Best Backup to Transfer to New Phone

[lawnboy]

Getting a replace Incredible this week and wondering the best way to backup my Contacts? Will the apps have to be individually reinstalled?

Was looking at the SMS Backup and Restore app.

 

[kejlyCZ]

Contacts can be synchronized with GMail and will be imported automatically.
For SMS I use "SMS Backup & Restore" app and it works perfectly, application can be saved with "APKoptic" (just unprotected apps) or "Titanium Backup" (Titanium is just for rooted phones).

 

[ACD168]

just make sure u have ur contacts backuped and synced with your gmail account, all your contacts, SMS, all that will be ynced with the gmail... for apps.. people love titanium.. I use astro file manager. it is a must/

 

[lawnboy]

So everything should already be backed up by default in Gmail right, s no need for SMS Backup and Restore or what purpose would that serve.

APKoptic (non rooted here) should take care of the apps then.

Contacts can be synchronized with GMail and will be imported automatically.
For SMS I use "SMS Backup & Restore" app and it works perfectly, application can be saved with "APKoptic" (just unprotected apps) or "Titanium Backup" (Titanium is just for rooted phones).

 

[Podivin]

Google only backs up your contacts and your email is stored on their server (unless you've deleted it). SMS messages are not backed up by Google, if you want to transfer them to the new phone then you'll need SMS Backup and Restore (or something comparable).

Along with the methods of backing up apps mentioned above, I'm also a fan of AppBrain. It doesn't actually backup your apps, but it makes it easy to reinstall them on your new phone.

 

[lawnboy]

Thanks for the suggestions; how does APKoptic compare with AppBrain?

Google only backs up your contacts and your email is stored on their server (unless you've deleted it). SMS messages are not backed up by Google, if you want to transfer them to the new phone then you'll need SMS Backup and Restore (or something comparable).

Along with the methods of backing up apps mentioned above, I'm also a fan of AppBrain. It doesn't actually backup your apps, but it makes it easy to reinstall them on your new phone.

 

[laurel25]

Also remember that Gmail only backs up your contacts that are stored as Google contacts on the phone. Any Phone type contacts will not be backed up to Gmail. To see if you have any of your contacts stored as Phone contacts, go into People, then Menu > View and you can see how many of each type you have. You can always export your contacts to your SD card and then reimport them later.

 

[Podivin]

I've not used APKoptic, so I can't comment on it's usefulness (or possibly, lack of).

 

[lawnboy]

For those that have used APKoptic and AppBrain, how do the two compare?

 

[lawnboy]

Not sure how or why I set it up this way, but looks like half are under good and half are on the phone. Is there an easy way to change the ones on the phone to be on Google?

Also remember that Gmail only backs up your contacts that are stored as Google contacts on the phone. Any Phone type contacts will not be backed up to Gmail. To see if you have any of your contacts stored as Phone contacts, go into People, then Menu > View and you can see how many of each type you have. You can always export your contacts to your SD card and then reimport them later.

 

[gushchin]

Getting a replace Incredible this week and wondering the best way to backup my Contacts? Will the apps have to be individually reinstalled?

Was looking at the SMS Backup and Restore app.

You could also try SMS Backup Android. There are instructions on the site on how to backup and restore the SMS from SD Card or Gmail:

SMS Backup Gmail SMS Backup Android
SD Card Backup SMS Backup Android

 

[actofgod]

Not sure how or why I set it up this way, but looks like half are under good and half are on the phone. Is there an easy way to change the ones on the phone to be on Google?

Interested in an answer to this, I always set my contacts under phone when I put new numbers in. I had no idea.

 

[Reverence]

Interested in an answer to this, I always set my contacts under phone when I put new numbers in. I had no idea.

I did this a few times too. Unfortunately since there are different fields for a Google contact and a phone contact, I don't think you can easily change them while using the phone. I think your best bet would be to sync all of your contacts through Verizon ActiveSync, then go on the website and export your contact list, and then import that Verizon Contact list into your Google contacts and see how that works for you.

 

[lawnboy]

Agree! Trying to avoid having to manually reenter the ones logged under the phone.

Interested in an answer to this, I always set my contacts under phone when I put new numbers in. I had no idea.

 

[laurel25]

Not sure how or why I set it up this way, but looks like half are under good and half are on the phone. Is there an easy way to change the ones on the phone to be on Google?

You could try exporting your contacts to your SD card, then importing them into Gmail. The ones that are duplicates (so in theory they would be the ones that are Google type contacts in your phone) will already be there, so the rest (Phone contacts) should be imported in. Then the next time your phone book syncs to Gmail you should have all your contacts as Google contacts. Then you can switch the contacts view to "Phone" and just delete those since there will probably be duplicates now (records which are in as a Google contact and as a Phone contact). I would try it with just one or two first though (manually add them in Gmail) and sync to see what happens before you do all of them and delete the Phone contacts.

 

[Legobricke]

Doesn't Verizon have Backup Asstistant?

I have this on my Dinc and have had to hard reset twice.

Backup Asstistant drops them right back onto my phone with no issues.

Lego

 

[lawnboy]

Does that reinstall just the program, but you have to still configure it again? For example, with Maildroid, does it just reinstall the app or also reconfigure your email account automatically?

Doesn't Verizon have Backup Asstistant?

I have this on my Dinc and have had to hard reset twice.

Backup Asstistant drops them right back onto my phone with no issues.

Lego

 

[laurel25]

Doesn't Verizon have Backup Asstistant?

I have this on my Dinc and have had to hard reset twice.

Backup Asstistant drops them right back onto my phone with no issues.

Lego

I have never been able to get Backup Assistant to work properly on my DInc and when I asked Verizon tech support about it a few months back the guy I was talking to said that was really common for some reason.

 

[mauiblue]

Google makes it so easy to backup/restore my contacts. As for my SMS/MMS messages, I am using Handcent's paid service to backup/restore my messages.

 

[Mtea]

For SMS transfer, I use SMS Backup and Restore.

 

[Tigger 1]

I show 2 contacts on phone how do I figure out what they are?