Getting New Device: Will Apps Re Download?

[o_swas]

Hello,

My wife has the Epic 4G while I have an Evo 4G. We have the insurance plan on both of our phones.

Recently the space bar on the Epic's physical keyboard broke. It is still useable, but it doesn't work as well as it should. I took it to the local Sprint store that happens to have a tech center; they looked at it, said they could fix it, and that I could pick it up in an hour.

I returned only to have them tell me that instead of fixing it, they were ordering a replacement phone as part of the insurance plan. That's OK, except my wife won't be happy about having to set up the new phone the way she had the old phone.

One of the Sprint employees insisted that when we get the new device and log in with the wife's Gmail account, all of the apps that she had previously downloaded would be re-downloaded, including all of the free apps (I think she has only downloaded free apps).

My question: Is this true? When we get the new device, will the apps re-download after logging in with her Gmail account? I'm not so sure the person knew what she was talking about as I haven't heard that before.

Can anybody in the know please clarify? Any other suggestions to make moving to a replacement device as painless as possible?

Thank you!!!


-Ryan

 

[zak]

while I've never done it, from my understanding that is how it should work.

 

[RBrown9180]

No they will not. You will have to DL them again. I have had to do it 3 times before. Get appmonster from the market. Backup all your apps with that. Put your old sd card in your new phone. DL app monster on the new phone and then you can pull all the apps off the sd card. Much easier than searching for each one individually

 

[Paul627g]

The only apps that will show up in the Market to redownload is apps you purchased. Otherwise its up to you to retrieve your old apps by one of the mentioned methods or other means.

 

[king5697#CB]

Google needs to do something about that.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Google needs to do something about that.

ditto, webOS would grab all the market apps, well queue them for download at least.

 

[ArcherBrianJames]

The Amazon App Store keeps record of all your apps you downloaded even if you uninstall them. Market place does need something like that because it truly is a pain to set up your phone exactly like it was to begin with.

You should however download an app called Astro File Manager and backup all your apps on there. It saves it to your micro sd card and you can then put them back on your phone. The only downside with that method is in order to receive updates to the apps you backed up you will need to "re-download" them in the app market. And who doesn't love updates. Either way. Pain.

Or just root it and save the whole set up

 

[Paul627g]

Well Google did do something about it but for some reason discontinued it before it was put into official release.

When we had the "leaked" DK28 Froyo, there was an automatic backup and restore feature added to the ROM. When you went through your initial boot up sequence using the Android Setup Wizard (part where you enter your GMail account/password on first boot) afterward it would ask you permission to save/restore your previous apps/settings. It was actually an added application which they removed for official Froyo release and nobody was able to successfully get it working on official builds.

So it Google did have it working on first boot and from there it saved your downloaded/installed apps and user settings and whenever you did a factory reset or flashed a different DK28 Froyo ROM it would would redownload and install all you previous apps/settings after you went through the initial boot up. Why Google removed it from official build I'm not sure. It does still function on CM7 for the Epic.

 

[hofs1]

You can also go to market on pc......login and view current apps loaded on your device then you can click on each one and select install then pick your new device....i found it easier that way when i lost my entire device.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Appbrain will also remember apps you had on a device before you hard reset. Thats if you had the app synced prior to the wipe. LOL
I use that and MyBackUP Pro to back up MMS, SMS, call logs, valendar events, contacts and book marks. Then restore then after my hard reset.

 

[Mike77]

Appbrain will also remember apps you had on a device before you hard reset. Thats if you had the app synced prior to the wipe. LOL
I use that and MyBackUP Pro to back up MMS, SMS, call logs, valendar events, contacts and book marks. Then restore then after my hard reset.

App Brain with Fast web installer is the way to go.