Transferring game saves from S7 to S9

[Danno81]

Hi everyone,

I'm having some very frustrating trouble trying to migrate my game saves from my old S7 to my new S9. There are many games I've been playing for the last 2 years and have significant progress in. They don't have their own cloud backups, so (like in PC, console or even the iPhone's backup and restore) I assumed you could transfer the game files but this seems to have been utterly prevented. I've tried the following, with the reason for failure:

- Samsung cloud backup: Failed because it only installs apps and not the save data
- Helium: Fails because I can't connect to it via the PC application. The phone app suggests I switch to PTP mode, and whenever I do this in the dev option, both the S7 and the S9 revert back to MTP immediately. It will not keep that change so I cannot use this app as it just sits attempting to connect.
- Moving game data across manually: Well, I just don't think I have the access to those files via the file explorer.
- Various other transfer apps: All fail to actually transfer anything other than a list of apps to install.

It seems there is no way I can see to transfer app data other than rooting the phone (which I do not want to do, and shouldn't really have to).

Is there any way to transfer app save data, or must I reset my gaming life every time I get a new phone? It seems to be unnecessarily hard

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Sweetelle]

Hi! I just got the S9 and was worried about the same problem! The guy(s) at AT&T were awesome and transferred all progress to the new phone.
However, I had to do a factory reset due to touchscreen issues, so I have now transferred everything back and lost my progress. I've been searching and have found nothing. I'm going to go back to AT&T tomorrow to see if they can re-do/show me how to transfer the progress and I will let you know if I get a positive answer for you.

 

[andrew_ackley]

Hi everyone,

I'm having some very frustrating trouble trying to migrate my game saves from my old S7 to my new S9. There are many games I've been playing for the last 2 years and have significant progress in. They don't have their own cloud backups, so (like in PC, console or even the iPhone's backup and restore) I assumed you could transfer the game files but this seems to have been utterly prevented. I've tried the following, with the reason for failure:

- Samsung cloud backup: Failed because it only installs apps and not the save data
- Helium: Fails because I can't connect to it via the PC application. The phone app suggests I switch to PTP mode, and whenever I do this in the dev option, both the S7 and the S9 revert back to MTP immediately. It will not keep that change so I cannot use this app as it just sits attempting to connect.
- Moving game data across manually: Well, I just don't think I have the access to those files via the file explorer.
- Various other transfer apps: All fail to actually transfer anything other than a list of apps to install.

It seems there is no way I can see to transfer app data other than rooting the phone (which I do not want to do, and shouldn't really have to).

Is there any way to transfer app save data, or must I reset my gaming life every time I get a new phone? It seems to be unnecessarily hard

Many thanks in advance.

Have you installed Google play games on the old phone to add them? I think most games sync that way. I know clash does. If I am signed in on the old phone it updates it and then when I sign in on the new one it asks me if I want to load the progress. If a game works with play games it should also support that.

 

[ABOSWORTH007]

I just upgraded from the S8+ to the S9+ and all my app data, including games, was saved. You should download Google Play Games and link them to the games you can. I also have my Drive account set to back up every night while I'm sleeping. Which games are you having trouble with, specifically? I thought I lost everything with Hillclimb 2, which I have a ton of progress on and would have been pissed if I lost everything but once I linked my Facebook account on the new phone, it remembered all of my progress.

There really does need to be a simpler way to accomplish this. I have gotten Helium to work in the past but only by connecting to PC. The only thing I miss about apple. Even 10 years ago on an iPhone you could plug it into the computer, do a quick back up of the phone and then plug the new phone in and restore the back up and you'd have everything just as it was on the old phone.

 

[jeetu4444]

yes Google play Games...I use it easy to have back up of games progress