10
I used to back up important files into my phone for a while. Its an okay move for things you want to have all the time on you, but you should get a proper ssd/hdd with a backup tool (like deja dup/timeshift) sooner than later.
Follow your gut instinct..
Modern phones are fragile eggs anymore, you might as well be putting all your eggs in one eggshell...
hey that's a new one
at the moment
Get the proper tools to do the job right. There's no gun to your head making you distrohop, so this isn't an emergency. Just wait to get a real SSD first.
that's probably a good idea
There's usually a lot of private data in the home folder. I feel compromise or loss of my phone is a greater risk than loss of my home folder. I'd use an SD card before I'd use a phone.
What about a cloud option instead? I do this for stuff that I consider important but don’t want to lose. Upload to a “backup” folder and then download once you set up your next distro?
Though I wouldn’t do this with anything terribly important like my social security number or taxes or something. But stuff like a book I’m working on, game projects I have, music library, etc., general stuff I don’t want to lose.
Is your /home on a separate partition? If so, no need to copy anything.
If you really need to backup, I'd get a proper external disk, or failing that, backup to backblaze (or similar) and restore later.
At a pinch, you could tar it all up and copy it to a usb stick, if you have a big enough one to hand, but it'll be slower.
/home is not on a separate partition, no. Yeah an external disk will probably be better
Next time make a partition ;)
Short answer: No.
Long answer: absu-f-ing NO. Whatever you put on a smart phone should be considered compromised.
Buy an external harddisk (Not! an SSD) for that.
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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