Thanks, would that have come from a Google account I might have set up when I got my first Moto G? If so could I get any other info from the backup? I remember when I was setting up my new phone, and after I had loaded the contacts from XT*** it then asked me if I wanted to load other data immediately or later, being in a hurry I clicked on later. Problem is I can't seem to get back to the page on which I clicked 'later' to now load the other info! 

 

If you did set up a Google account with your first Moto G then, in order for for your new one to have restored your contacts from Google, you would have had to have entered those account details when you set up the new phone.  The other things that Google backs up in the cloud are related to other Google services eg Google Maps (things like your home location), Google Play, calendar appointments and recurring events, Gmail, Chrome browser bookmarks, Google+ and GoogleNow.  Of those probably the most important is Google Play: this keeps a record of the apps you have downloaded and will re-load them to your new phone (it might also reload some app data, I can't quite remember offhand).  Without a Google account you won't be able to download apps from the Google Play app store.  Other app stores are available eg the Amazon Appstore which do not require you to have a Google account; a web search for "alternative android app store" should reveal others.

 

Bear in mind that, if you did set up a Google account when you first set up your original Motorola phone (which is difficult but not impossible to avoid doing), then you do have a Google account, and any Google apps you used on the phone will have been tracking your activity in some way, unless you actively took steps to stop it happening (which isn't necessarily straightforward - some apps ask, some don't, and those that don't ask don't necessarily have obvious "off" switches in their settings either).

 

Google does not back up your SMS text messages.  To do that I think you would need to install an app such as SMS Backup & Restore (this is the app I use, others are available), and then save the resulting backup file to some cloud storage such as Dropbox.  [Other SMS backup apps may automate the cloud storage stage, and/or allow SMS backups to be taken on a regular or scheduled basis.  I wouldn't know, I've only ever used SMS Backup & Restore.]  Other messaging apps such as WhatsApp may offer their own cloud backup services - I don't know, I haven't used any of them.

 

If you're certain that you don't have a Google account then I think it's possible that your contacts might have been restored from Motorola rather than from Google.  AFAIK - based on the last time I set up a Motorola smartphone for someone else -  Motorola do still offer their own cloud service (called Motoblur IIRC) which allows you to track and remotely wipe your phone, and I think it does backup your contacts although I don't think it allows you to view them online.  Basically, it offers a small subset of the functions that a Google account provides, completely separately from Google.  If you consciously avoided setting up a Google account previously, that might be what your new phone restored your contacts from.  I don't believe that Motorola will have backed up your SMS messages.

 

The following is barely relevant to the above advice and can safely be ignored, at the reader's discretion:

 

IMO the vast majority of smartphone users don't take on board the fact that what they are carrying around with them is a small but powerful computer, which just happens to be able to make voice calls and send & receive SMS messages on the phone network as well.  Smartphones are much easier to lose, damage beyond repair or have stolen than even a laptop PC.  If the data on the phone is not backed up somewhere else - ideally on the cloud - then if any of those disasters happen, the data is gone.  The data that worries a lot of people - for understandable reasons - is their photos.  Unfortunately, most smartphone users are not much interested in backing up their data until they discover they've lost it, which is why the standard paradigm for smartphones is for the providers of smartphones and smartphone apps to include cloud infrastructure services so that user data which is likely to be valued can be backed up automatically without the user having to think about it.  (E-mail systems are generally cloud-based by default, of course.)

 

Some folks then get exercised when their data on the cloud - which they often didn't know was on the cloud - is accessed by unauthorised persons (usually because the data owner has been lax in the security settings they've used eg using easy-to-hack passwords, setting their online photo libraries for public access etc).  There's probably a balance to be struck between what users really ought to know about what their smartphone is doing with their data, and what the industry can responsibly do for them without them necessarily having to know anything about it.  I'm not sure that balance is quite right yet, but I do think that steps could be taken to make users informed enough to be able to avoid doing what persons knowledgeable in IT would regard as "dumb" things.

Edited 21 April, 201610 yr by ejstubbs

^^^^^^ give that man a medal!!!

Excellent, comprehensive post from ejstubbs. Thanks.

Having skim-read my post again, I'd like to make it clear that none of the italicised section was in any way intended to be a reflection on Expatman.  It was simply a rather self-indulgent ramble on a subject I happen to feel quite strongly about, having found myself having to try to explain these things to naive smartphone users numerous times (one of the perils of being known to "work in IT"!)

 

None of my references to the failure of "the majority of smartphone users", "most smartphones users" or "some folks" to understand the implications of the technology they have chosen to use were meant either specifically or tangentially to refer to Expatman.  If anyone did read my words that way then I can only apologise, and admit that I very likely could have chosen those words more carefully.

Having skim-read my post again, I'd like to make it clear that none of the italicised section was in any way intended to be a reflection on Expatman.  It was simply a rather self-indulgent ramble on a subject I happen to feel quite strongly about, having found myself having to try to explain these things to naive smartphone users numerous times (one of the perils of being known to "work in IT"!)

 

None of my references to the failure of "the majority of smartphone users", "most smartphones users" or "some folks" to understand the implications of the technology they have chosen to use were meant either specifically or tangentially to refer to Expatman.  If anyone did read my words that way then I can only apologise, and admit that I very likely could have chosen those words more carefully.

Don't worry, I am not a sensitive soul! It was stupid of me to wash the phone and lax of me to forget I had set up a Google account. You are right in that as well as restoring my Contacts it also restored all the Apps I had on my old phone to my new phone, so I have got all the data possible. I have now verified my Google account.

I am not too worried about photos because I generally download these to my Apple Mac computer where I can use a proper photo editing program to edit them and then save them to the computer hard drive, which is backed up very regularly. In fact for any decent photography I use a Nikon Digital SLR which provides much better images. However, I will look at possible back ups for "Text Messages" as some of those are worth keeping. E Mails are backed up to my Apple Computer automatically. Thanks for your help.

...I am not too worried about photos because I generally download these to my Apple Mac computer where I can use a proper photo editing program to edit them and then save them to the computer hard drive, which is backed up very regularly. In fact for any decent photography I use a Nikon Digital SLR which provides much better images....

 

 

I do exactly the same with my Nikon DSLR. HD plus external drive, plus important family stuff shared via Dropbox. But just in case the house burns down, the hard drive folder is uploaded to Google Photos too.

 

I like being able to view a screen version from anywhere, and the compressed format is fine for that. Plus it's a third layer of redundancy. And it means I don't have to burden my mobile stuff with 000's of casual snaps.

 

Which are usually of wine bottles