1) Download and install the official Samsung Sans system font from the Galaxy Store. This is the non-modified version for creating the initial backup. Once installed, manually change your system font to Samsung Sans from Display > Font Settings.
2) In Samsung Cloud, create a backup of only the settings while your font is set to Samsung Sans. The first two steps only need to be done once for all subsequent custom fonts.
3) Uninstall or update over the old Samsung Sans font with the new custom zFont Samsung Sans font file which contains the font you want to change to. This uses the same package name (
com.monotype.android.font.samsungsans) as the official font to trick cloud into thinking it's legit.
GOOGLE FONTS has a huge open source selection of fonts that can be downloaded in TTF format.
NOTE: There's also an option to use other fonts in zFont instead of Samsung Sans, but if you choose those, you'll have to create a new backup with the official version of that font selected.
4) Change your system font to "Default".
NOTE: Your custom font should be present within your font list after installation. When updating custom fonts, it might appear as if the correct font is already selected but your new font won't actually become active until you refresh it by unselecting and reselecting the font which requires the Samsung Cloud workaround since you can't select a modified font manually from the font menu or you'll get an error.
5) In Samsung Cloud, select the option to restore. Uncheck all options except "Settings" to restore only the settings that you backed up in step #2. While it's restoring, you'll see the text on the screen update to your target custom font prior to reaching 100% complete if it's successful. Once the restoration is finished, you'll get a dialog popup asking if you want to delete old backups, select the NO response so the backup can be used for future fonts.
6) Verify your font changed from "Default" to Samsung Sans or whatever custom font option you selected. Font settings are usually located in the device's Display settings. Once verified, restart your device.
NOTE: Not all text will be replaced with your updated font until after a system reboot. Verify your font was automatically changed to the new font from Default prior to rebooting. If it failed to update, continue to the troubleshooting steps below to verify system applications.
Subsequent Updates: To update your font while a backup of the device settings is already created (with the correct font file selected per step #2), just update custom font file, change font to default, restore settings, restart device (or just start at step #3). No need to create a new backup unless the original backup is lost.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Samsung Cloud custom font workaround will not work if you debloated your system applications. Samsung Cloud relies on several pre-installed applications to restore all settings back to its former backed up state, especially font since it seems like getting the font to restore is the toughest setting to fix if debloated. I'm not sure 100% exactly which applications affect this, but I've confirmed that it's only Samsung Apps.
Not sure which ones exactly it needs but you don't need to rebloat every single application. I do know it's several of the preloaded Samsung packages. All the applications listed are related to Samsung Cloud one way or another. They must be INSTALLED and ENABLED! If I end up narrowing the list down further, I'll update this list of required applications.
