Galaxy S3 to S5

[Tom_D]

I'll be moving from an S3 to an S5 in October. Is there an app or a way to insure I get all my apps back on my phone but equally important restore my 4 page setups so that all the apps and widgets end up on the same pages in the same locations?

 

[spicaalex]

the best way is wondershare software.
there are 2 variants.
mobiletrans - directly copy from 1 phone to another (connect both to pc) (win-only)
mobilego - make a backup of old phone then do a restore on new. (win+mac available)

they provide app settings transfer option with apps, however i haven't tried it. btw, all sms and contacts even with notes inside them without any issues copied from xperia walkman to lg e440

 

[nickdalzell]

Samsung provides Smart Switch, but unsure if that preserved app data or just the apps.

 

[chanchan05]

Try Helium. For the homescreen setup, haven't encountered anything that would restore widgets, you have to reconfigure them again.

 

[Tom_D]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I guess I'll take screen shots, print them out and use the prints to arrange the new phone.

 

[Tom_D]

OK, more reading and I think I have a solution.

Nova Launcher will save the icon/shortcut settings to a file and I like the interface and operation of the launcher.

Helium, as mentioned above will back up what apps are on the phone and the settings.

I haven't reset the phone and attempted a clean restore but I think these two apps will get me pretty close to getting the S5 to have a similar setup to the S3.

I'll take screen shots just in case.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

I'll be upgrading near the end of October and I'll post back here about how it went.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

OK, more reading and I think I have a solution.

Nova Launcher will save the icon/shortcut settings to a file and I like the interface and operation of the launcher.

Helium, as mentioned above will back up what apps are on the phone and the settings.

Apex does the same as Nova. However, if Nova is the same, it saves it as a file on the phone. Make sure you copy it to a computer or the cloud before replacing the phone.

And yes, Helium does a good job of backing up and restoring data. Just be sure do a trial backup prior to the day you change phones though, as some apps are flagged as "Backup disallowed" (e.g., Aqua Mail).