[Q] Advice for switching from Windows Mobile to Android? - General Questions and Answers

I am well aware that none of my apps will be portable unless somebody made an Android version that I can re-download, and that I obviously cannot carry over any of my settings either.... but does anyone have any suggestions on what would be the best way to port over contacts, documents (and convert them into whatever Android uses for it's equivalent of Office, if necessary) and other such data if one wants to make the switch from Windows Mobile to android? Either re-flashing their phone to run Android or just buying a new Android phone?

Embracing the Google account is the best thing. Adding everything to the 'cloud' gives you a permanent storage solution with the benefit of being able to sync it all to your device when you need it.
Contacts to Gmail Contacts
Pictures to Picasa
Documents and random files to Google Docs
Calender to Google Calender
..and so on.
What apps are you looking for Android versions of?

Sorry for taking a while to reply.
So then how would I go the Google route? Its a shame I will lose my call and IM logs but its not like I would expect such data to work between different operating systems.
Photos aren't an issue since I store those on MicroSDHC, I mostly cared about all my contact information and switching my MS Office Mobile formatted documents to whatever Android uses in it's place, even though those are on MicroSD too. The only real data I keep on the phone itself is installed apps and contacts.
And don't worry about my apps, at this point there really isn't any Windows Mobile app I care about anymore.

Just create a Google account and sign into that account on your Android phone. If you've added your contacts through the contacts section in Gmail they will automatically be synced to your phone.
Any settings, browser bookmarks etc, on your phone will sync and be backed up to your Google account.

The contacts were all added through my phone or though backups apps, none were added through Google, will it still back them all up?

Related

[Q] Moving to Android from Symbian

Hello,
I'm happy to finally have true Android phone in my hands. HTC Desire. It's so amazing, those possibilities are so large and the quality is great.
Previously I was using Nokia e50 - symbian based phone. I want to move all my contacts, all my messages (2k), notes, calendar notes and reminds, photos and videos. Is it possible to synchronise in one or another way those two phones?
It may sound convoluted and there may be better ways that i'm not thinking of but.... i would set up your Google account on your PC and move everything you can from your Symbian to the 'cloud'. Contacts can be added through Gmail, Calender entries moved accross to the online Google Calender, pics uploaded to Picasa...so on and so forth. You can 'Favourite' your Youtube vids from your PC and access them from your phone.
A lot of this may have to be done manually but worth it in the end. Once it's done just sign-in to your Google account on the Desire and everything will sync from Cloud to phone. You may have to find an app to transfer your Browser bookmarks, although the Chrome To Phone extension could help make the task easier. Once you've added them once onto the phone they'll be synced and backed up to your Google account.
Endless possibilities, especially once you've discovered how the App Market gives you access to everything you might ever need. Then there's the fun part, rooting and customizing your phone.
Btw, Video, and possibly Notes, can go to Google Docs although moving messages will probably need an app. From the Market..
Symbian is sucks ;-)
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Okay, thank you! I'm done with contacts, it works fine now, they are succesfully moved from Symbian to Android. But how to move sms?
http://www.simail.si/nokia2androidsms/
the best way for sms! (I have tried many ways...)
I am looking for a way for notes and agenda now..
Anyone know how to syncronize the agenda birthdays from symbian (Nokia N79) to Android?

WM user looking at Android - some feedback pls ?

Hi,
Just as the title says, I am a very long time (since 2002) WM user. My current phone is also a WM device. I will keep it for another year, and I want to be prepared once my phone is due for an upgrade.
I use the phone both for personal stuff and for work - mainly scheduling, working with project related info, task lists, excel spreadsheets etc. Ability to share PIM data and files across multiple computers at work and at home is essential, as well as syncing to online calendar (I use Google).
Most of my work and some personal info was in ListPro database files and Excel spreadsheets. However, ListPro doesn't really work well when one has to joggle info between different computers all running different OS, plus AFAIK there's no Androind app yet. Anyway, to make life simple, and to be able to bring my data with me on a USB stick to any computer, I recently migrated most of it out of ListPro files into DOC files (can be easily converted to RTF) and Excel spreadsheets. So far, I had no problems using it on any Windows or Linux system. I also sync much of this data to my phone where I can quickly access it via Pocket Office. I prefer to use formatted text as it makes it easy to work with information, and applying formatting in Pocket Word is fast.
Finally the next big thing is information backup, especially PIM data. Don't know if this problem is specific to ActiveSync on WM, but every now and then the calendar gets completely out of whack and needs to be restored from backup which I run daily on the phone.
Anyway, sorry for the long winged intro. Here are some questions:
How easy is it to sync files on an Android phone to a computer via a direct connection (USB / BT / WiFi, i.e. not via cloud) ?
I was looking online for a good free Android editor capable of working with either RTF or Word Doc files, and couldn't find any - all I found was some paid soft. It has to be one of these formats so that I could send files to other people. Can you recommend an app ?
Can you work with PIM data on Android phone offline ? (I assume yes). Does it have to be connected to the internet at all time ? (I assume not)
Is there a free Excel compatible application other than Google Docs ? I.e. an app that can work with native Excel files and would output a file that Excel users can open on the computer.
How does backup work on Android - is there a way to automatically backup Google Calendar, Contacts, ToDos ? (I know I can download ICS files manually).
Any other things I may have overlooked ?
Thanks !
1. It is quite easy to sync files between an android phone and pc. It depends on your phone brand.e.g. - If you have an HTC Android phone, you could simply download and install HTC Sync on your pc and easily sync anything.
2. For document editing and excel format dealings, you could download and install quickoffice pro to easily deal with word, excel, powerpoint, and pdf documents.
3. Accounts and syncs (online) can easily be set to run in the background and you can download backup applications.
Good luck.
Your PIM data is backed up to Google contacts and calendar automatically. Any change made on your phone or PC syncs to the other next time you connect. As far as backups go, you can use things like Titanium Backup to back up individual/all system apps, installed apps, and their data to either the local SD card, online to DropBox, or both. And, if you root, you can take backup snapshots of your entire system and restore your entire OS and all the configuration of installed apps and widgets in just a couple of minutes. I do the full app backup nightly and the full OS backup about once a week.
Syncing is easy as your computer mounts the SD card as a drive letter on your device. There are lots of sync options out there that can be used to automatically sync files or entire folders to removable drives when they are connected. You can use them to sync documents to and from as well as things like syncing your phone backups to the computer. Both HTC and Motorola have sync software as well that acts somewhat like iTunes or Windows Media Player in syncing things like music libraries to your device. Personally, I prefer the old file explorer method.
As far as your RTF and Excel files go, there are a couple of different apps out there that work with Google Docs. If you don't want to sync with Google Docs at all or use their editors, your best bet is one of the office suite packages. I know of three or four of them that are available. Some offer free readers, but you need to purchase the pro version to edit. There is an Excel editor that I saw that was only $2 though, so there ARE cheap options out there if you don't want to go the free Google Docs route. Personally, I just sync my docs folder on my laptop with Google Docs and do any small edits I need on the Android using Google Docs. If I want to do a lot of heavy editing, I use the big screen of the laptop anyway.
If you have any other questions, I'll be following this thread and will respond with whatever I know. I know the stress of deciding to move to another platform. I've been on Palm, Blackberry, WM, iOS, and now Android. And, I have to tell you, I like the Android best of all and can't think of a single thing that I used to do on those other devices that I cannot do on this one.
Thanks, guys !
The reason I don't like using Google Docs is twofold. First, and foremost, the access to GD service via our corporate internet is blocked. I work for a major corporation, and as far as I know, at least two of our biggest competiors block GD as well. (We at least can access gmail and calendar). They see it as a potential security issue. Actually for me it's a security issue as well - if anyone ever got hold of my Google password, I definitely don't want them browsing through some of my personal spreadsheets, or any of my work-related stuff. It may be ok for them to see the list of invites to my kids' party, but definitely not my 401K rebalancing sheet . I do use Docs as dropbox, but I upload excel files saved inside AES encrypted zip archive.
Second, I need Doc and Excel since many of my work docs get shared with other people, and I like to be able to email them right away in a useful format.
Thanks ! I will keep reading up on the subject. My wife does have an Android phone but I don't have time to play with it at home.
Added: another thing that bugs me about Android, is that whomever steals your phone has full access to all of your Google services. The way it works on WM, they would only be able to see a few days' worth of emails (I do not save passwords to sensitive sites in browser cookies). The way Android phone is fully integrated into online Google, however, makes it a perfect key to all your Google data. I password protected her phone but I don't put too much trust into a 4-digit PIN.

From iPhone 5 to Nexus 5? Help please

Hello,
I have been using an iPhone 5 for the last year. I have enjoyed the phone but now I think I am ready to return to a Nexus.
I say return because before the iPhone I had a Galaxy Nexus.
I was set on swapping my iPhone 5 for a 5s, but the sensors issue has placed my purchase of the iPhone on hold and during this time I have became increasingly excited with the Nexus 5.
Since I have been using the iPhone for so long, I have a ton of stuff that I need to move to the Nexus 5, and this is why I am writing this post.
Since you all here know much more about android than I do, I am hoping for some guidance on my doubts about migrating from the iPhone to the Nexus.
Here is what I need. Can you please tell me if it is possible and how to do it?
Photos and videos - I have more than 2000 pictures on the iPhone camera roll and 30 videos I took over this past year.
They are stored in the camera roll. No albums and no folders. They are sorted by date taken and are all geo-tagged.
I would need the same on the nexus. All this directly in the camera roll and the geo-tagged preserved. New pictures taken with the nexus would add to these ones. Say if my last image is IMG_2000.jpg, the first taken with the Nexus should be IMG_2001.jpg
Call Log - For work related reasons, I would need to preserve my call log on the nexus and have the calls on the nexus add to the existing log.
SMS Messages - The same. I would need to import all my threaded messages from the iPhone to the Nexus and have them associated with the same contacts so that they would proceed from there.
Contacts and calendar - I Have it on iCloud. I guess I would have to export from iCloud to Google and then sync Google with the Nexus.
Mail - I have a gmail account. No problems there. I also have an iCloud account. They are both synced to the IOS mail app at the same time.
Can I sync both accounts to the NExus gmail app?
Whatsapp - I need to have the chats from whatsapp. Maybe export them from IOS and Import them to Android?
Real Racing 3 - I have quite a good career on RR3. Can I back it up and restore it to Android?
Angry Birds Star wars - Same. Have completed all levels and am 3 starring them. WOuld like to continue on the nexus and not have to start over.
That is it basically. If I was to get an iPhone 5s, I would use iTunes to backup my 5, and then restore to the 5s and would have all I stated above on the new phone.
Can I do it from the iPhone to Nexus?
I would really like to try a Nexus, but I am so deep with the iPhone after a year that if I can't move some stuff, it will be a deal breaker unfortunately.
Hope you can help me out.
Thank you.
Regards!
What a stupid pretension.............save your contacts and your photos and music on your pc and forget all.
Apple, what are you doing with your users brain?
Here's a basic guide. Might not have all you want to do, but it looks like it covers the core stuff.
jlmcr87 said:
What a stupid pretension.............save your contacts and your photos and music on your pc and forget all.
Apple, what are you doing with your users brain?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is it a stupid pretension to want to preserve my data and digital history?
Johmama said:
Here's a basic guide. Might not have all you want to do, but it looks like it covers the core stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you.
I will look into it.
gdourado said:
Why is it a stupid pretension to want to preserve my data and digital history?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The best of your post is:
Angry Birds Star wars - Same. Have completed all levels and am 3 starring them. WOuld like to continue on the nexus and not have to start over.
Note: Don´t lose your time in this things, better to start over.
jlmcr87 said:
The best of your post is:
Angry Birds Star wars - Same. Have completed all levels and am 3 starring them. WOuld like to continue on the nexus and not have to start over.
Note: Don´t lose your time in this things, better to start over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
I agree. The games are the least important if course. They are time wasters that is true, but the rest like the logs and SMS messages are really inportant to me.
Cheers!
I'm not sure if this would do you any good, but I moved from iPhone to my One this year and wanted to preserve many of the things you were concerned about as well. The nice part was that HTC sync manager software is able to read iPhone backup files (make sure they're not encrypted) and restored all of my texts, call history, contacts, and pictures rather painlessly. Well the texts took a couple attempts to get through all 75000 of them but it did eventually
There's really no hope of 99% of apps transferring data over though because they're fundamentally different on Android and ios. Even games that use cloud saves can't do this (angry birds, csr racing, etc). Also your saves are linked to an ios or Google account which are obviously not connected.
Now of course the catch to all this is I have no idea if this software would work with a non-htc phone, but just the fact that they can read ios saves means that it is possible to do, whether by sync manager or another program. Sorry I couldn't help more, just thought I'd put this out there.
Good luck!
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
gdourado said:
Say if my last image is IMG_2000.jpg, the first taken with the Nexus should be IMG_2001.jpg
Contacts and calendar - I Have it on iCloud. I guess I would have to export from iCloud to Google and then sync Google with the Nexus.
Mail - I have a gmail account. No problems there. I also have an iCloud account. They are both synced to the IOS mail app at the same time.
Can I sync both accounts to the NExus gmail app?
Real Racing 3 - I have quite a good career on RR3. Can I back it up and restore it to Android?
Angry Birds Star wars - Same. Have completed all levels and am 3 starring them. WOuld like to continue on the nexus and not have to start over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On Android, the photos taken uses the date and time as the file name, the Gallery app can group images base on the time line or you can use some PC photo application to sort it the way you want. Geotag information are embedded in the JPEG so as long as you don't alter it, it's still there, just copy it over to the Nexus.
iPhone should have some way to sync your contact or export them to Google, then you just log into Google on your Android device and it'll auto sync your contacts. I don't think there is such thing as iCloud syncing on Android, that is an Apple exclusive service.
As for games, Google is working on introducing Google Play Games services on iOS, this is a cloud service to sync savegames and etc in between devices, Apple only have to be willing to work with Google to introduce this to iOS, however, I think Apple have their own competing similar service. There is a Google developer page on this so I think it will come to iOS someday.
My recommendation is stay with Apple if you required complete interoperability by Google, Apple make it difficult to transfer data from and to other platforms for a reason.
Xerro-Five said:
I'm not sure if this would do you any good, but I moved from iPhone to my One this year and wanted to preserve many of the things you were concerned about as well. The nice part was that HTC sync manager software is able to read iPhone backup files (make sure they're not encrypted) and restored all of my texts, call history, contacts, and pictures rather painlessly. Well the texts took a couple attempts to get through all 75000 of them but it did eventually
There's really no hope of 99% of apps transferring data over though because they're fundamentally different on Android and ios. Even games that use cloud saves can't do this (angry birds, csr racing, etc). Also your saves are linked to an ios or Google account which are obviously not connected.
Now of course the catch to all this is I have no idea if this software would work with a non-htc phone, but just the fact that they can read ios saves means that it is possible to do, whether by sync manager or another program. Sorry I couldn't help more, just thought I'd put this out there.
Good luck!
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to write this up.
The call history and texts are a plus!
Also, when you used that software to transfer the images, did they go straight to the camera roll and were sorted by date taken?
Cheers!
I would like to apologize for the rude and pretentious android users, you had genuine questions and they jumped on you unfairly, I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities (for the record I have had a many nexus devices and also an iPhone 5S/5).
gdourado said:
Photos and videos - I have more than 2000 pictures on the iPhone camera roll and 30 videos I took over this past year.
They are stored in the camera roll. No albums and no folders. They are sorted by date taken and are all geo-tagged.
I would need the same on the nexus. All this directly in the camera roll and the geo-tagged preserved. New pictures taken with the nexus would add to these ones. Say if my last image is IMG_2000.jpg, the first taken with the Nexus should be IMG_2001.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These pictures should be easily converted over, just see if you can dump them on one of your laptops and store them in the pictures folder of your nexus once you have it connected to your computer, make sure none of your pictures are overwritten when you take new ones and you should be okay.
gdourado said:
Call Log - For work related reasons, I would need to preserve my call log on the nexus and have the calls on the nexus add to the existing log.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish there was something I could help you with on this, unfortunately I don't believe there is a backup and restore option for the call logs on iPhone, I know you can simply do this with a backup and restore with Titanium Backup on Android.
gdourado said:
SMS Messages - The same. I would need to import all my threaded messages from the iPhone to the Nexus and have them associated with the same contacts so that they would proceed from there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again, no such app exists on the official iOS market place for backups and restores, you would need to think about jailbreaking your phone in order to see if you could back these up.
gdourado said:
Contacts and calendar - I Have it on iCloud. I guess I would have to export from iCloud to Google and then sync Google with the Nexus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Spend a day on google and import your contacts and calender to the google contacts and calender, this will make sure you can access everything from just about everywhere, its easy to set up and it will transfer from phone to phone.
gdourado said:
Mail - I have a gmail account. No problems there. I also have an iCloud account. They are both synced to the IOS mail app at the same time.
Can I sync both accounts to the NExus gmail app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cant sync the iCloud account, not really sure what that means though, since you have Gmail you have all your email at your fingertips on the Nexus anyways.
gdourado said:
Whatsapp - I need to have the chats from whatsapp. Maybe export them from IOS and Import them to Android?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Again this may require a jailbreak in order to get the information you need, unless it officially supports it in the app itself.
gdourado said:
Real Racing 3 - I have quite a good career on RR3. Can I back it up and restore it to Android?
Angry Birds Star wars - Same. Have completed all levels and am 3 starring them. WOuld like to continue on the nexus and not have to start over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately you are going to lose your stats on games, unless you jailbreak and see that the save file is exactly the same as the android version of the save file.
I hope I was able to help a little bit, I would suggest jailbreaking your iPhone and seeing if you can get a usable backup from the device and go from there, I think you will enjoy the Nexus even though the OS has it's own limitations, you wont have to worry about jailbreaking your device on Android and you will get extra functionality that you will definitely miss on your iPhone. Spend the time to learn the ins and outs on your limitations and you should be set!
I'm on the same position . Thinking to sell iPhone 5 and get Nexus 5, and I don't give a .... about SMS or call logs, games history etc.
Hi,
Thank you all for taking the time to post your thoughts and comments.
Based on what you said, I did some research online and came to the following conclusions:
- It seems that there are software apps than can read into a full iTunes iPhone backup and extract some information.
With that kind of software, I can access the SMS messages and call logs and then transfer them to Android.
So, SMS and Call Log seems to be a non issue.
- Photos are also a non issue. With something like iFunbox I can extract all the original jPegs from the iPhone and then just copy them to the images folder on Android. Geo Tag is embedded on the file and so is date taken, so sorting them won't be an issue The same happens with the video files.
- Whatsapp chats can also be extracted from the iTunes backup. Then, they can be copied to android and once I install Whatsapp on Android, it seems I can restore from that backup file.
- Real Racing 3 on IOS has cloud save and restore feature. I will have to look into if they can be saved on IOS and restored on Android. That would be sweet.
- Contacts and Calendar. On the Mac, I can export this info in CSV and then import it to google. I will then have my contacts on Google contacts and my calendar on google Calendar. Then, Google Calendar and contacts can be synced to the Mac and iPad with no issues.
- The other games seem like they will be lost. But if it is just my progress on Angry Birds and cut the rope, no big deal... Although I might try to extract the App data from the iTunes backup and see if anything can be done with it.
So far it is looking good. Has anyone already tried any of these methods with success?
Cheers!
gdourado said:
Hi,
Thank you all for taking the time to post your thoughts and comments.
Based on what you said, I did some research online and came to the following conclusions:
- It seems that there are software apps than can read into a full iTunes iPhone backup and extract some information.
With that kind of software, I can access the SMS messages and call logs and then transfer them to Android.
So, SMS and Call Log seems to be a non issue.
- Photos are also a non issue. With something like iFunbox I can extract all the original jPegs from the iPhone and then just copy them to the images folder on Android. Geo Tag is embedded on the file and so is date taken, so sorting them won't be an issue The same happens with the video files.
- Whatsapp chats can also be extracted from the iTunes backup. Then, they can be copied to android and once I install Whatsapp on Android, it seems I can restore from that backup file.
- Real Racing 3 on IOS has cloud save and restore feature. I will have to look into if they can be saved on IOS and restored on Android. That would be sweet.
- Contacts and Calendar. On the Mac, I can export this info in CSV and then import it to google. I will then have my contacts on Google contacts and my calendar on google Calendar. Then, Google Calendar and contacts can be synced to the Mac and iPad with no issues.
- The other games seem like they will be lost. But if it is just my progress on Angry Birds and cut the rope, no big deal... Although I might try to extract the App data from the iTunes backup and see if anything can be done with it.
So far it is looking good. Has anyone already tried any of these methods with success?
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried to find any kind of sign in to download my real racing 3 progress from my ios devices but I couldn't find anything. So it seemed the same as the rest. However, I found this https://c.getsatisfaction.com/firem...does_not_exist_in_real_racing_3_settings_menu Which clearly states you can use a Facebook account or Google+ account to access your saves cross platform
I also found this tutorial on how to restore texts to android http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-transfer-iphone-sms-text-messages-to-android-tutorial/ I use SMS backup actually and it's a helpful app anyway so win-win. There's also a program called MobileTrans that seems to do the same thing as Sync Manager that I was talking about previously http://www.iphone-to-pc.com/how-to-transfer-copy-data-from-iphone-to-android.html. There's a free trial so you could try it out. Personally I have no idea if it works or not but you could look into I guess. I'd be interested to know!
Oh and I forgot to get back to you about the pictures; it didn't put them into the camera roll, it out them in the gallery as a separate album. I was happy with that but you can easily move them into the camera album after.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
not to sound rude or anything, but you should have just stuck with android. ive got friends who went from android to iOS and now theyre coming back to android. Once you go android, you never go back
jkuczy16 said:
not to sound rude or anything, but you should have just stuck with android. ive got friends who went from android to iOS and now theyre coming back to android. Once you go android, you never go back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whether he wants to use iOS or not is irrelevant. He asked questions to try and take his data from his iPhone and put it on the Nexus 5. He didn't ask for your opinion about him using iOS. There is nothing wrong with wanting to try something different. I got bored of iOS and switched to android. Best decision ever. One day I'll get bored of android and might switch to something else. There's nothing wrong with that, its human nature. I know quite a few people who went android and back to iOS. People have preferences and different needs. There IS a reason why there is a massive number of apple followers. They must be doing something right.
So not to be totally off topic...
As for the OP, the save files for iOS games and Android games are different. So taking the data from your iPhone to Android isn't possible. Cloud save would need to be required in order to do so, and would need to support cross platform syncing. I'm unsure if any game features that
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
An easy way to transfer data from iPhone to Android without root is by using a program called Backuptrans. It can help you switch data including Music, Video, Photo, Playlist, Message (SMS & MMS), Contact, Calendar, Call history, Bookmark etc from iPhone to your Nexus 5. All these data will be merged on Android so you won't lose any data. Hope it helps.
Didn't read through all of the thread, but i switched from the iPhone 5 to the Nexus 5 as well.. a few things:
- SMS: Used iSMS2droid. Extracts SMS from iPhone backup. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.faked.isms2droid&hl=de
- Contacts: Simple. Synced Contacts between iPhone and Mac via iCloud, extracted contacts on mac as vcard or similar, imported to GMail/Google Account i use with the Nexus 5. Somebody else mentioned this before.
- Pictures: No idea, I don't keep too much pictures on my Phone, i like it clean. Import photos via iPhoto / Aperture on Mac or similar Photo database software and transfer it via USB. Or did I miss something here?
---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------
Say if my last image is IMG_2000.jpg, the first taken with the Nexus should be IMG_2001.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and.. dude. For I am currently writing my master's thesis in clinical psychology / psychotherapy: This seems pretty much to be a latent obsessive-compulsive disorder
Again, no such app exists on the official iOS market place for backups and restores, you would need to think about jailbreaking your phone in order to see if you could back these up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As i said. iSMS2droid in combination with SMS Backup and Restore works like a charm.
Myself, i am in the same situation. Currently had an iPhone 4 for 3 years and now moving to Nexus 5. I have spent hours searching for ways of transferring the information across and this thread has been useful. It would be helpful to get some feedback from the OP if he has had success and which methods helped achieve this.
I found this link with regards to transferring whatapp messages :http://hkexperts.net/barry/migrate-whatsapp-history-from-iphone-to-android/ .
On a side note, this garbage about iPhone vs android is completely unhelpful in this thread as it is now just clogged!!
fantastic guide!!! shows how simple it really is to make the long overdue switch
https://plus.google.com/+EricSchmidt/posts/JcfVoJhW2Kw
Eric Schmidt said:
Eric’s Guide: Converting to Android from iPhone
Many of my iPhone friends are converting to Android. The latest high-end phones from Samsung (Galaxy S4), Motorola (Verizon Droid Ultra) and the Nexus 5 (for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) have better screens, are faster, and have a much more intuitive interface. They are a great Christmas present to an iPhone user!
Here are the steps I recommend to make this switch. Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back, you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back as everything will be in the cloud, backed up, and there are so many choices for you. 80% of the world, in the latest surveys, agrees on Android.
1. Set up the Android phone
a) Power on, connect to WiFi, login with your personal Gmail account, and download in the Google Play Store all the applications you normally use (for example, Instagram).
b) Make sure the software on the Android phone is updated to the latest version (i.e. 4.3 or 4.4). You should get a notification if there are software updates.
c) If you are using AT&T, download the Visual Voicemail app from the Play Store.
d) You can add additional Gmail accounts now or later.
At this point, you should see all your Gmail, and be able to use any apps and they should work well. Be sure to verify this.
2. Update your iPhone or iPad
a) Power on, connect to WiFi, make sure your Gmail is logged in, and upgrade all of the iPhone software to the latest iPhone software release (typically iOS 7+).
b) Check that you are using iCloud to back up contacts. Go to iCloud (in Settings) and enable that for contacts (“on”). If not using iCloud, go ahead and sign up for it. (The latest Mavericks requires the use of iCloud for Mac users if you want to transfer contacts.)
c) For your personal Gmail account, in Settings/Mail, turn on sync for contacts. In the latest iOS, this should sync your Gmail contacts and iPhone contacts.
d) In Settings/Messages, turn “off” iMessage, as that messenger is an iPhone-to-iPhone messenger and if its on your iPhone friends texts won’t make it to Android. Your iPhone will still use SMS messaging to reach your friends if you use the iPhone after this change.
e) Make sure your iPhone is fully synced to the Mac iTunes. Your photos and music should all be backed up on your Mac when this is done. Go ahead and verify that on the Mac and the iPhone.
At this point you should see all your Gmail, have your apps, and have your contacts in the Android phone. If the contacts are not in the Android phone, manually download the contacts as follows on your Mac:
a) Go to apple.com/icloud, login with your Apple ID, and click on contacts
b) In the lower-left corner, click on the wheel, and “select all” the contacts and “export” the vCard into a vCard file (in Downloads).
c) In a browser, go to gmail.com, click on the Mail button and select “Contacts”. You should see a list of your Gmail contacts. Import the vCard file into Gmail/contacts using the “Import contacts” command and it should have manually added your contacts. Delete any duplicates or use the “More / Find & merge duplicates” function.
At this point you have your Gmail, apps and contacts on the new phone. Also verify this.
3. On your Mac, connect your music to Google:
Download Google Music Manager onto the Mac, and run it. Music Manager will upload your iTunes music to the cloud. The standard version is free and handles most iTunes libraries. You will need to sign up for Google Wallet and give your credit card information, but it’s free. Be sure the music is going to your personal Gmail account above. See https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075570
With the above complete, you should have your Gmail, apps, contacts, and music all moved over. Verify this on the Android phone
4. Take the SIM out of the iPhone and insert it into Android. You may need an adapter (from nano-SIM to micro-SIM), but then reboot the Android and you are all set ! For texting either use the Messenger app in earlier releases or the “Hangouts” app in Android 4.4.
Comments and additions welcome ! Eric
PS. Photos on your iPhone
If you have pictures on your iPhone, you will have to first copy them over to the Mac and then sync the iPhone with iTunes. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
It’s probably easiest to backup your iPhone photos to the Mac, but not copy the old photos to the Android phone. New photos you take on the Android phone will automatically be backed up to your photos in the Gmail account (iAuto-Upload is normally enabled) so no action is required. If the old photos are important, send them to Gmail and download into the Android phone or upload them to Google+.
PPS. Some general advice
Be sure to use Chrome, not Safari; its safer and better in so many ways. And it’s free.
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
Be sure to use two-factor authentication for your Gmail and Google accounts. Makes it very hard for someone to break into your Gmail. Also free.
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en
46802276
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Converting to Android from iPhone by Eric Schmidt (Google)

From : Google's chief
Eric’s Guide:Converting to Android from iPhone
Many of my iPhone friends are converting to Android. The latest high-end phones from Samsung (Galaxy S4), Motorola (Verizon Droid Ultra) and the Nexus 5 (for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) have better screens, are faster, and have a much more intuitive interface. They are a great Christmas present to an iPhone user!
Here are the steps I recommend to make this switch. Like the people who moved from PCs to Macs and never switched back, you will switch from iPhone to Android and never switch back as everything will be in the cloud, backed up, and there are so many choices for you. 80% of the world, in the latest surveys, agrees on Android.
1. Set up the Android phone
a) Power on, connect to WiFi, login with your personal Gmail account, and download in the Google Play Store all the applications you normally use (for example, Instagram).
b) Make sure the software on the Android phone is updated to the latest version (i.e. 4.3 or 4.4). You should get a notification if there are software updates.
c) If you are using AT&T, download the Visual Voicemail app from the Play Store.
d) You can add additional Gmail accounts now or later.
At this point, you should see all your Gmail, and be able to use any apps and they should work well. Be sure to verify this.
2. Update your iPhone or iPad
a) Power on, connect to WiFi, make sure your Gmail is logged in, and upgrade all of the iPhone software to the latest iPhone software release (typically iOS 7+).
b) Check that you are using iCloud to back up contacts. Go to iCloud (in Settings) and enable that for contacts (“on”). If not using iCloud, go ahead and sign up for it. (The latest Mavericks requires the use of iCloud for Mac users if you want to transfer contacts.)
c) For your personal Gmail account, in Settings/Mail, turn on sync for contacts. In the latest iOS, this should sync your Gmail contacts and iPhone contacts.
d) In Settings/Messages, turn “off” iMessage, as that messenger is an iPhone-to-iPhone messenger and if its on your iPhone friends texts won’t make it to Android. Your iPhone will still use SMS messaging to reach your friends if you use the iPhone after this change.
e) Make sure your iPhone is fully synced to the Mac iTunes. Your photos and music should all be backed up on your Mac when this is done. Go ahead and verify that on the Mac and the iPhone.
At this point you should see all your Gmail, have your apps, and have your contacts in the Android phone. If the contacts are not in the Android phone, manually download the contacts as follows on your Mac:
a) Go to apple.com/icloud, login with your Apple ID, and click on contacts
b) In the lower-left corner, click on the wheel, and “select all” the contacts and “export” the vCard into a vCard file (in Downloads).
c) In a browser, go to gmail.com, click on the Mail button and select “Contacts”. You should see a list of your Gmail contacts. Import the vCard file into Gmail/contacts using the “Import contacts” command and it should have manually added your contacts. Delete any duplicates or use the “More / Find & merge duplicates” function.
At this point you have your Gmail, apps and contacts on the new phone. Also verify this.
3. On your Mac, connect your music to Google:
Download Google Music Manager onto the Mac, and run it. Music Manager will upload your iTunes music to the cloud. The standard version is free and handles most iTunes libraries. You will need to sign up for Google Wallet and give your credit card information, but it’s free. Be sure the music is going to your personal Gmail account above. See https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1075570
With the above complete, you should have your Gmail, apps, contacts, and music all moved over. Verify this on the Android phone
4. Take the SIM out of the iPhone and insert it into Android. You may need an adapter (from nano-SIM to micro-SIM), but then reboot the Android and you are all set ! For texting either use the Messenger app in earlier releases or the “Hangouts” app in Android 4.4.
Comments and additions welcome ! Eric
PS. Photos on your iPhone
If you have pictures on your iPhone, you will have to first copy them over to the Mac and then sync the iPhone with iTunes. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
It’s probably easiest to backup your iPhone photos to the Mac, but not copy the old photos to the Android phone. New photos you take on the Android phone will automatically be backed up to your photos in the Gmail account (iAuto-Upload is normally enabled) so no action is required. If the old photos are important, send them to Gmail and download into the Android phone or upload them to Google+.
PPS. Some general advice
Be sure to use Chrome, not Safari; its safer and better in so many ways. And it’s free.
https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/
Be sure to use two-factor authentication for your Gmail and Google accounts. Makes it very hard for someone to break into your Gmail. Also free.
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/180744?hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check this out! Links to useful Guides and " Banned " Documentaries ​

Disable standard Android 11 Contacts Provider and replace with alternate Contacts Provider?

With Android 11, Google seems to have taken yet another step in the "making Android increasingly painful to use" direction by disabling the ability for device-only contacts to be available via the standard Contacts Provider. Because of this, I have to use Google-stored contacts on my Android 11 device in order for these contacts to be available to my apps. Otherwise, my apps don't see any contacts.
I have a rooted Android 11 device, and I'm hoping that there is some way that I could disable the standard Contacts Provider service and that I could then install an alternate, custom Contacts Provider service which knows how to access device-only contacts, and which knows how to make these contacts available to all apps that need contacts ... and which never will try to store my contacts on any of Google's servers nor anywhere else in the cloud.
Is it possible to disable Android's standard Contacts Provider service? And does such a 3rd-party Contacts Provider service exist?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
Well, I think I found a solution to the issue that I'm trying to solve. And it doesn't require any new Contacts Provider service to be installed, after all.
First of all, I made sure that contacts syncing is turned off.
Next, I installed the "True Phone" contacts and phone manager app from the play store and made it my default phone app.
Then, I used that program to make a local backup of my contacts, which is one of its capabilities.
Following that, I froze the Contacts app, but I kept the Contacts Storage app active. I checked the permissions for the Contacts Storage app, and I see now that it has no network-related permssions. So apparently, it just looks at the local contacts database, and some other piece of software is what actually syncs Google's cloud-based contacts data with the local database. And by turning off contacts sync-ing, it seems like I have indeed disabled that process.
Then, I went from my desktop computer to http://contacts.google.com with the same login credentials that are associated with my Android device. I then permanently deleted all of the contacts there.
(I rebooted my Android device between each of these steps and also after the final step.)
Now, my SMS and phone apps still see the contacts info in my local database. And I can manage the local contacts backup and restore via that True Phone app.
There are probably other phone/contacts apps which also could be used for this. But True Phone works well enough for me.
So ... it turns out that no OS surgery is needed to mess with the contacts nor to install an alternate Contacts Provider service.
PS: And I now have learned something. I was asking about a "Contacts Provider service", but I now realize that the standard Contacts Storage app itself seems to be the "Contacts Provider".
And because I found out that this app does not even have network permissions, it seems clear that this app simply gets contacts from the locally stored sqlite contacts database, and therefore, I don't need to replace this app with anything else.
And so all I needed to do was disable contacts sync-ing, because that is what would sync contacts between Google's cloud and the local contacts database.
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
blackhawk said:
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me around a day of on-and-off playing around sessions to figure this all out ... with some input from a few other helpful souls.
I agree about cloud-based services. I don't even use gmail. I run my own email server, so I use that to manage all my email accounts. I manage my own web servers and my own DNS servers, as well.
It's more work for me to manage those things, but I don't mind, and I actually enjoy that work, most of the time.

Categories

Resources