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Transferring files from Android phone to PC?

N

NewbAndroidUser

 
VIP Member
Hi all,

I just want to know the most secure way I can transfer data like my SMS messages, contacts and other personal data from my Huawei Android phone to my Windows 10 PC.

I want to be clear that I don't want the easiest way to transfer data, just the most secure way so that I can be certain that my personal phone data isn't transmitted to anyone else or any other device.

I've been trying all night to backup via MyBackUp Pro, but I'm constantly told there is an error: My Backup Pro - Apps on Google Play

I've sent Rerware an email about the problems with the App.

I'm currently reading this link: Lost Your USB Cable? Here Are Other Ways to Connect an Android to a PC

Thanks for any help!!!
 
NewbAndroidUser said:
Sorry did I do something wrong when I created this thread? It says it was posted in "forum.earlybird.club" and I'm not familiar with this? :(:(:(:(
Click to expand...
You're literally the very first person to ever notice this...

Just minutes ago, we changed our brand name from "Android Forums" to "Early Bird Club"!

We loved covering everything Android for the past 15+ years, but moving forward we're hoping to recapture the energy that originally made Android Forums so great; early adopters and tech enthusiasts flocking to the latest tech innovations while helping each other with products new and old.

Wish I could help you with your underlying question in the original post, but not my forte!
 
NewbAndroidUser said:
Hi all,

I just want to know the most secure way I can transfer data like my SMS messages, contacts and other personal data from my Huawei Android phone to my Windows 10 PC.

I want to be clear that I don't want the easiest way to transfer data, just the most secure way so that I can be certain that my personal phone data isn't transmitted to anyone else or any other device.

I've been trying all night to backup via MyBackUp Pro, but I'm constantly told there is an error: My Backup Pro - Apps on Google Play

I've sent Rerware an email about the problems with the App.

I'm currently reading this link: Lost Your USB Cable? Here Are Other Ways to Connect an Android to a PC

Thanks for any help!!!
Click to expand...

I've always used KDE Connect. You load it on phone and your PC. It has never failed me
KDE Connect
 
NewbAndroidUser said:
Hi all,

I just want to know the most secure way I can transfer data like my SMS messages, contacts and other personal data from my Huawei Android phone to my Windows 10 PC.

I want to be clear that I don't want the easiest way to transfer data, just the most secure way so that I can be certain that my personal phone data isn't transmitted to anyone else or any other device.

I've been trying all night to backup via MyBackUp Pro, but I'm constantly told there is an error: My Backup Pro - Apps on Google Play

I've sent Rerware an email about the problems with the App.

I'm currently reading this link: Lost Your USB Cable? Here Are Other Ways to Connect an Android to a PC

Thanks for any help!!!
Click to expand...
for sms i would recommend SMS Backup & Restore - Apps on Google Play

contacts, switch all of them to google. it will sync over the cloud and you just need to sign in to google to get your contacts.

and the rest you can use huawei's hisuite to backup your data:

HUAWEI Hisuite Free Download | HUAWEI Support Global

HUAWEI HiSuite is the official Android Smart Device Manager tool,HiSuite helps users to connect their HUAWEI smartphones and tablets to PC and perform various tasks.
consumer.huawei.com consumer.huawei.com
 
If the OP wants to be sure their info isn't sent to any other device I assume they want to avoid Google Drive as well. However, Google Drive backup is only an option in SMS Backup & Restore: you can turn that off, just do a local backup and then copy that backup to the PC over a USB connection. The question is whether you just want a backup (in which case this is fine), or whether you expect your PC to be able to read them (you can read xml in a text editor, but it won't be formatted nicely for reading).

Similarly if you want to back up Contacts without involving anyone else, go into your Contacts app and "Export" them (it will be an option somewhere, but as I don't know Huawei's app I can't be sure exactly where in its settings it will be). This will write your contacts to a vcard file (.vcf), which is a standard format you can read into any contact manager or "import" back into an Android contacts app.

"Other personal data": that very much depends on what data you mean and where it is stored. If it is stored in an app's database and your phone is not rooted then your only chance is probably to use whatever backup or export options that app has. If it's stored in a directory in your internal storage that you can see with a file manager then you can just copy it over usb.
 
Thanks to everyone for replying!

Update:
The Huawei device I wanted to back up is no longer charging and therefore I'm unable to turn it on 😢😢😢

However, before it stopped working I backed up my Contacts, Bookmarks, SMS messages etc using the inbuilt Huawei Backup App. All of the files were backed up to a microSD Card.

When I plugin the microSD Card to my Windows 10 PC I see all of the files there but I don't know how to view them? I tried installing the Huawei PC App but it only works by connecting to the Huawei device via USB cable and this is no longer possible as the Huawei device no longer turns on...

Hadron said:
If it's stored in a directory in your internal storage that you can see with a file manager then you can just copy it over usb.
Click to expand...
So now my question is:

How can I view the files I backed up to the microSD card on my Windows 10 PC? 😢😢😢
 
ocnbrze said:
well that is the fault of huawei. do you have another phone now, since the other will not charge? what phone is it, if so?
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I've been able to backup the files to a microSD card that I've connected to my Windows 10 PC.

My question is now this:
How can I view the files I backed up to the microSD card on my Windows 10 PC? 😢 😢

I'm referring to the files from the Huawei like Contacts, SMS Messages etc?
 
everything that i have seen says that you need to hook up your huawei phone to the pc. so you need to either fix your phone or get a new huawei phone. i do not know how you can view your backup files any other way.

even with samsung's smart switch you can't really open your backup on a pc. the backups are strictly for the phone. however if i hook up my z fold 4, i could use samsung dex to access my phone and its data.....not sure but i think huawei's hisuite is similar.
 
ocnbrze said:
everything that i have seen says that you need to hook up your huawei phone to the pc. so you need to either fix your phone or get a new huawei phone. i do not know how you can view your backup files any other way.

even with samsung's smart switch you can't really open your backup on a pc. the backups are strictly for the phone. however if i hook up my z fold 4, i could use samsung dex to access my phone and its data.....not sure but i think huawei's hisuite is similar.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

If it makes it easier for you, this is what the files look like:
 

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NewbAndroidUser said:
Thanks!

If it makes it easier for you, this is what the files look like:
Click to expand...
so db files are android support files. they are not meant to be open. android uses them pull data off of the file.

DB File - What is a .db file and how do I open it?

Learn about .DB files and view a list of programs that open them.
fileinfo.com fileinfo.com

to really open and mess around with db files you will need a program called sqlite:
SQLite - Wikipedia

but that requires knowledge of android coding which i do not possess.
 
If those are SQLite databases (the format that Android uses) that's good news: the Huawei backup tool could well have written the data in a proprietary format that only Huawei software could read.

There are a number of SQLite viewer and browser apps out there, some of which can be installed on Windows. I can't recommend one because I've never used any of them, but type something like "sqlite reader app" or "sqlite browser" into your search engine of choice and try one that seems promising to you.

As a last resort you could see whether you can find an inexpensive second-hand Huawei handset that the Huawei software can talk to.
 
As far as I know, there is a well-known add-on, SQLite Manager, for Firefox browser.
It can manage, edit, manipulate, plot and save one or multiple SQLite databases simultaneously.

Firefox browser - Tools - Add-ons,
search with keywords, sqlite
 
James_Watson said:
As far as I know, there is a well-known add-on, SQLite Manager, for Firefox browser.
It can manage, edit, manipulate, plot and save one or multiple SQLite databases simultaneously.

Firefox browser - Tools - Add-ons,
search with keywords, sqlite
Click to expand...
Hadron said:
If those are SQLite databases (the format that Android uses) that's good news: the Huawei backup tool could well have written the data in a proprietary format that only Huawei software could read.

There are a number of SQLite viewer and browser apps out there, some of which can be installed on Windows. I can't recommend one because I've never used any of them, but type something like "sqlite reader app" or "sqlite browser" into your search engine of choice and try one that seems promising to you.

As a last resort you could see whether you can find an inexpensive second-hand Huawei handset that the Huawei software can talk to.
Click to expand...
Hadron said:
If those are SQLite databases (the format that Android uses) that's good news: the Huawei backup tool could well have written the data in a proprietary format that only Huawei software could read.

There are a number of SQLite viewer and browser apps out there, some of which can be installed on Windows. I can't recommend one because I've never used any of them, but type something like "sqlite reader app" or "sqlite browser" into your search engine of choice and try one that seems promising to you.

As a last resort you could see whether you can find an inexpensive second-hand Huawei handset that the Huawei software can talk to.
Click to expand...
Thanks to everyone for replying!

I'm looking for some software to open these .DB

I've never tried using a Firefox extension in this way. Do you have much experience with it?

If that doesn't work then my last hope is to buy a new Huawei smartphone? 😢 😢
 
NewbAndroidUser said:
Thanks to everyone for replying!

I'm looking for some software to open these .DB

I've never tried using a Firefox extension in this way. Do you have much experience with it?

If that doesn't work then my last hope is to buy a new Huawei smartphone? 😢 😢
Click to expand...
Yes, I used this Firefox add-on in order to edit a SQLite db for my app development several years ago.
Check the web page of mozilla as below for detailed information about this extension.
addons.mozilla.org

SQLite Manager – Get this Extension for Firefox (en-US)

Download SQLite Manager for Firefox. manage, edit, manipulate, plot and save one or multiple SQLite databases simultaneously
addons.mozilla.org addons.mozilla.org
 
Last edited:
James_Watson said:
Yes, I used this Firefox add-on in order to edit a SQLite db for my app development several years ago.
Check the web page of mozilla as below for detailed information about this extension.
addons.mozilla.org

SQLite Manager – Get this Extension for Firefox (en-US)

Download SQLite Manager for Firefox. manage, edit, manipulate, plot and save one or multiple SQLite databases simultaneously
addons.mozilla.org addons.mozilla.org
Click to expand...
Thanks!

I'm looking at this Huawei backup app that may solve my problem: Phone Clone | HUAWEI Australia

My Huawei phone is running Android version 4.1.

It says at the bottom of the page: Supports Android version 4.0 above

It seems like a big risk to buy a new phone if there's a chance it may not be able to restore my backed up files though? 😢😢😢😢😢
 
James_Watson said:
So old Android system. 😊
The utility supports Android version 4.0 above, IOS version 6.0 above. It should work for your Huawei phone. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

It seems very risky for me to be buying a new Huawei phone just so I can access my data that's stored on a microSD card from my old Huawei phone?

Does anyone know likely it is that this can work?

This is a serious problem so advice from anyone would be much appreciated!!! 😢😢😢😢😢
 
That app looks like a phone data transfer app, the sort of thing people use for transferring data from their old phone to their new one. Most manufacturers have one these days.

Thing is, it's an app for transferring data to a Huawei phone. It probably will work for transferring from another phone to a Huawei, though if you were transferring from a Huawei to another phone I'd check out that manufacturer's app first. But the problem is that as I understand it your old Huawei isn't working, while your backup is on a PC, in which case I don't think this app can help you.
 
cwcheese said:
Have you considered looking out on the used market to see if there is an affordable (i.e. cheaper) used Huawei phone of similar vintage that you can use to unpack those backup files
Click to expand...
Thanks!

Yeah I'm looking for one but the cheapest I can find is still around $200. I don't want to risk buying a 2nd hand Huawei phone.

Hadron said:
That app looks like a phone data transfer app, the sort of thing people use for transferring data from their old phone to their new one. Most manufacturers have one these days.

Thing is, it's an app for transferring data to a Huawei phone. It probably will work for transferring from another phone to a Huawei, though if you were transferring from a Huawei to another phone I'd check out that manufacturer's app first. But the problem is that as I understand it your old Huawei isn't working, while your backup is on a PC, in which case I don't think this app can help you.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Yah I can't turn on my old Huawei as it simply won't charge.

I thought my user data I backed up on the Huawei to the microSD card could be inserted into the new Huawei phone and access my old data that way?
 
Yes, the data on the SD card can be transferred to another phone by putting the card in that phone (provided it has an SD slot). My point was just that I didn't think that software you linked would help as it was just for transferring data from one phone to another, and so if the original phone wasn't working the software couldn't transfer data from it.
 
Hadron said:
Yes, the data on the SD card can be transferred to another phone by putting the card in that phone (provided it has an SD slot). My point was just that I didn't think that software you linked would help as it was just for transferring data from one phone to another, and so if the original phone wasn't working the software couldn't transfer data from it.
Click to expand...
Thanks!

So you think the best chance for me to get access to the old Huawei phone data that's stored on the miniSD Card would be to buy a new Huawei phone???

It'd be great if there was some software I could use to access the old Huawei phone data on the miniSD card that's currently plugged into my Win10 PC without buying a new Huawei phone?
 
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