So I’m setting up some auto backups and (yes, I’m a newbie) it is asking for folders to include. That’s fine, but want to be sure it is including things like contacts, calendar entries, etc. and I don’t know where exactly these things are stored to make sure I am including all folders for backup? Obvious things like all me LibreOffice files are easy enough as they are all in one folder I created, but others that I mentioned, etc I don’t know where they are stored.
Here is a kind of brute-force way to find out: create a contact with a funny name that is likely to be unique, and make sure it is saved to disk. Then use grep to look for it in your home directory:
grep -r FunnyNameThatIsProbablyUnique
that might take a few minutes if you have lots of things in your home directory, but sooner or later the answer comes:
grep: .local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/contacts.db: binary file matches
So apparently contacts are stored there. For backup purposes, maybe you can simply include the whole ~/.local/ directory in the backup. Or ~/.local/share/ or something.
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… an answer that you could have got here: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Tips%20&%20Tricks#contacts
albeit that that is on the phone and the OP may be asking about a laptop.
Some answers could be:
- the entire disk - there are credible arguments for that choice but it would be difficult to do automatically
- your entire home directory, plus any other user-created directories outside of that that contain worthwhile content, if any
- maybe - if it is an option - excluding
~/.cacheif explicitly including your entire home directory
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The beauty of convergence and using the same software stack across devices is exactly that. Solutions for your phone can also work on your laptop and vice versa 
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Totally agree - but there is one minor difference: the username is purism on the phone and whatever the user might have chosen on the laptop.