AUTOMATIC BACKUP/RESTORE
Locale has automatic backup and restore using the cloud-based backup mechanism in Android 2.2 or later. There are no configuration options within Locale—it just works!

To use this feature, simply make sure that backup/restore is enabled by going to the Android Settings and verifying that Backup and Restore is enabled. (This option might be in a different place on different devices. With Android 2.2, it can be found under Android settings → Privacy. With Android 4.0, it can be found under Android settings → Backup & reset). Whenever Locale is uninstalled and reinstalled, the device is factory reset, or you upgrade to a new device, your Locale situations will be automatically restored. If there are no options for backup and restore under the Android Settings, then the device does not support automatic backup and restore.

Since backups are tried to a Google account, be sure to always use the same Google account when setting up your Android devices.

If you’ve ever previously installed a pirated copy of Locale, automatic backup and restore will not work correctly.

MANUAL BACKUP/RESTORE USING ADB
For Android 4.0 and later, the Android developer tools can perform a backup to a desktop computer:

1. Install the Android developer tools http://developer.android.com/sdk/tools-notes.html
2. Enable USB debugging on your device
3. Create a backup called locale.apk in your computer terminal’s current working directory: adb backup -f locale.bak com.twofortyfouram.locale
4. Restore a backup from your computer terminal’s current working directory: adb restore locale.bak

MANUAL BACKUP/RESTORE TO EXTERNAL STORAGE
Locale contains a beta manual backup/restore feature to create a manual backup to external storage. (“External storage” does not necessarily mean the SD card. The definition of external storage varies from device to device.) Because Locale already has cloud-based backup and restore, most users should have no reason to worry about manual backup and restore.

Locale’s manual backup and restore is primarily meant for support and diagnostic purposes and is disabled by default. To enable manual backups, please follow the instructions below.

1. Allow installing apps outside of the Android Market
a. From the Home screen, go to the “Settings” app
b. For Android 1.5 through Android 3.2: Choose “Applications” and make sure that “Unknown sources” is checked. For Android 4.0: Choose “Security” and make sure that “Unknown sources” is checked

2. Install Backup Enabler
a. Open the web browser on your phone
b. Go to this address: www.twofortyfouram.com/backup.apk
c. Once the download completes, tap on the download
d. Follow the instructions to install

After manual backups are enabled, a new Backup menu item will appear under the menu of the Locale situation list screen. From that menu item, you can create a backup to external storage. When Locale is re-installed, it will automatically detect any existing backups and ask whether you’d like to restore them. Manual backups are an unsupported beta feature.

This is a great idea and we’ve been looking at it for quite a while. I agree it could be quite useful when combined with Astrid integration. For example, a location-aware reminder would be really useful a few minutes after arrival, rather than right when walking in the door.

A key requirement would be that the delay should be very consistent and predictable. For example, if I ask for a reminder 30 minutes after I get home, it should always be exactly 30 minutes after I get home. Thanks to Locale 2.0’s instant location, we are now be able to meet this requirement.

I have a few open questions about this as we go forward with investigating how this might work:

- Should there be delayed conditions? Or should this be implemented as delayed settings? (The end result would be the same, but each requires a different mental model) - How short or how long of a delay would people want?