Best way to transfer contacts, pics, text, etc. from Verizon S3 to S5

[BrickAlley]

After receiving a new Galaxy S5 from Verizon via Fedex today to replace my old Verizon S3 I'm trying to figure out the best way to move my content over. Big red suggests using their Cloud backup app, but I've watched some videos of people touting the Smart Switch Mobile app.

I spotted a WiFi File Transfer app that is supposed to move phone data very fast provided you have a good internet connection.

Can I get some helpful opinions on the best way?

Thanks in advance!

 

[B. Diddy]

You could probably just use Kies: How do I Transfer Content between two Samsung devices using Kies 2.6? : Cell Phones | Samsung

 

[ABOSWORTH007]

As Diddy said, you can use Kies for most of the stuff but it will not transfer application data, which totally sucks. If you don't care about app data, you can stop reading my post now. LOL

If you want to transfer application data (so you don't lose progress in games and won't have to set up all your accounts and what not), I would suggest Helium back up. It will work if you're not rooted, though it requires you to enable USB debugging and you have to plug it in through the computer. I just did a factory reset on my S5 a couple weeks ago and used Helium and it backed everything up perfectly. It works very well. Download the app from the playstore and then the program for your computer and follow the instructions. It's easy enough.

 

[BrickAlley]

Helium was already installed on my computer, but I'd forgotten.
It looks like I may be purchasing the paid version since I backed all of my apps up to the cloud. I just cannot depend on my SD card to stay connected through such a long process on the S3.

Maybe there's a way to pull the saved data from the cloud over to my SD card while it is connected to my pc? Then restore the backup from the SD card to the new S5 phone. Hmmm, I have no idea how the data is saved, but it's worth a look at the very least. Does anyone have any experience to share?

 

[jemalone]

Samsung smart switch mobile, a Samsung app works great for copying over stuff from old phone to new phone. If you have your contacts all set to sync to gmail then they will be brought over when you put you google account info on the new phone.