Smart Switch Details

[French]

I've never used Smart Switch and I've ALWAYS been very confused on the whole back up thing in the Android world. I have MyBackup Pro which backs up the apks and supposedly the data, however the last time I transferred to another phone I had to "ok" the installation of every single app individually, one-by-one, and even after spending the better part of an afternoon doing that very, very few of them had any data intact. It was a mess, to put it bluntly. I'd be better off doing a brand new install via Play Store and starting over from scratch.

Having said that, everyone seems to be talking up Smart Switch as if it would have a similar outcome to backing up and restoring on an iPhone. I guess I'm trying to get my head around what exactly will survive and what won't. For example, if I have an application that I have to log into, will my credentials come over? What about Bluetooth device setups? And wifi passwords?

I use Google for email and contacts so I'm not in need of transferring those since they should automatically come over when I log into Google.

What about my "find and replace" shortcut words? I feel like I ALWAYS have to recreate them from scratch and it doesn't matter if I'm using the Google keyboard or the Samsung keyboard.

I had planned to spend today cleaning up my S7 in the hopes of doing this Smart Switch, but I wish I understood better what exactly Smart Switch will do for me.

If this is already a point of discussion that I missed please feel free to point me in the right direction for that.

ETA: I'm also currently running a theme with some widgets and of course a specific icon layout including folders...do those make it through a "Smart Switch"?

 

[pjniez]

I too would like to know about Smart Switch from someone who has used it. Also, I wonder how successful it is in transferring everything? Will it actually transfer ALL of my text messages and call log? Or will it stop after reaching some limit like I have run into before with another app?

 

[tntiger]

I used it for my last upgrade (Galaxy S4 to S5) and it did a great job of transferring everything I wanted. I just ran it to transfer my S5 to my Note7 and it stalled after getting to 99%. I finally cancelled it and am trying again.

 

[tntiger]

I will add that I am not transferring pictures - those are all on my SD card which I backed up elsewhere. I will move the pictures onto my new SD card when I get it. I also used Google Photos to backup all of my pictures before I started any of this!

 

[French]

I used it for my last upgrade (Galaxy S4 to S5) and it did a great job of transferring everything I wanted. I just ran it to transfer my S5 to my Note7 and it stalled after getting to 99%. I finally cancelled it and am trying again.

So sorry to hear you are having to start over but PLEASE come back and update us! So excited...can't believe I can't touch my phone till tomorrow.

 

[tntiger]

It worked great! The first time I used the USB cable to connect the 2 phones and that's when it stalled. I did a Google search on this issue and several threads came up saying to try doing the transfer wirelessly . . . so I did and it worked. It was actually faster than I expected which was nice! So far, I've checked contacts, call and message history and they're all good. It also transferred my Wallpapers for Home and Lock Screens. It did not transfer my ringtone and message notification tones - I'm working on that now.

 

[thunderup]

Does it transfer MMS also or just SMS?

 

[anon(782252)]

Does it transfer MMS also or just SMS?

My 20,000 messages including MMS transferred just fine

 

[thunderup]

That's great to hear. Thank you!

 

[tntiger]

Both apparently!

 

[Jude526]

Did you use google first. Then the samsung smartswitch?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[erasat]

OP, you can use Smart switch and it will transfer the things posted above, but unless they have made a change to the app, the apps data won't transfer. If you must do this and get your apps data back I'd suggest you to download Helium and consider Helium Pro so you can do a Full back up of most (not all are possible due to devs restrictions) to the cloud and then when you have the new phone can restore to it.

 

[Android Optimizer]

It worked great! The first time I used the USB cable to connect the 2 phones and that's when it stalled. I did a Google search on this issue and several threads came up saying to try doing the transfer wirelessly . . . so I did and it worked. It was actually faster than I expected which was nice! So far, I've checked contacts, call and message history and they're all good. It also transferred my Wallpapers for Home and Lock Screens. It did not transfer my ringtone and message notification tones - I'm working on that now.

Its interesting to hear that you found wireless pretty fast. I would have expected a direct connection by wire to be both faster and more stable than transfer over wifi. Out of curiosity what was it transferring at the time of stall? (contacts, call and message history, wallpapers, home screen, lock screen, or something else). I'm wondering if people don't transfer what you were stalling on (lock screen for example) then maybe theirs will not stall by the wire method.

My 20,000 messages including MMS transferred just fine

I'm guess that might have taken awhile. Especially if you had a pictures in some of those messages.

 

[Iva_LadyDiCaprio98]

I've used Smart Switch for the first time when I upgraded my S5 to my current S7 Edge. One of the very few things I liked about iPhone was that you were able to transfer all your personal data - contacts, pictures, and most importantly, text messages. When I switched from iPhone to Samsung, I wasn't able to transfer over my text messages which really bothered me. When I got my S7 Edge, I thought I had to relive that disappointment, but luckily for me, I was able to transfer all of my text messages, apps, contacts, etc directly onto my new phone. As for apps, it didn't really bother me that I had to set up each one (meaning put in the passwords, etc) because it only took me all of five minutes. Smart Switch is a great tool for you to transfer personal data from one phone to the next. Granted, it did take quite a bit for it to do so, but in the end, the wait was well worth it!

 

[French]

Thank you for the replies. At this point I still don't know if I should skip Smart Switch and just start fresh...buy I'll check out Helium. Ibtj I got I was covered with MyBackup_Pro but the last phone change I made was a mess. It's great for preserving APKs that drop off the face of the earth but none of my data came over.

 

[ihbsbA]

My husband used it on his new phone last week. It set up the new device to exactly how the previous one was. However.! I like to start fresh, understand the new UI changes on the new phone and enjoy the novelty, so I do a fresh install with the previous phone sitting next to me. I almost feel like smart switch brings all the "junk" with it... This may not be true.

 

[French]

Well I just went through this and I’m still very frustrated with the whole back up and restore crap.

1) Themes - GONE. Not even showing up as having ever been installed or downloaded.

2) Credit and membership card info. in Samsung Pay…GONE. Have to start over from scratch. The credit card I get, but my membership cards would have been nice to have come over.

3) Personal Keyboard text shortcuts. GONE.

What the heck is the point of having the Samsung account for “syncing” only to have all this stuff need to be redone from scratch every time?

I haven’t even gotten into all the individual apps yet…I fully expect to have to deal with them on an as-needed basis.

I had to redo all my contact notification personalizations (sounds). Thankfully I don’t have many.

My account widget for my data usage is totally incorrect (probably more a verizon issue on that one).

My contacts came over via Google AND “phone” which really annoys me because I basically have “double” contacts now. I’m not sure how to clean that up.

I’m not convinced it saved me any time at all than doing it from scratch. Oh, wait...it did retain my folders/structure on my home screens…so that was nice. And it seems to have retained the few widgets I had.

Still, transitioning to a new device even with the same manufacturer is an all day affair!

 

[DudeThatsErin]

Did you use google first. Then the samsung smartswitch?

Posted via the Android Central App

I'm going to only use smart switch to prevent duplicates.