Thread: Transferring apps + data from old Android phone to new?

Is there a quick and easy way to transfer apps + data from an old Android phone to a new one?

Lifehacker suggests buying an app to do it:
http://lifehacker.com/5843206/how-to...thing-with-you

Or should I just activate the new phone, and download all the apps again from the Google Play store? (they should all be in my account, and free to re-download and install)

FWIW, old phone is HTC Incredible, new is Samsung Galaxy III. Old phone is rooted and running Cyanogen Mod 7, new one is bone stock and sure to have some Verizon crapware on it.

Super easy to re-download from the store. I think i have things backed up in astro file manager as well.

For pictures and what not, just plug the phone into computer and drag onto computer.

I'm currenly running ICS and it was easy to remove or hide most bloatware

Sent from my DROID RAZR using TGR Forums

If your old phone is rooted then you can load up one of the apps like Titanium Backup, Astro File Manager (don't think it requires rooting like TB), etc. that offer to backup apps (and their data too if needed) - transfer to your microSD card and then move them over. You will need the same Backup or File Manager App loaded on your new phone- so rooting it should be investigated.

Doesn't it just download your new apps/data automatically?
I guess not.

Went from an old Droid II loaner to a Galaxy Nexus about a month or so ago, and when I signed into the play store, everything started downloading automatically.

I'll just re-download everything -- shouldn't take too long over wi fi.

might try moving some apps off to the sd card, then swapping that with the new phone.
that won't catch apps which can't be moved to the card ( prob maps, gmail and other stuff) though.
redownloading won't keep saved data, saved games, bookmarks, etc if the app is on the phone vs. on the sd card. which is what I guess the OP wants to keep.

Originally Posted by El Chupacabra

I'll just re-download everything -- shouldn't take too long over wi fi.

Yup. That's the easiest way. Then you can plug the old phone into the computer and pull all your pics, music, etc off into a couple of folders and then drop it onto the new phone once you have it running.

The redownloading gets the apps on the phone, but then if the app has data on the old phone, you will need to grab that (each app maybe different location) and move it either by computer or transferring to the microSD card. The pictures and music done manually from a computer is really easy, the folder for each apps data is harder to manually find.