Help Migrating apps to a warranty replacement phone (resolved)

[wmm]

My power button finally got to the point that the phone was often unusable, so I called HTC support and got a warranty replacement. It arrived today, and I promptly flashed it up to FRF83 (I was running FRF72 on my old phone). Now I have a stupid question: how do I get all my applications back on the new phone?

I had thought that the market kept track of all the apps I had downloaded and would automatically reinstall them on a new phone. (I thought that's what the "Back up my data" setting under "Privacy settings" was for.) That appears not to be the case. When I started up the new phone and didn't have my applications, after the syncing circle disappeared from the status bar, I opened the market app and saw only my purchased applications listed. I went ahead and reinstalled those manually, but I have several dozen free apps that weren't there.

I backed up all the non-private apps using Astro, so I can reinstall those from the backup, one at a time (they don't appear in Astro's list of backed up applications, where I could select them all with one click -- instead, apparently, I have to click on them individually in the "backups" directory on /sdcard). However, experimentation shows that reinstalling them that way doesn't put them in the "downloads" list in the market up, which I presume means that I won't get upgrade notification when a newer version is posted.

Do I have to go through the list one at a time, searching in the market and downloading and installing them one-by-one? Is there a better way? (I still have the old phone for a day or two before I send it back, and it is operable, if I'm willing to hit the power button a dozen or two times to get it to turn on.)

Thanks for any help.

 

[daffyduck]

My power button finally got to the point that the phone was often unusable, so I called HTC support and got a warranty replacement. It arrived today, and I promptly flashed it up to FRF83 (I was running FRF72 on my old phone). Now I have a stupid question: how do I get all my applications back on the new phone?

I had thought that the market kept track of all the apps I had downloaded and would automatically reinstall them on a new phone. (I thought that's what the "Back up my data" setting under "Privacy settings" was for.) That appears not to be the case. When I started up the new phone and didn't have my applications, after the syncing circle disappeared from the status bar, I opened the market app and saw only my purchased applications listed. I went ahead and reinstalled those manually, but I have several dozen free apps that weren't there.

I backed up all the non-private apps using Astro, so I can reinstall those from the backup, one at a time (they don't appear in Astro's list of backed up applications, where I could select them all with one click -- instead, apparently, I have to click on them individually in the "backups" directory on /sdcard). However, experimentation shows that reinstalling them that way doesn't put them in the "downloads" list in the market up, which I presume means that I won't get upgrade notification when a newer version is posted.

Do I have to go through the list one at a time, searching in the market and downloading and installing them one-by-one? Is there a better way? (I still have the old phone for a day or two before I send it back, and it is operable, if I'm willing to hit the power button a dozen or two times to get it to turn on.)

Thanks for any help.

If you are rooted, you can use Titanium Backup, which will put the links back to the Market......

If not, you are stuffed and stuck with the other option.

Your only other hope is to rely on the automatic Google backup of your phone settings (this should work OK - does for me with Custom ROMS...)

 

[wmm]

If you are rooted, you can use Titanium Backup, which will put the links back to the Market......

If not, you are stuffed and stuck with the other option.

Your only other hope is to rely on the automatic Google backup of your phone settings (this should work OK - does for me with Custom ROMS...)

I'm not rooted. I didn't understand what you meant about "rely on the automatic Google backup of your phone settings". I thought that's what I was doing, and nothing was restored. Do I need to wait for overnight, or did it just not work for me, or is there something I need to do to kick off the restore?

Thanks for your help.

 

[MartinS]

Yep, just for purchased apps I'm afraid. Which at least saves your money. Other than that it's impossible to remember all of the free ones.

 

[BiGMERF]

seems like you only option is to do it one by one. or use the app area here type in the app and scan the barcodes

 

[Rusty]

Apps are tied to the account, not the phone. They'll automatically reinstall on the new phone.

 

[wmm]

Apps are tied to the account, not the phone. They'll automatically reinstall on the new phone.

When? They haven't in the three hours or so that I've had it (except for the paid ones, which at least showed up in the "downloads" list, but I went ahead and manually installed those).

 

[wmm]

Well, it's a moot point now. I've gone through the list of apps from my old phone and reinstalled all the ones I still wanted on my new phone. I still have to go through and configure all of the apps the way I want them, but I guess that's just the way things are. It would be nice if Google had made it easier; oh, well...

 

[Hegemony]

Apps do come back, but it's an imperfect process. You have to log in and then set the phone down. Opening the Market (and a few other things) will interrupt the process. Sometimes it just won't work. You can do a hard reset to try again if it's a fresh phone.

 

[daffyduck]

Apps DO get downloaded automatically if you switch phones or factory reset, as they are tied to the Google Account that you have, not the phone.

The best way to manage the process is this.....

When you start the phone for the first time (or when flashing / resetting your phone), after you have entered your google account username and password, the home page of the phone will present itself.

NOW, turn on your wifi connection & let it synchronise - the apps will not download immediately but will start after a few minutes. If you go into the phone launcher (where you see your list of apps) & keep the phone out of standby, you will see all the apps download 1 by 1 and appear on the launcher.

It can take 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how many apps you have.

I wait until the wifi activity on the router goes quiet without any other activity happening - hey presto, you have your apps.

This worked for me 100% last night......

 

[wmm]

I guess I was just too impatient, then; I waited a while and didn't see any activity, so I assumed it wasn't going to happen. If I have to move to a new phone again in the future, I'll give it longer next time. Thanks for the reply.

 

[ScottCh]

Thanks DaffyDuck. I got my replacement N1 set up with Froyo this afternoon, and was looking everywhere on the device for something that said how to restore my apps and other settings. I blew it from the outset by skipping the introductory configuration process. Fortunately, it was just a factory reset away. Now it's busy downloading all of my apps (and feeling quite warm). A great time saver!

Scott C.