Android upgrade time

September 8, 2011 8:11 AM

Tips and tricks foe upgrading from one Android phone to another?

The time has finally come, and I'm updating my original Droid to a Droid Bionic. This is the first time I've upgraded from one Android phone to another, so I'm trying to make sure that I get everything I want from my current phone to the new one. I know that both Android and Amazon markets keep track of what apps I've purchased, but is there an easy way to move application data from my current phone to the new one? Is there anything other than application data that I'm not thinking about now that I should start backing up or remember to move when the new phone comes?

posted by hobgadling to technology (8 answers total)

Do you have a Verizon store nearby? I'm pretty sure they'll do all that for you if you just hand them both of your phones.

Though I'm sure there's an easy way to do this yourself, too, but I'll let someone else who actually knows answer that.
posted by Grither at 8:15 AM on September 8, 2011

I'd recommend you keep your old phone for a time just in case, but in my experience this is pretty seamless. On the source phone be sure you've selected to back up application data to Google - this is the default.

After you log into the new phone with your Google account it'll pull all that data back down and re-install the applications.

If you have an SD card you can just physically move it from the old phone to the new one. If it's a different type you can copy the content to your computer over USB, then copy it back to the new phone's SD card.
posted by odinsdream at 8:29 AM on September 8, 2011

I upgraded phones recently, and I just moved the sim card from one to another, and that was that. Once I told the new phone my google info, it was like bloody magic.

I use Lookout for backup, and did a full backup before I switched, just to be sure. However, I never needed it, and haven't needed to turn on my old phone even once since the switch, it all just worked. (I did need to re-sign in to some accounts, of course, and I think I had to re-set up my IMAP mail, things like that.)
posted by strega_bianca at 8:41 AM on September 8, 2011

AppBrain syncs the apps on your current phone with their database. In addition to other features, this allows you to easily reinstall previous apps when switching to a different android phone.
posted by czytm at 9:34 AM on September 8, 2011

Oops, here's the link to explain how to use that feature.
posted by czytm at 9:42 AM on September 8, 2011

Android market and Amazon app store will sync your market apps, so no worries there. If you installed any apps out of the marker, then you might want to backup those apks.

Use the following apps to backup and restore your call history & text messages:
Call Logs Backup and Restore
SMS Backup and Restore

No "root" access needed for the above apps. To backup apps, you can use ASTRO if you are not rooted, or use Titanium Backup if rooted.

And don't forget to backup your pictures/videos/files from your old SD card to your PC. Even if you were going to use the same SD card on the new phone, I would format and use it as a fresh one.
posted by thewildgreen at 11:49 AM on September 8, 2011

Make sure all of your contacts are google contacts. It's just easier that way. I use a different phone than you but mine has google contacts, SD card contacts, and phone contacts. And the default for creating a new contact is phone contact, which means it doesn't sync with your google account. You can use Verizon's own backup assistant to backup and reload those, but I say it's easiest to just make sure all are google contacts. I don't know whether your phone makes any distinction or defaults to google contacts.

I lost local data in non-syncing apps when switching phones. All my gas mileage entries were gone from that app, all my saved grocery items were gone from my grocery list app, etc.

Also, once when I did a factory reset, it took hours for the app market to recognize my phone again, and it remembered the previous one I no longer had, so it wouldn't give me my apps back. I just had to wait a while and eventually it was back. Think I had to manually redownload things. Once when I switched from one phone to another, the market automatically redownloaded maybe 2/3 of my apps and just didn't do the rest, which I had to redownload manually. Not sure why.
posted by Askr at 1:37 PM on September 8, 2011

My phone can export contacts data to a big damn vcard file. I'm pretty sure I'm using the default contact manager.

Anyway, on general principle I suggest you back up all your data and applications. Titanium Backup is one app that can do this.
posted by LogicalDash at 8:31 PM on September 8, 2011