Question impossible to get a copy 1:1 of your ol Pixel into a new one

[mrblue]

Hello to everyone

I have just bought a google pixel 8 pro, and need of course to trasfer everything from my old pixel 4 pro. I followed the procedure wireless. When the copy process ended, i expected to open the new phone and find exactly my old one, but in a new hardware, the 8 pro. Unfortunately, and with my big surprise, that was not the case at all.

Data were all copied, sure, photos and apps mostly, but the lockscreen wallpaper, the desktop wallpaper, and in particular all the folders where i had organized around 150 apps were gone....asked the support, they said: you need to do it yourself.

What?! You pay 1179 pounds for the flagship device and you cant get a feature you have in apple since iphone 1? I remember well (i had it long time ago) in apple was enough to restore the backup and excactly the same phone appeared when you changed the phone.

Is there any android tech issues i ignore that impede google to fix this annoying issue?
I think is ridicolous that arrived in 2024 we still can't do it !

Thank you very much

 

[Bkdodger1]

I'm sorry to hear it.. just to confirm you are using the stock launcher?

 

[mrblue]

i dont know what is the stock launcher, i simply switched the phone on and followed its instructions, it works all wireless. Had anyone had my same experience or i did some mistakes?

 

[mustang7757]

Welcome to AC!
Same thing it for some reason doesn't transfer home screen set-up.
I've been talking about this not to long ago about Android manufacturers doing better job for restoring stuff like this , the only one I've seen do this great is Samsung.

 

[Bkdodger1]

Wow so it does not copy the Pixel launcher layout ? That's crazy

 

[mrblue]

this pixel launcher app can help in carrying your settings maybe? I can't understand why is not possible simply to load your old phone backup in one go like in IOS. Is simply a suboptimal setup than them that must be fixed!

 

[mrblue]

i simply followed the instructions i got when i switched on the pixel 8, not sure i used this launcher or not...it appeared a page asking me which files i wanted to copy and had to flag them, then gave the commnad to copy them

 

[mustang7757]

this pixel launcher app can help in carrying your settings maybe? I can't understand why is not possible simply to load your old phone backup in one go like in IOS. Is simply a suboptimal setup than them that must be fixed!

You can send feedback to Google through settings

 

[mrblue]

I have reset the phone and tried again the transfer, this time i have been asked to use the cable so i used it. When finished magically was all fine, so in some way the transfer worked. I am a bit surprised that the google support staff has no clue if the procedure is supposed to be working properly or not
the transfer is not really straightforward to be honest as many things must be reset. All the password and logins for example, and not all photos videos and podcasts are completely recovered. Generally speaking the result is ok but still far from being a smooth process

 

[VidJunky]

Unfortunately not all apples are created equal, well so to speak. Samsung has an app called Smart Switch which does a pretty good job of transferring most data including home screen layout and so on but it wasn't always that way. It was developed over time as they received feedback from users. If you want to see this in the furture send feedback about your experience. In the meantime let's not ignore the fact that you just jumped 4 devices form a 4 Pro to an 8 Pro. That's a lot of changes and some things may not transfer 1 for 1 when there's that much difference in devices.

You say the transfer process isn't that straightforward, does Pixel offer a stand alone app like Samsung's Smart Switch, for backing up and transferring files? If not there are other apps on the Play Store that offer or claim to transfer data between devices. You might try a third party app like that. Even so you can't overlook the 4 generation difference.

Best wishes.

 

[mustang7757]

I have reset the phone and tried again the transfer, this time i have been asked to use the cable so i used it. When finished magically was all fine, so in some way the transfer worked. I am a bit surprised that the google support staff has no clue if the procedure is supposed to be working properly or not
the transfer is not really straightforward to be honest as many things must be reset. All the password and logins for example, and not all photos videos and podcasts are completely recovered. Generally speaking the result is ok but still far from being a smooth process

Maybe cable was the best option than WiFi transfer, but still Android needs to get better on this .

 

[mrblue]

Actually, despite practically anything has been transferred, i noticed a small issue. I checked the storage usage in my old and new phone, and they are same except for the space taken by the apps. Apparently the main difference is whatsapp, where in my new pixel says it occupies 890 mega, while if i go in the whatsapp app itself (still in pixel 8) it says the space is 8.8 giga! And 8.8 should be, as that was the usage in the old phone. So i checked the whatsapp photo pholder for example and noticed is empty, meaning it actually hasnt transferred the whatsapp backup

 

[VidJunky]

It may be rounding in the one instance where it says 890. If it's >8.85 it might just be calling that 890 instead.

 

[mrblue]

It may be rounding in the one instance where it says 890. If it's >8.85 it might just be calling that 890 instead.

no is a substantial difference, in the app itself, whatsapp, it shows 8.8 GIGA, in the phone storage says whatsapp occupies 890 mega (0.89 Giga)

 

[mustang7757]

no is a substantial difference, in the app itself, whatsapp, it shows 8.8 GIGA, in the phone storage says whatsapp occupies 890 mega (0.89 Giga)

It shouldn't show up in internal phone storage as Whatsapp is back up In the cloud or used towards Google drive allowance.

Can u post a screenshot block any personal information?

 

[mrblue]

sure, here i attache the page og my apps storage of the old pixel 4, still showing all the user data still there, 11.67Giga. Then i attach the same page but in pixel 8, showing the whatsapp is large only 862 mega. Last, with my surprise, the whatsapp itself setting page where, according to it , the whatsapp space is still large 8.8 giga
Is very strange this difference among what is shown in the phone settings storage page and what is shown in whatsapp settings. I would have expected both to be very small, supporting the thesis that during the transfer i lost in some way the backup. But seeing 8.8giga in whatsapp creates a bit of confusion...