SBU files are used to back up all the information from a Samsung Mobile device to a PC. This is done through the "Kies" software, also created by Samsung and available for download on the company's official website.
Files with the .SBU extension contain the user's Contacts, Calendar, SMS Messages, Memos and Call Log data etc. They also contain all multimedia files such as Music, Photos, Videos and all other Miscellaneous content files from the device's internal memory.
Account information and Settings are also saved in the .SBU file. This includes user preferences and ringtones, E-mail account information and settings and network settings and bookmarks including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Radio or DLNA.
How to backup your Samsung phone data to an .SBU file
Backing up your data is a fairly simple process and is done entirely through Samsung Kies. Before starting the backup process it is best to make sure that the latest version of Samsung Kies is currently installed on the machine. This is done by checking for updates from the program's "Help" menu or by downloading the latest Kies version from the official Samsung website.
The Kies software should recognize any Samsung mobile device connected to a computer via USB cable. However, users can sometimes experience connection errors even if their device was properly detected (removing the phone's SIM card and reconnecting it to the PC usually solves this problem).
After the phone is connected to the PC, backing up the devices data to a single .SBU file is performed by accessing the 'Back Up/Restore' tab from the Kies menu, selecting the desired data to be backed-up and then clicking 'Backup' button.
The information stored within these .SBU files is not compressed so a complete backup (containing all the phone's multimedia content for example) can reach a considerable size.
How to restore data from a .SBU file
Restoring data from a .SBU file is also done through Samsung Kies. After the device is connected to the computer, the restore process can be initiated from the 'Back Up/Restore' menu item.
When restoring information from an .SBU file, some applications running on the device may be closed and the network will be unavailable.
SBU files are saved automatically in user's Documents\Samsung\Kies\Backup folder. There is no way to open them and manually extract information. However, Contacts can be recovered by using the SSVCardExtractor software.
Also, during a normal restore process Kies will first extract everything stored in the .SBU file to a temporary folder (such as documents\Samsung\Kies\sbu\temp\{Number}\{Files}). By accessing it before the restore process is finished users can also recover their multimedia files in case they were missing from the phone after prior restores.
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Comments (4)
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Martie
2013-12-20 20:06:20
#1
I never had any luck with making backups with samsung. My pc used to freeze when i installed KIES and i ended uninstalling it. I do not understand how it works and i lost all my contacts when upgrading to i-phone. I couldnt manage to retrieve any info that i previously "backed up" on my pc. Couldnt open SBU file extension. HOPELESS!!!! Glad I am done with Samsung. Now on i cloud and very happy ;-)
harikrishna
2014-01-08 02:59:01
#2
I want to ask that how can i recover my contacts from .sbu file and restore in phone memory again?
Jas
2014-05-09 20:41:35
#3
I'm trying to recover from an older SBU file, and Kies 3 does not see my SBU file in my folder. :!
Paul
2014-06-03 08:02:51
#4
Try forwarding the backup file to Amrak Software and asking them to take a look.
