It’s a magical time for any mobile device user, getting that brand new phone fresh from your telco, opening the box, peeling back the screen film and switch it on for the first time, seeing the Android start up screen in all it’s customizable glory. But then the realization comes, somehow you’re going to have to get all your settings, apps, media and data from your old android phone to your new phone, it’s a long road ahead.
Here are some simple, easy to follow steps to make the transition a little less horrid:
1. Contacts
Use your old device to export your contacts data to your microSD card via the People app > Manage contacts > Import/Export contacts > Export to SD card. You can then insert the SD card into your new device and follow that same steps but instead of “Export to SD card”, select “Import from SD card”.
2. Transfer Text Messages
The easiest way to do this is to use a third party application like “SMS Backup & Restore”, a free application built by Ritesh Sahu Tools. Similar to your contact, you can export your SMS history as an XML file and then sync it to your new device. This application also has the handy feature of being able to backup to your Dropbox, Email or Google Drive, so it’s useful long after you’ve made the transition.
3. Photos and Video
Not asking any questions, it’s your business, but you may have some photos or videos that you may need to move over to your new device… You can do this via third party applications like SFT, Shareit or ES File Explorer. Each of these applications are very powerful, free and easy to use, so I won’t spend a huge amount of time explaining how to use these.
4. Home screen layout
This is the big one for me, I have many applications that I need (read really like, grand scheme of things, not really a need) a click or two away at all times, and a great way to have a seamless and sane transition is to utilize an app called NOVA launcher, where you can take a full snapshot of your homescreen app and folder placement, and then mirror that on your new device. Just make sure you install NOVA and all the apps you had on your old device prior to restoring.
5. Complete and utter app transfer
Helium is a free application that will allow you to save all your personal settings / cache from all your existing applications and load them to your new device. This translates to not having to remember / reset all your app passwords. Hell of a time saver! You can save the data to SD card or a PC. If you want further functionality, you can also buy the premium version that will allow you to set scheduled backups to your cloud of choice, mine being Dropbox of course.
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