How to move form Nexus 6 to New Nexus 6

stevekat

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I have a perfectly working Nexus 6 32GB with 7.x. I have brand new Nexus 6 64GB. When I got the first Nexus 6 via Tap & Go I was able to move everything over from my old Android phone. I've tried that with these two phones, and also tried syncing the new phone with Google, and nothing has moved from the old phone. When syncing with my Google account, not using Tap & Go, the new phones shows it has synced with my Google account, but again nothing is there.

I'd like to move apps, data, settings (home screens,) etc. Are some of these features deprecated? I called Motorola, and they barely seemed to have a clue about anything, and informed me among other things that I need to download my apps one at a time to my new phone. They could not say whether I could get the layout of my home screens. Is this possibly true? Any advise on how to get the new phone to get most everything from the old phone. I think the new phone has 6.x.
 
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Dan_B1979

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Have you tried signing out of the Google account on your original N6 and then signing in to it on the new N6?

Maybe put the original N6 into Airplane mode to stop it connecting to wifi/4G etc...

Seems that your Google account sees the phone switched on, but cannot differentiate between the two?!

Just a thought really... Sure someone else will come along with a better answer
 

stevekat

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I've turned the original N6 off, but that does not seem to help.

1) Tap and Go does nothing
2) Signing in with my Google account on the new phone does nothing in terms of restoring anything. I can go into the PlayStore and see a list of my apps though.
 

ElronTheElder

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When you go to the play store click the hamburger select my apps and games.
select all, select the ones you wish to re-install.
sign into your google account on the new phone it will bring your contacts over.
bam done.
just went through this.
tedious, but not painful.
good luck
 

stevekat

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I want to bring my data such as wifi networks and passwords, particular my home screen layouts, and app data. I think your suggestion shall allow to replicate my app presence, but I really want to go beyond that. I am sure I am good with my contacts.
 

gmermel

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Do it via your computer. I'm not a geek, but after my first 3-4 android phones I got the hang of it.

You need to backup apps that have that functionality (Big ones for me is my Apex Launcher and Folder Organizer). Then, connect to your computer and set aside a folder for what you want to bring to the new phone. Pull over the camera (DCIM) folder, your music etc, and the app backup files (Depending on the app these will be in a couple places. Folder Organizer makes its own folder while Apex was located in the Android/Data folder).

Get your new phone loaded with your apps, and backup those apps that have the functionality. Connect to the computer and overwrite the backups on the new phone with the files from the old one. With my Apex Launcher and Folder Organizer set up, my home screen comes up identical to my old phone. Some widgets have to be recreated though.

You also can bring over your photo and music folders.

As for the wallpaper, if you have the photo it'll be there ready to use. If it's in an app, well, that's easy enough as well.

Passwords? I use a password manager anyway which is net-based, and network settings are, thankfully, a one step process....

It is a pain, and I really loved the tap and go when it came. It worked on a couple of phone transfers (N6 warranty replacements). I got a final replacement N6 a few months ago, though, and tap and go failed on that one and I had to do my old drag/drop/copy thing,

Fortunately, the Pixel migration from that N6 was seamless......
 
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QWKSNKE

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Do it via your computer. I'm not a geek, but after my first 3-4 android phones I got the hang of it.

You need to backup apps that have that functionality (Big ones for me is my Apex Launcher and Folder Organizer). Then, connect to your computer and set aside a folder for what you want to bring to the new phone. Pull over the camera (DCIM) folder, your music etc, and the app backup files (Depending on the app these will be in a couple places. Folder Organizer makes its own folder while Apex was located in the Android/Data folder).

Get your new phone loaded with your apps, and backup those apps that have the functionality. Connect to the computer and overwrite the backups on the new phone with the files from the old one. With my Apex Launcher and Folder Organizer set up, my home screen comes up identical to my old phone. Some widgets have to be recreated though.

You also can bring over your photo and music folders.

As for the wallpaper, if you have the photo it'll be there ready to use. If it's in an app, well, that's easy enough as well.

Passwords? I use a password manager anyway which is net-based, and network settings are, thankfully, a one step process....

It is a pain, and I really loved the tap and go when it came. It worked on a couple of phone transfers (N6 warranty replacements). I got a final replacement N6 a few months ago, though, and tap and go failed on that one and I had to do my old drag/drop/copy thing,

Fortunately, the Pixel migration from that N6 was seamless......

I would like to know how you see the folders. When I attach my Nexus to a computer, I get nothing. Can't see any folder
 

gmermel

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I would like to know how you see the folders. When I attach my Nexus to a computer, I get nothing. Can't see any folder

PS:

I wonder if you could just drag and drop all of the folders rather than find the data files. For me, it would only accept some of the folders requiring I find some of the files. Maybe they've fixed the bugs. That'll make your life a lot easier.
 

stevekat

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OK, success. I waited and waited for the new Nexus 6 to get the OTA update to Android 7 Nougat to match my older Nexus 6. With both phones on the same version of Android, I factory reset the new Nexus 6 and used Tap and Go successfully. I had to initiate the transfer three of four times but then it worked. It is such a nice process when it works. I cannot imagine doing this manually. Home screens transferred, app groups, accounts, wifi networks and passwords, all apps, many logins for apps were remembered. I had to move my texts over with a program. I had dumped my photos recently onto my computer so had none to move.

I infer from this that both phones need to be on the same version of Android. I don't know if it has to be the same exact version or just the same major version. Also, both my phones were identical make and model (except the original is 32GB and the new 64GB.)

BTW, Google Play that manages the automated app downloads crashed part way through, but i just restarted and everything continued.

Hope this helps someone. Nowhere could I get this answer. Motorola knew nothing. My carrier knew nothing. The best tip I got from message boards, was that if it reported a failure at the very beginning of the process to try again a few times (not the message I got if the process went along a bit and then reported an error.)
 

jcperezma

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Just want to chime in for those that would run into the same problem in the future. After a day of trying different methods and failing. Updating Android to the same version as my old phone did the trick. It copied everything! Even my wallpaper! I also had the little problem that the screen on my old phone wasn't working at all, I couldn't see anything. Luckily I had the debugger mode already enabled on my old phone before it broke and I could use adb and Vysor to unlock my old phone and tap on a few things you have to tap on. Anyways, yes, you have to update Android on your new phone to the version of your old phone for the transfer to work flawlessly.
 

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