a 64 gb card, also which brand should I go for ? I'm using Transcend 32 gb class 10 u1 for my lumia 720. I want dis one for my new L1520. thnxx

Yeah, I bought mine when there was an offer in flipkart, got it for 2500 INR flat, now its available for 3035 INR (In stores, I bet it'll be more than 3500 INR though!) Personally, I trust SanDisk for SD cards. Once I bought a 16GB Samsung card (class 10) and yes it was faster than my early 16GB Sandisk class 10 but soon it stopped responding in just 30 days of use so yeah, I'll say go for SanDisk, I never encountered any problem with it. Sure, get this one if delivery is possible at your location! :) flipkart link

Thnx my frnd..
And do you have any experience with transcend as I have no problems so far ?
Truth to be told it's an either-or situation for me between sandisk and transcend, I don't think I am going for another brand other than these two.

No problem! I had a 2GB Transcend long ago (It used to be Rs 400 - 600 in those days!) in my old Nokia 5233. Never had any problem with that either. Only once I remember, had to format the card because it was duplicating everything twice, but I guess it may not possibly be the card's fault though! ;) Yeah these are my favourite SD cards brands too! As per my suggestion, go for SanDisk (maybe a little costlier than Transcend) but reliable.

Thanxx for your suggestion and time my frnd..

Welcome! :)

:-)

Volume control also so much needed...All the games i have make me turn of sound then i don't hear the phone calls received. This will solve the problem. BTW more than 8.1, bacause of the features seems more like a WP10.1

You just read my mind.

Yes what are the other two? What?

Yeah what are the other two? Tell us cuz we want to know the other two so what are the other two???

USB might be one? Direct updates?

Yeah appreciated

This is amazing news. The little things that make a big difference

BTW, I laughed wildly seeing how curios people were to know the "OTHER TWO". Someone said it perfectly, can't remember exactly but it goes like- "We're more curious to know what's hidden from us than what we can already discover"

Exactly.. :-)

But whats the other one?

#1 for me is building true music playlists and edit them.

Finally! That's pretty awesome! :)

I think it would be awesome if we could also make an offline backup,like I used to do on my old Nokia 3110 Classic using Nokia PC Suite.

This is actually great

Agree, this is great. Never thought of having this but will certainly use it.

Never had to replace or reboot your phone?

Since when is wpcentral so slow on news..

Weekend.

that's mostly just sunday normally. build started wednesday and many bits and peices have not been covered yet.

Are you new here?

Seems new...

nope

Seems slower.. ;-)

XD last weekend there was the same comment on a post hahaha

Really slow on wp8.1 news.ie,bits and pieces of the os like multitasking, storage sense,etc.

agreed.

You folks really need to get a life. These guys are doing a great job reporting on a single OS, There can only be so much write about.

+1520

People like you can never take any critisism. Go play with your toys. Adult people can deal with critisism.
You don't have to be an asslicking fanboy that swallows everything without having a natural sense of critisism.

" reporting on a single OS" Didn't really help your argument there, sport.

Now this is becoming the new "seems faster" joke.

Its God day, no Time for news :D

Needed this badly... Glad they did not forget this...

My 928 audio was acting weird and had to do a reset and then after setting everything back up l realized I must have picked the wrong backup as I was missing new text messages. I did another reset and picked the right one but it's a pain to put everything back and log back into all my apps.

1st world problems.

1st world problems are still problems ;)

Well, first off if you really knew the history of the differentiation of the world into "three" parts, you'd know there was by-in-large no more "second" world. Second, the poorest of the poor either have no phone or have a feature phone.  So us yammering about Windows Phone on our oftentimes five to seven hundred dollar phones, or laptops, or in this case my home built water cooled PC, is by definition a "first world" issue. Third NIST, if you are really going to make a critique like that, where's the suggestion of what we should be doing instead of this "useless speculation about issues that aren't important"? So NIST, just to make sure that you are not a hypocrite, please spend less time on this site and certainly in no case should you mention any problem you have with your phone or with Windows Phone in general.

Thank you bh23 for demonstrating actual intelligence and logic.

Cant wait... Would have saved me hours of waisted time over the years... Also App data, hope that includes game progress? The times I've had to give that up is almost painful...

Years??

Yep, gets a new phone every week :D

Yep - Multiple phones, new, upgrades and warranty replacements

That's good news, its a pain to switch or restore you phone but then it even worst when you have to set up your home screen again.

meh.

Can anyone tell me if we can backup game saves in windows phone 8.1 to the cloud? Its killing me not being able tooooo!

Yes. Games and apps will need to update though to new WP8.1

Where you know this from?

From Build. App data now backed up. Devs can opt into this.

As in backed up onto Microsoft's servers? Since devs can enable cloud-saving on thier own servers anyway.

To the user's OneDrive but encrypted. There are two cases; one which size is counted in the user's storage limit, another doesn't. I can't remember the cases.

Full backup counts in the storage, only data doesn't up to 10kb per app.

Does that include game saves? The data under 10kb you're talking about... ?

So, even when we get 8.1 still will have to wait until games updates for this feature to get the save back for another phone?

Yes.

Finally! Been waiting for this.

(y)

So will it save my WhatsApp chat history if I decide to reset my device?

Ask Whatsapp to update their app and then yes.

I want watsapp to just get fast and fixed from all crashes first.

Exactly!! Its the most used app and its so freaking sloww..No updates months over months!! WP users always neglected by devs :(

Whatsap did save your history. For instance if you uninstall and install back whatsap app in your phone, whatsapp will prompt you either you want to restore back your message history or not.

Not when you change phones or hard reset your phone.

When is that huge WhatsApp update coming? Which will make WhatsApp on wp similar to ios n lagdroid?

Nice, what about slide down in task bar to close an app? Is it there in wp8.1?

Yes

Really? I thought I saw in the demo of Daniel that the "X" is still there.

you have both options slide or X

X is still there too. you can either hit the x, or drag it down

Is there any video on wpc or elsewhere showing the drag down to close app?

yup.. its one of the walkthrough videos that were released during //build/ might of been the one where they were showing off the os on the L630

Great news, when are we suppose to be getting that developers preview again, was it the 10th or the 14th??

14th

K

Neveruary! I kid.

Lol

Actually i read in windows phone blog that developers preview ll be out in 1st part of April. So may be April 14 is logical. Or may be before it, who knows!

Finally, I hope that we have restore backup option , we can use after reset steps finished

Awesome news... :)

I've heard better

This is awesome feature, almost as awesome as getting Cortana!!

Don't let Cortana hear you say that.

Finally. I put off resetting my phone because i cant be arsed sorting the start screen out again. Great news

Pretty awesome. Now hard resetting a phone will be less of a pain (although i hope hard resetting will be needed less and less in the future)

Wowww cool things... Fanboys get horny here. But where is the video automatic compression for sharing?? Where is the apps downoaded music acces? Where are all that little useful things other os (inclusive WM6) had since years?? Microsoft, please stop with bs and go back to basics please.

You must lead a very sad existence always looking at what you don't have.

Videos already compress when emailing.

I know, i always have to send the video to my android, and send it back with wassap to my wp again, because you can't even save the freakin video from your email directly. People get horny about themes and ringrones, and for the most basic things, we stay screwed

Get horny? Wow you can often tell someone's intelligence by how they speak. Last I checked I wasn't sexually frustrasted or hot and bothered by an update for a phone...and I am willing to say most here aren't. There's dumb...then there is this.

OMFG I'm popping a boner.

Well said, It truly excites me to finally get basic features on an OS I really like. But this guy definitely doesn't know how to express himself intelligently.

Exactly, I can't stand the fact that simple things like saving a video, adding a search result to your contacts, and deleting all email simultaneously , are missing. Not to mention the videos are all over the place instead of one central location.

I would like to be able to do more with videos and have a specific place to find them all

you high??? ringrones are the most important part of everything!!!

Get an Android

Could have used this this morning. Had to factory reset to get computer synching to work.

Really nice. I also saw a vid of Joe Belfior switch the accent color on his phone and 2 seconds later having it change on their Windows 8 PC to match it. Which I found a bit strange since the color selection on Windows 8 is far superior.

Yes. I thought of it too. But you can always turn that snyc setting off. So don't worry if you don't like it :)

But.I love sync, restore and the whole unification of the Windows platform. I just wish they would have given WP the same customization features as Windows to make the feature perfect. How hard could it have been to add the same color selection as Windows? Or to offer multiple background colors (not just black/white)?

This is definitely a feature that will be appreciated by many! Glad its coming with 8.1!

Aah...finally!

I was pretty bummed after the initial excitement of buying my Lumia 1520...... The lack of features and simple things that my phone didn't possess. 8.1 is the start of a major turn around.. I'm glad now that I purchased this 1520. Go Microsoft!

Dev preview update release date 8th april,10th april or 14th??

14th .

According to windows phone blog, 1st part of April. So before April 15, i think

Thank god. Makes changing phoned less of a pain in the butt.

Stop changing phones in your butt.

Lol

Good to know.

As long as are apps automatically downloaded, I'm okay with enduring grayed out tiles.

My guess is that if they don't automatically download, then you simply tap the gray tile to see the app in the store. Both of which would be very helpful.

True enough. Or they should make it so that any apps you have on the Start screen take top priority first.

I am wondering the same thing. I haven't seen anywhere yet where it explicitly says your apps will redownload or redownloading will be easier. I have had Windows Phone since the first week it launched. Going through 3+ years of downloaded apps 20 at a time (which last time I had to start the list over many times and go back through, page by page, sifting through easily 800 apps I have used or tried at one point or another is maddening. Anything to make that better. I have 300 or so on my phone now. Having app data saved will be AMAZING. No having to relogin or reauthorize apps all the time. I avoid hard resets like the plague.

That's an awesome addition ! Really can't wait for WP8.1 to launch officially on my L920 :D

Is it really confirmed that all WP 8 phones will have three column tiles in 8.1??

Yes

Not all actually, only for WP that had 4.5 inches screen and above :)
Edit: I read about it somewhere . If I'm wrong please correct me nicely .

Wrong nicely

So 3.8" and above will get 3rd columns ? Is that so ?

No, its 4.5, dunno where mrllano got his info, but its false, it was mentioned in one of WPC's old WP 8.1 feature walkthoughs during //build/

Joe Belfiore clearly says here that ALL Windows Phones will get 3 column tiles. http://youtu.be/cAu0YgPnuXM

I stand corrected, I guess that was just an incorrect rumour or a decision microsoft made at the last minute. I apologize to mrllano :P

According to WP's website even the 520 will get 3 column tiles

Yea, that video made it clear lol

Yes

U will never like 3 columns on a 4" display..

You can have 4 columns if you use smallest ones tiles xD

+4

Yes. All the WP8 , even Lumia 620 also supports 3 column. It depends on you that on small screen it suits you or not.

It's an option on smaller phones. It's shown in one of WPCs videos they did during build. I think with a 630.

It pretty nice feature and actually backing up apps won't be a good idea as some apps may size up to hundreds if MB.

Will app studio apps that aren't in the WP store be automatically downloaded?

From where? Off course not, just think about it

I had to replace my Surface2. Ten minutes, a few passwords and it was like nothing ever happened. Nice knowing this feature is coming to WP8.1

Yes much needed . One reason I avoid hard resets....to avoid redoing my start screen

Same with me

Finally! Probably the best 8.1. feature to me

Unless they have an option to backup and restore using the PC, I am not interested. Microsoft can shove their cloud restore, I want simple direct PC backup and restore as was in Windows Mobile, and store my personal phone data on my storage in my control and not on someone elses cloud, where you have little control about how your data is handled. Why the hell should I use the cloud when I have terabytes of my own storage? Just makes no sense.  

you're using the wrong mobile platform. shall i recommend open source...eh...andr.... so u can root, customize to ur heart desires, have control over crap...eh bloatware u can't remove... , backup ur apps to wherever u want.

You can remove bloatware. You just need to root first. WPC App for Android - Note 3

sure..rooting is easy these days but why go thru that hassle? your phone should be urs after all...not the other way around.

yeah you just need to remove that little security you still have without permissions LOL

+1. Fuck the cloud.

Bloody fuckers....
Update WhatsApp u idiots :/

WhatsApp has to do that!! Or now, fb shud

Calm down. WhatsApp is a million times better than what it was a year ago. I'm very happy we got this much.

Finally!! I could've used this a few days ago when I got my 1520. :-))

Awesome!

They just keep on giving.   I wasnt so hyped up about Win 8.1 but now I'm getting 3 columns for my lumia 820 I'm psyched for all the extras

BBM please

BBM is coming for Windows Phone

What about playing music through usb??

USB OTG, maybe.......

Not really that exciting. Seems a little pointless if you cant restore your apps as well?

App restore is already part of wp8.

Not automatically. You have to go to Windowsphone.com and select the apps you want redownloaded. For me, that's sifting through over 800 apps from the last 3+ years. 20 at a time. Selecting the 300 or so I have on my phone now. The site acts up all the time and you have to start going through the list over and over. It takes many hours to do that alone. Just hitting a "restore apps" button to do that for me would be incredible. And, like so many said already, would make a hard reset doable. I won't do one now. It takes a full day and a half of almost non-stop (sleep included) work to get my phone completely back right now.

you fucked up your phone and/or you didn't choose the backup when restoring with the same microsoft account

You can restore your apps from the store.

As a multiple Windows Phone owner this makes me moist! male/28/uk :P

I hope you're a girl.

a girl with a penis, satisfied?

I'm coming back from android!!! Yay!! Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Good, your signature is just annoying on every post

Does anyone know if it will have gapless playback? I listen to a lot of dance music that is mixed so it's a must !!!!

+1020 Gapless playback is something I miss so much. It can't be too difficult to implement it.

Cross fade

That would be a nice option too.

So excited for April 14th!!!

How about game saves? Will there a backup feature for games?

this is what the word is....it will backup app settings, and that would cover games too.... Pretty freaking epic if you ask me.....about time !!!

THIS!

Great feature, save time trying to get the layout back! Will this be part of a broader backup feature? Like a failsafe restore, a complete system backup?

YES. I hope one day they can make it like iOS where if you broke your brother's iPhone you could just sync it to iTunes & restore to the new iPhone & Everything would be restored exactly the same & no one could ever tell.

I think your brother would be glad.

Not getting the Lumia 930 because of two things: it doesn't support glance notification, 2 I love phones with big screen just like l1520. Talking about features in windows phone 8.1 , I'm happy cause most of the things have been included. I can't wait for the dev preview.

What if the apps are saved to a SD card and one does a hard reset? Obviously no need to re-download the apps, right?

This Rocks!

Looking forward to this. Been holding off on upgrading from 1020 to 1520 cause I can't be bothered to setup my phone from scratch...

Good

Great! This is what I have been waiting for. MiKia really listen to WP Fans :D

Wtf is mikia? O_O

Nokiosoft corp. decided to change its name to Mikia just a week ago. Don't you know? :P

it's minkia

I would say this is actually a game changer.

Finally ,, finally its here ,,, i used to fckimg draw my tiles on paper before formatting

Or you could have just taken a couple of screenshots of your start screen. ‼

Was gonna say screenshots :)

Cortana...

Makes the inevitable factory reset less painful!

Wow so so cool

Now this is something I would use. Until now, I've been taking screenshots of my start screen. Lol!

Haha... Same here man!

That was my method too :)

Now I won't have to worry before hard resetting my phone due to the ever growing Other section

Sugar, spice and everything nice coming to Windows Phone 8.1 ;)

Powerpuff girls, fuck yeah!

Dope

I like this a lot.

The way I use the start screen is pretty fluid, changing apps, shortcuts, etc., throughout the week. When I'm done with a tile, away it goes. There are a number that I keep always, but the position changes as my needs change. That's the personalization that I love about WP. What I can't wait for is an extra column so I can reduce scrolling a bit.

Just remember that for app/game data backup works the app/game need to be compiled for WP8.1, which I believe that many games already released won't do.

This will be a big time saver if I ever have to do a hard reset.

Dev preview going on my 925 asap! Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Release wp 8.1 fast

"Restoring a device will also download the data for all of your apps."   Sorry, but this is not actually true.  It will download the data for all of your apps which have been upgraded to 8.1.  Any XNA games you have?  (Hint, most games that are out there).  That data is gone.  Any apps which haven't been updated to 8.1 (which unfortunately is a problem on WP - we don't quite have the situation Apple does where every app is updated as soon as a new OS update is out)?  That data isn't going to be backed up either. I have a feeling that people are going to be VERY disappointed when they first experience this backup/restore feature for the first time.

Probably

then they will learn to ask developers for apps to get updated or they will simply suffer from their ignorance, both options are good

How about multitasking that actually works when your on a phone call!!!!

And Skype calls at same time as cell call. ;)

Loving the changes, Microsoft. :)

Awesome. That's what I'm talking about! Thanks MS, this is going to make WP just a little more tempting to the masses. Another step in the right direction I say... jejeje

One of my top 5 features that I'm looking forward to

What are the other 4? Tell us please.

Anything about independent volume controls in WP 8.1?

Yes. You should go through the news articles for last week. Might answer some questions for you.

Apparently WP8.1 still has some secrets to be revealed. Awesome! Can't wait!

Call duration log, file and download manager. These are the features I want to see in Windows Phone before anything else.

Call duration in the call logs exist in 8.1

Really?!! Where do you read that? I didn't find any reference to this when reading about WP8.1 features. Update: I googled a bit and I'm seeing reference to this feature indeed being added. That would be awesome indeed. They should have called this WP9 with these amounts of new features!

Great! :)

I've been waiting for this. WP 8.1 is gonna be out of this world!

Any news about startscreen personalization??

Where is the download button to this post? ;)

Would love to see a full backup.option, like WP7.8 had

IE favorites need to be included in backup options, as well as tone settings.

Sweet

Yes! Finally!

This is a great feature. But whenever I restore, all my apps are automatically installed as well. I don't have to reinstall them. What are you talking about when you said you have to manually reinstall? I have a Lumia 920

That's good but will it restore the web pins too?

Fricken finally.

Just saying asphalt 8 got an update and a few months ago the real steel game came without a trial but now it has one.

Great!

Fucktasticccc!!

I guess the apps are downloaded automatically after the black update. You get a restore point selection after signing into your account. However, the tile was not restored and with 8.1 update that too is gone happen. Cool!!

Nice

Any idea if the API will allow us control over the tile positions?

I think that would be the point of tiles backup. Once restored, all tiles will be positioned in their correct places.

Hope you're right. That will allow for multiple profiles. "driving mode (large tiles)". "at work mode (calendar, Lync, email at the top)"

Its what I've always wanted. I hope this allows me to save a few different setups.

That's cool..

This is getting better every day:)

Has anyone heard about NFC getting an update with 8.1 Such as tap to pay and automatic launching an app when you tap a NFC tag?

Personally, I always felt that the built-in backup options were really good. It includes all kinds of data and settings and queues up the app downloads. Adding the Start screen live tile configuration and personalization is a nice addition but it isn't as though device backup was completely missing or something. Beyond that, I'm glad to hear that Microsoft Account integration is more persistent. Hopefully, that means that you won't need to enter it every time you set up an app to use it.

I was waiting for this :D

My #1 missing feature: is it possible to attach PDFs to mail directly with WP 8.1?

What about delisted apps

It will be grayed out, read the article.

Great feature.Hail MS

Wpcentral is again dead on sunday, thats not journalism, you should have deputies for sundays

Interesting. This feature never crossed my mind. Never had startscreen issues before, so wouldn't know why I would need this. Does this mean that windows 8.1 will crash more often and thus me need to buy a new phone more often? That doesnt sound very good.

Yes, this is exactly the reason. Makes perfect sense. /s

This i have been wanting.. will save having to take screenshots of my Start Screen to use as reference

Welcome to 2011

good feature, very helpful

I hope cortana comes to India soon. Waiting for it.

There's a workaround in the meantime,something to do with changing your region. Look it up.

Apps do not have to redownloaded from the store-Backup re-installs them..

I want hands on video of multitasking.

Great feature, definitely looking forward to the update.

Sweet.

I've always wanted this feature, having experienced resets and migration to a new device! This is awesome news!

Yeeeees!!! Now I can stop screenshoting my start screen whenever I experiment with the layout. It may take some effort,but at least if I mess it up,or something weird happens,I can get my same setup. In fact,this would've come in handy this week when I had to do a factory reset. Windows Phone 8.1 will be all that and more,even if it could be better!!

Swipe for clean/update tiles working on WP8.1? 

Thank god. I've just had to factory reset my Lumia 925 and replace it twice within the span of two weeks and redoing my star screen was the most tedious part of it.

I have the 925 too... Are you having problems with the other storage too ?

When I try and delete the Temporary files through "Phone Storage", I don't see any changes. I use "Storage check" instead and I def see a change in storage size, even when I head back to the phone storage section. -Lumia 925

Other storage grew to 7gb (not temporary files). I managed to clean temporary files, but other storage kept growing. (running gdr3). Phone ran out of storage and was giving me continuous warning. It then started stalling and crashing.

Oh, my bad. I recommend getting the free developer account, install the developer app on your phone and get that Black update.

Phone already has black update (which is why i am disappointed)

Yes! This is the worst part of getting a new phone!

This is not related to this article, does anyone has idea about WhatsApp update. They have added Good features to beta and ll they release to public❕❕❕❔

This is a big deal and shows the influence of one of the nicest features of Windows 8.x. I recently picked up a new Dell tablet and it mirrored my other devices with tiles all set. Arrows indicated those that needed download.

Anyone know if there's possible to back up the word list? That's the most irritating part for me when resetting, having to start all over again with educating word flow...

AWESOME SAUCE!!!

That's sounds good. Having to rearrange tour apps again sucks if you have to send your phone in and forget how you had it set up. I usually screen shoot it to remember once I get the phone. And being able to save data to the apps of you have to reset your phone.

Nice, handy feature.

Oh jeez finally

Very excited ;)

Super excited!

Have they fixed the other storage issue?

Just out of curiosity does anyone know or has it been shown if there are better drawn emojis in WP 8.1?

Nice, but when will we be able to backup and restore our entire device? Or port it to a new phone. This is basic stuff and WP has still not caught up with WinMo for heaven's sake.

Awesome. Doesn't happen often that I need to change phones but a nice touch.

Action center and Volume control are the important things for me!

Sweet practical goodness.

+ 1020

Just had to go through a repair on my 920 and I was just complaining about having to re-pin everything. Great new enhancement. That really is that last piece to moving to a new device to make it so simple to move.

Awesome feature, I was hoping for this!! Having had to do a hard reset and replacing my L920 with another; this feature makes backup restoration even more streamlined!

YESSS!!!!

Love it!!!!

Notifications are badly handled of wp8. I can't even see a missed in skype on my my start screen unless I open the app. Same here with viber and no tango support on my Lumia 920. MS please do something. I LOVE WP8

That's great! Are we getting local backup and restore as well? Or is Xbox gamerscore too prestigious to have a potential exploits opened up due local backups?

Good addition

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12519?viewlocale=en_US

What iCloud backs up
You have important information on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iCloud automatically backs up your device over Wi-Fi every day while it’s turned on, locked, and connected to a power source. With your device information backed up in iCloud, you can easily set up a new device or restore information on one you already have. Here’s what iCloud backs up: Purchased history for music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books Your iCloud backup includes information about the content you have purchased, but not the purchased content itself. When you restore from an iCloud backup, your purchased content is automatically downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store. Automatic downloading is based on iTunes in the Cloud availability by country, and previous purchases may be unavailable if they have been refunded or are no longer available in the store. Photos and videos in your Camera Roll Device settings App data Home screen and app organization iMessage, text (SMS), and MMS messages Ringtones Visual Voicemail

That's a lot for Windows Phone 8.1 to catch up to. Just doing backup/restore for the start screen is only one bullet point.

This is such a great idea!!!! Microsoft has similar functionality on windows 8.1, so I'm glad it is coming to windows phone 8.1 :)

That's definitely in my top 5. I really wish there was an auto complete function like on Chrome. I would love to know how many hours of my life I have spent young out my full email address...auto complete seems unable to learn it.

When is the devolper version of wp 8.1 coming?

This is another small step forward. But it's a VERY SMALL step.  Can't get excited about a single feature being added to the backup list. The ONE BASIC feature that should be added to WP 8 is the ability to do a FULL backup of the device. Having moved from Blackberry where I was able to do a FULL backup of my phone to the BB desktop app it is incredibly frustrating. Full backup is a basic requirement and we should have the option to backup locally instead of this constant fixation with the cloud.  

Hell yeah

I just can't wait for the update.

Nice feature. Posted via the WPC App for Android!

Brilliant idea

Long overdue. Happy to see one update produce almost everything we need. List goes on

One week. Hopefully. Im ready

So we can backup the apps' position in our start screen but still we can't backup their data. So what's the point? When I do a backup I expect my data to be saved, not a position in the layout. I've got a problem with the SD and the support suggested to reset the phone, but I can't do it because there's no f way to save the apps' data and I don't want to lose anything. Is it so hard to give us a local FULL backup feature?

we can also restore our saved progress games?

When you update to 8.1 will it back up your start screen or will you need to set them up again?

There still isnt something like flash transfer or a proper file manager!!  And will there be a better bluetooth app or something,as in android???

Didn't work for me! A few days after smashing my old phone to pieces by dropping it on the road, and then watching it get run over a couple of times, I smugly fired up a new handset, waiting for my old phone to magically be brought back to life... Didn't really work. I think the problem is Windows Phone 8 is installed on the phone by default, and I had to log in to my Microsoft account at that stage, restoring an old backup of my phone. Once I got in I ran all the updates and am back on WP8.1, and I can see the last backup from my old handset on the Onedrive website - but apparently no way to restore it manually. Either I'm stupid, or Microsoft's stupid. Probably both.