Copying all apps and data to a new phone

[svenmonet]

I asked this question years ago and I thought I'd see if anyone had any new ideas. I'm getting a new phone, probably a Samsung, and wish to copy my current apps and data from my old Nexus phone. What is the easiest way to do this procedure?

I don't want to have to re install everything.

Thanks.

 

[jungleexplorer]

I don't think there is a good way to do this. Many would say titanium back up could do it, but my experience is that this only results in making your system unstable and glitchy. Many apps are rom specific and will only work with the a specific device, rom and launcher. Some apps can be moved from device to another, but they always seem to work more smoothly if you install them fresh.

I would backup all your data to an microSD card and make sure all your online accounts are synced up to date. If you set you google accounts to sync apps, some apps will reinstall themselves all by itself once you log back into your Google account (but not all apps will do this and I don't know why).

Taking shortcuts as never worked for me. Sure it might seem like it saves time to start with, but once you start trying to fix all the gitches and errors it causes you will spend more time in the end getting everything to work right.

 

[lunatic59]

I have to go with jungleexplorer on this one. It's always ultimately better to just reinstall.

If you use a backup app and then restore to a different device/android version they can become very glitchy. Most times it's because the app's data location has changed, either with the version change or the manufacturer's rom/launcher. (I could explain the technical reasons why this is necessary, but I'd have to keep nudging the forum with my elbow to keep it awake. )

I've change phones more times than I probably should and I've found the easiest way to get back to a familiar setup quickly is to use a custom launcher (I use Apex, but there are plenty of others ... Nova is pretty popular as well.)

Here's the process. First make sure you let Google "backup" your apps and settings. It will store phone settings but not app settings. And, it doesn't really backup your apps but keeps a list of installed apps linked to your Google Account. Also make sure Automatic restore is checked. This is under menu>settings>backup & reset. If these weren't checked previously, give it some time to sync. I really don't know if it's immediate or not, but 24 hours would be reasonable.

Now the fun begins ... Copy whatever you want on your new phone from your old phone to a folder on a PC. Backup your text messages if you want to keep them (I use SMS backup and restore. It's pretty simple and easy to use.) Backup any email messages stored only on the phone. I don't do this as all my email accounts (way too many ) are IMAP. And ... backup your launcher settings to a file. Copy those to the PC too.

Power up your new phone. Register it using the same Google account. Make sure it's connected to Wifi and log into the play store once to accept the terms. Now go for coffee. Google is going to push back all your apps and *some* settings. Depending on what you had installed on the old phone, it could take a while. It should be done by the third donut. Setup any email accounts again, restore your SMS messages and email and then restore your launcher settings. Finally, copy all your data and media from your old phone to the new one. There will be things that will need to be tweaked, but you should be as close to the old phone as you can get.

It usually takes me about 2 hours.

 

[Stuntman]

If your new phone is running Android 5.0 (Lollipop), it had a feature that allows you to copy data from your old device to a new one: [Lollipop Feature Spotlight] New Device Setup Process Finally Lets Users Copy Data From Specific Devices

It is only available on new phones running Android 5.0. Your old phone doesn't have to be on 5.0. Android 5.0 has just been released, so it will take a while before you see devices running this version of Android. The Nexus 6 will come with Android 5.0. I'm not sure what the schedules is for Samsung phones to get 5.0.