Help restoring a Kies backup

[Serpico919]

Galaxy S7 finally completely crapped out (no longer operational) and I upgraded to S21. I ran a full backup of the S7 using Kies3 on my PC in July 2021 and was hoping to use that backup to restore my contacts to the S21.

I now understand Kies is discontinued and SmartSwitch is Samsung’s preferred backup/restore program.

Even though I still have Kies on my PC, when launched and phone is connected I get the pop up message “The connected device is supported through SmartSwitch, which is faster and more convenient” with ‘Confirm’ as my only option. Then disconnects the phone from the program.

Tried running SmartSwitch and direct it to the original Kies backup for the restore files. The only problem is that it was saved as a .bk file and not a file extension that SmartSwich recognizes, so I’m unable to launch the restore. The name of the Kies backup is actually SmartSwitchBackup.bk.

Any suggestions on how I can either force Kies to proceed with the backup without the pop up message That disconnects the phone or somehow convert that .bk file into a readable SmartSwitch file type so I can use SmartSwitch instead?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

(PS I also bought a junker G7 and tried the same process in case it was just the newer phones that wouldn’t work with Kies, but got the same pop up as the S21)

 

[Golfdriver97]

Galaxy S7 finally completely crapped out (no longer operational) and I upgraded to S21. I ran a full backup of the S7 using Kies3 on my PC in July 2021 and was hoping to use that backup to restore my contacts to the S21.

I now understand Kies is discontinued and SmartSwitch is Samsung’s preferred backup/restore program.

Even though I still have Kies on my PC, when launched and phone is connected I get the pop up message “The connected device is supported through SmartSwitch, which is faster and more convenient” with ‘Confirm’ as my only option. Then disconnects the phone from the program.

Tried running SmartSwitch and direct it to the original Kies backup for the restore files. The only problem is that it was saved as a .bk file and not a file extension that SmartSwich recognizes, so I’m unable to launch the restore. The name of the Kies backup is actually SmartSwitchBackup.bk.

Any suggestions on how I can either force Kies to proceed with the backup without the pop up message That disconnects the phone or somehow convert that .bk file into a readable SmartSwitch file type so I can use SmartSwitch instead?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

(PS I also bought a junker G7 and tried the same process in case it was just the newer phones that wouldn’t work with Kies, but got the same pop up as the S21)

I did some poking around, and I get the feeling that some of the data may be encrypted. A user seemed to have some luck here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/q-way-to-read-kies-bk-backup-files-on-computer.2327062/

However, that thread is now nearly 10 years old. I would still try the suggestion, but expect it to fail.

Tried running SmartSwitch and direct it to the original Kies backup for the restore files. The only problem is that it was saved as a .bk file and not a file extension that SmartSwich recognizes, so I’m unable to launch the restore. The name of the Kies backup is actually SmartSwitchBackup.bk.

Ugh. This seems so stupid for Samsung to overlook.