Why can't upgrading phones be easier?

cormie

Unfortunately had to splash out on a new phone after my Z3 compact lasted only 2 years before developing a mind of its own and being unresponsive.

Preparing a new phone has always seemed a problem, all I want is the same apps, settings, messages, call logs etc on the new phone so I can slip the sim card in and continue where I left off with the old phone, but it always seems tricky to get around.

I would have thought given it's all android, it'd be much easier to achieve this.

I tried Samsung Smart Switch today and it seemed to copy everything over, but when I open the apps it looks like I'm opening them for the first time instead of seeing what I'd see if I were to open them on the old phone.

Even Shazam didn't have my shazams from the last phone after I thought I transferred the app data over.

Is there any fool proof way to achieve this? To just go from the old phone to the new phone with all settings being exactly how they were on the old phone?

Any help would be great

zilog_jones

There are tools which will back up app settings/data like Helium: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup&hl=en

niallb

Apps like samsung smart switch have no interest in setting your phone up the way it was with Sony.
What you're seeing there isn't specifically an Android problem.
It also needs to be installed on the original phone too, so if you can get it on to the Z3, you may have better experience.
I haven't had a samsung in years, so perhaps they've added an obstacle here.
They do prefer for you to give access to twitter/facebook/google etc to a samsung account,
and then use that account for widgets and their own applications.

Does your Z3 work at all any more? Is the screen visible, or can you plug a mouse into it?
Can you check that your google account on it is set to "Sync App Data" in your account settings.
If it's not, this won't work for you, but it offers to turn it on when you set up the account in the first place.

If that backup exists, it can automatically restore your apps and their settings (IF they were written to use the system, so it's not 100%).
When you're setting up the samsung and add your account, you should be offered the chance to restore from a backup, and it'll ask you to confirm which phone or tablet you want to use the settings from.

I doubt if shazam is a good example to choose for this - I know that whatsapp offers a single chance to download your messages when you install on a new phone, but it doesn't use the android app data backup. If you have a shazam account, they will be downloaded from it eventually. You can see at http://www.shazam.com/myshazam if your messages are there. If not, you don't have an account, and they were just stored on your phone. You'll have an account if you log in using facebook or an email address.

cormie

Thanks a lot for the replies.

My Z3 is still usable, just requires several hard taps with my fingernail to select something on some parts of the screen.

• On set up I did the NFC back to back which transferred all my Google account info and maybe some other info, but not my app data
• I then installed Samsung Smart Switch, and this appeared to transfer some (not all) call logs and sms messages, but no data from WhatsApp or Shazam etc.
• I then tried Helium and I see the list of disallowed apps is almost longer than the list of allowed apps, so don't see any point doing it this way either ;(

I don't like to use any manufacturer accounts and prefer just to install the apps direct so I'm relying on the app itself and not the app through a manufacturer interface, so I never created a sony account and I won't be creating a samsung account if I can avoid it. I also didn't create a shazam account and avoid creating accounts if I can use the app without one.

So with this in mind, I think the app data needs to come from the storage on the device (which I thought the likes of helium and smart switch and NFC would take care of), or from my google account (which would be amazing if it handled everything, but seems to only handle things like wifi passwords and Google app settings and logins ), and from what I've read, it seems app developers have the option to allow backup and from the list of disallowed apps on Helium, it seems so many don't, so NONE of the above methods are allowing for proper backup and restore to the new phone

GBX

Did you have your Whatsapp account linked to Google Drive for back up? I have wiped my phone and as soon as my number was verified all my chats including pics/vids etc were restored?

cormie

GBX wrote: »

Did you have your Whatsapp account linked to Google Drive for back up? I have wiped my phone and as soon as my number was verified all my chats including pics/vids etc were restored?

Yup, I do have that enabled. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm not going to start using the new phone (or what's app) until I've all apps set up and ready and will then move my sim card into new phone and can use whatsapp etc then.

It's ok for some apps that have their own backup systems in place, but I'd really just prefer a way to have everything how it was on the Z3. I mean if the DATA is being fed to the apps on the Z3 somehow, can that same data not be transferred to the S7 and be read the same way?

donspeekinglesh

This is why the first thing I do with any new phone is root it. Then use Titanium Backup.

cormie

I would always root my phones before, but the only thing I took advantage of from a rooted phone really was the adblock apps and putting up with ads on the Z3 was fine really so I was hoping not to root it, but if rooting is the only option, maybe I'll have to, unless I can do it all manually somehow?

listermint

cormie wrote: »

I would always root my phones before, but the only thing I took advantage of from a rooted phone really was the adblock apps and putting up with ads on the Z3 was fine really so I was hoping not to root it, but if rooting is the only option, maybe I'll have to, unless I can do it all manually somehow?

And in doing so remove options like Android Pay etc.

Not all sunshine and lollypops.

Google remembers all my apps and just installs them again, i swapped 3 phones in the last 3 years.

cormie

Yup, it's remembered all my apps and has downloaded them, but not the app data, so once I go to open the app, I need to set it up from scratch, as opposed to all my custom settings and data being there and I tend to go through each app I use rigorously to customise it how I want so it would take ages to set up each one from scratch again

ED E

cormie wrote: »

Yup, it's remembered all my apps and has downloaded them, but not the app data, so once I go to open the app, I need to set it up from scratch, as opposed to all my custom settings and data being there and I tend to go through each app I use rigorously to customise it how I want so it would take ages to set up each one from scratch again

If you want that kind of simplicity there are three options:

A. Pay €600 every two years for an iPhone
B. Never change brand of Android (Sony to Sony, Samsung to Samsung)
C. Root every phone and use TB

cormie

Thanks for the input.

Option 1 isn't an option
Option 2 would have been fine had Sony not taken away the waterproof feature on the new Xperia, worsened the battery life etc
Option 3 I don't like to mess around too much, void warranty, lose ability for other things like Pay etc

So I guess the only other option is set everything up again and manually drag all the data files from the old to the new app folders, but even then it probably won't achieve the same results.

beauf

The best I've used is the iPhone, just does it really easily and the fastest.

Android is not too bad. If you have saved everything to google. At least its fast on a decent phone.

Windows Phone was brutal at this. It would install all the apps etc. Then spend about a day updating them. Just nuts. Never seemed to work right and I'd end up installing again from scratch.

cormie

Thanks for the input, would definitely prefer to stick to Android, apple is far too linear, and although it may be good for this kind of problem, for general use I think Android is more suited for my needs

Never even considered a Windows phone and don't think I'd bother.

MarkR

I reinstall my phone a lot, trying different roms. I use titanium backup to get me back to where I need to be after a reinstall.

cormie

I love the idea of there being so many different roms and options available, but for me, I just want the basics, nothing fancy, just something simple that works and is functional. I don't really care how it looks as long as it's clear, simple and easy to do what I need to do on it.

I use nova launcher for a simple home screen that I'm used to, but don't like to mess around too much with anything else.

Does Titanium backup get everything back exactly how it was, no matter what rom etc you've put on it?

So if I go from a Z3 Compact to a S7 Active, will the two phones be indistinguishable besides drop down notification bar, phone setting options etc if I use Titanium backup? Is the process complicated?

MarkR

cormie wrote: »

I love the idea of there being so many different roms and options available, but for me, I just want the basics, nothing fancy, just something simple that works and is functional. I don't really care how it looks as long as it's clear, simple and easy to do what I need to do on it.

I use nova launcher for a simple home screen that I'm used to, but don't like to mess around too much with anything else.

Does Titanium backup get everything back exactly how it was, no matter what rom etc you've put on it?

So if I go from a Z3 Compact to a S7 Active, will the two phones be indistinguishable besides drop down notification bar, phone setting options etc if I use Titanium backup? Is the process complicated?

I use it for reinstalling apps, restoring call logs, data usage etc. I use nova's own settings for restoring those settings. I don't bother with much of the system info, in case of weirdness, but it's pretty easy to use.

cormie

Yeah, I'd really only need it for app settings, call logs etc.

Are you saying there's never any "weirdness" switching between phones with just the general app settings, call logs etc, but there could be with nova settings since it's a launcher and may be more sensitive to the phone type, and then to avoid system info since it's a different phone altogether?

niallb

If you want to transfer call logs, texts etc I can recommend SMSBackup+
I've been using it for years on half a dozen different android phones.
You need to manually kick off the first backup on your old phone so that it can log in to your google account,
and you can run restore on the new phone to get them back if you want.

I use it because it uploads all SMS messages to a folder called SMS in my gmail account.
It makes it really easy to find things because SMS messages pop up in an email search too.
I suggest changing the subject format in advanced to "Name (number)", but it works well out of the box
and doesn't care what brand your android is.

It can also record phonecall details onto a google calendar, so you can see when calls were made and for how long.
Handy for doing up timesheets for phone support.

cormie

That sounds good alright, actually, it's a pity Google don't offer the same out of the box with android phones. If I could choose to have sms and call logs backed up the same way calendar and contacts are I would. How does the call log in the calendar work? If it was one entry per day synced after each call to the same entry that would be nice, if it was one calendar entry for every call, this would make the calendar almost unusable as it'd just be way too full of calls?

I wonder why Google don't offer something like this themselves...

ED E

cormie wrote: »

I wonder why Google don't offer something like this themselves...

Well if they did every phone would look the same and the OEMs would be allowed zero customization.

cormie

ED E wrote: »

Well if they did every phone would look the same and the OEMs would be allowed zero customization.

I'm just referring to backing up sms, call logs etc

I mean, they back up contacts, so why not backup call logs and SMS too

MarkR

cormie wrote: »

Yeah, I'd really only need it for app settings, call logs etc.

Are you saying there's never any "weirdness" switching between phones with just the general app settings, call logs etc, but there could be with nova settings since it's a launcher and may be more sensitive to the phone type, and then to avoid system info since it's a different phone altogether?

I would back up everything, and then restoring (on the same phone) would select what apps I want to reinstall, rather than everything available. No sense reinstalling gmail or chrome etc. Usually things that require a password, i'll restore. I'll do the call logs and sms for convenience. There's a free version of titanium backup, give it a go. If you're changing phone, you'll have to store it on a drive or something, I don't think there's cloud storage in the free one.

cormie

Thanks again. I'd definitely use Titanium backup, but I believe both phones need to be rooted so I think I'll probably just do everything manually

GBX

cormie wrote: »

Thanks again. I'd definitely use Titanium backup, but I believe both phones need to be rooted so I think I'll probably just do everything manually

Yes root is needed for Titanium.

cormie

Looks like I'll just need to manually backup everything so. Now where everything is stored is the question and whether it's accessible through windows to take backups of!

The new phone definitely needs to be rooted too, or can you restore to a new phone without rooting? I'd be happy to try root my Z3 compact since it's out of warranty anyway, but want to avoid rooting my s7 active!

MarkR

If you don't have root, try helium backup

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup&hl=en

cormie

I had used Helium before and found it good, but on trying this time, I see the list of disallowed apps is almost longer than the list of allowed apps, so don't see any point doing it this way either ;(

I'll probably just use Samsung Smart Switch again, and maybe Helium too and then manually transfer whatever that doesn't do properly manually.

Skatedude

buy new phone, login to goggle account and done

cormie

For the basics, that's fine, but when you heavily customise apps, have complicated set ups with some and have a lot of content like conversations and the likes you want on your replacement phone, the Google backup doesn't cut it ;(

niallb

cormie wrote: »

... How does the call log in the calendar work? If it was one entry per day synced after each call to the same entry that would be nice, if it was one calendar entry for every call, this would make the calendar almost unusable as it'd just be way too full of calls?
...

SMS Backup+ backs up each call as a single entry to the calendar.
I can't see how a single entry per day would be as useful.
You get to choose which calendar it backs up calls to,
I use a seperate google calendar just for these called CALLS.
That way I can turn it off with a click on the calendar,
but when it's turned on my calls for the day are superimposed on my main calendar in a different colour. If you don't want calls on a calendar it can save the call details as an email in the same way as it does for SMS.