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[Q] How to painlessly move from Nexus One to Nexus S

I just bought the Nexus S, but I fear the process of importing all my apps and settings from the N1 to the NS. I have about 80 apps, approx 20 paid apps and 20gb used on the external 32Gb memorycard. Of course, I will need to trim down the data amount to lower than 16Gb that is available on the NS. All of the apps that can, are installed on the SD card.
I have both a regular gmail account and a paid Google Apps account that are synked with my N1
So, must I set aside a whole working day manually re-installing all apps and reenter licence codes & settings & synk settings, or can I simple log in to the new phone and experience - like magic - that everything is transferred wirelessly? (I would consider believing in Santaclaus if that happened)

i moved from hero to nexus s and had the same problem, i used titanium backup to restore most of my apps+data, it will automatically link the apps to the market and install them on the next best place (for example it was on ext on my hero but got moved to internal on my nexus s)
but rom-/systemapp-settings had to be reentered manually because the rom got corrupted when i tried to restore my settings (for example google account)
hope this could help you out a bit.

I've gone through 4 phones and my paid apps have followed me. The non paid apps don't though. I definitely recommend Titanium Backup for those as well. Especially if you have game saves or something. I don't mind re-entering information for like connecting to my server but game saves that would piss me off to lose.
The free version I think you have to restore them individually but the paid version you can do them all at once I believe. Coming from the same android version always helps this process too.

Google login on the new phone should push a lot of stuff to the phone, but you might need to make sure the setting on the Nexus One to back up your setigns on the cloud/mothership is turned on. It's not been 100% reliable for me in the past moving from one phone to another.
Agreed with the others who suggest Titanium, it's been a life-saver.
We're assuming you're rooted, because to use Titanium, you must be rooted. Also, get the paid version, it's under $5 and adds a lot of functionality, like batch restore of all your apps.
On caveat when moving from one phone to another (or even one ROM to another) is that when you restore with Titanium, you just want to restore apps + app data...you don't want to restore system settings, this could, supposedly, lead to some trouble.

i see this asked a lot, but i must be confused. i thought that anytime you sign into an android phone with your account, all free and paid apps you have automaitically download to the phone, simply by signing in. i know when i completely wipe my phone, sign in upon boot up, and all apps return like i never even wiped. i can watch them install one by one over a 15 min period.
even my wallpaper gets saved to google's server, and placed back onto the phone as my wall paper. most settings too.
the one thing you will not have saved are texts, oh and any app-specific data from the old phone.

Your app history is tied to the sign in account (free and paid).
The data/settings for the applications is the issue at hand. Some developers sync the data to cloud services, some don't. For the latter you must to the titanium backup deal to move stuff or copy the sd card contents. Some devs opt to just create a folder on the sd card.
Most google applications (obviously) sync data/settings to the cloud. They offer devs a service to do the same. As more devs use it or their own you'll be able to seemlessly switch from device to device withou a hassle.

if i didn't want to use titanium is it as simple as zipping up the content on the nexus one's sd card and then somehow importing all contents (app data, etc) on to the nexus S?
then after that reinstall any apps that i have downloaded or bought?

racker said:
if i didn't want to use titanium is it as simple as zipping up the content on the nexus one's sd card and then somehow importing all contents (app data, etc) on to the nexus S?
then after that reinstall any apps that i have downloaded or bought?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, it's pretty much that simple.

[Q] Rooting and SD Cards.

Hello, I wanted to know about how SD cards and Root and all the stuff that is associated with rooting (ROMS, backups, etc) interact. I am on Verizon, currently have a Droid X2, which is a really bad phone, and am due for an upgrade already. I am considering choosing between the HTC One and the GS4, but leaning towards the One because of the design/speakers/snapiness/etc. But there is one thing that I'm concerned about. It doesn't have expandable storage. No expandable storage = no SD Card. I wanted to know because I've seen a few reviews and some of them say that Rooters should stay clear of the One because it doesn't have an SD card.
Another thing: I currently own a Nexus 7 which is rooted, so no SD card there either, but I never realized that I won't be able to quickly restore all of my apps through titanium like I do on my X2, because I realized that all the backups are saved on my X2s SD card, so whenever I factory restore or change ROMs, it's convenient to have my apps and the app data on the SD card. So if I were to wipe my Nexus 7 or change ROMS, the backups would be gone because they are stored on the internal storage, right?
So my questions are:
What role does an SD card have in the Rooting processes and root related things? Is it necessary? What are the advantages of having an SD on the device?
Can any of the roles an SD card has be worked around without one?
Can I have my backups backed up to the cloud or other method in which they can be quickly restored, like on my X2 with the SD card?
Why do the reviewers stay to stay clear of devices without SD card slots?
Should I get the One, and now that I think of it, should have I got my Nexus 7 since I'm a rooter and might change ROMs/have to factory reset?

So my questions are:
What role does an SD card have in the Rooting processes and root related things? Is it necessary? What are the advantages of having an SD on the device?
Nothing; the advice about the One just meant that people who root and ROM their devices tend to horde a lot of phone-related files, so expandable storage is a plus since it allows you to cost-effectively add storage as needed. As for advantages? Being able to add storage as you need it, for cheap, and the ability to seamlessly move your files from phone to phone or computer easily. Plus, apps require internal storage, so another plus of having external storage is that you can put all of your media and other files on external storage to save app space.
Can any of the roles an SD card has be worked around without one?
Sort of; both phones (One and S4) support USB OTG. It's a cheap, $2 cable on eBay that's a microUSB adapter on side (goes into the charger port on your phone) and a full-sized USB port on the other. It lets you plug in flash drives, keyboards, mice, etc. There's also this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyfei/mini-microsd-reader-for-android-smartphones-and-ta
Can I have my backups backed up to the cloud or other method in which they can be quickly restored, like on my X2 with the SD card?
If by backups you mean Titanium Backup, yes. Titanium Backup has a native export to cloud option that supports Google Drive, Dropbox, and other providers. If you mean Nandroids (full device backups), just copy them off your phone to your computer. They're saved in a folder on either your SD card or internal storage (guessing your SD card on your Droid X2). I don't recommend at all restoring app backups from two different devices, let alone two completely different versions of Android. It's guaranteed to screw up your ROM in one way or another. It's fine to restore an app to a different device/version of Android, but not the data with it.
Why do the reviewers stay to stay clear of devices without SD card slots?
A few reasons, though none of them have to do with the ability to root:
- If your phone dies (completely, due to damage or just having a bad unit), the data is pretty much gone and unrecoverable. If you were using a microSD card, you could have just pulled it out of the phone and called it a day.
- You can expand the storage for cheap; one of the biggest flaws of the iPhone is that going from 16GB to 32GB costs $100. A 16GB microSD card is like, what, $10? Nuff said.
- Apps can only be installed to internal storage (unless you use some root apps that are a pain in the butt). If you offload all your media (photos, music, videos, etc) to your external storage, you can have room for all your apps. Remember that games are starting to take up over a gigabyte each in some cases. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Asphalt 7, etc.
Should I get the One, and now that I think of it, should have I got my Nexus 7 since I'm a rooter and might change ROMs/have to factory reset?
It depends on your preferences. The One is a great phone in itself; it depends on you whether or not the lack of microSD card slot is a deal-breaker. It won't affect your ability to root the phone, but consider the answers to your questions that I gave you (I'm not swaying you from or towards it). The Nexus 7 is a great tablet; again, having a microSD card slot has nothing to do with the ability to root your device.

Product F(RED) said:
So my questions are:
What role does an SD card have in the Rooting processes and root related things? Is it necessary? What are the advantages of having an SD on the device?
Nothing; the advice about the One just meant that people who root and ROM their devices tend to horde a lot of phone-related files, so expandable storage is a plus since it allows you to cost-effectively add storage as needed. As for advantages? Being able to add storage as you need it, for cheap, and the ability to seamlessly move your files from phone to phone or computer easily. Plus, apps require internal storage, so another plus of having external storage is that you can put all of your media and other files on external storage to save app space.
Can any of the roles an SD card has be worked around without one?
Sort of; both phones (One and S4) support USB OTG. It's a cheap, $2 cable on eBay that's a microUSB adapter on side (goes into the charger port on your phone) and a full-sized USB port on the other. It lets you plug in flash drives, keyboards, mice, etc. There's also this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andyfei/mini-microsd-reader-for-android-smartphones-and-ta
Can I have my backups backed up to the cloud or other method in which they can be quickly restored, like on my X2 with the SD card?
If by backups you mean Titanium Backup, yes. Titanium Backup has a native export to cloud option that supports Google Drive, Dropbox, and other providers. If you mean Nandroids (full device backups), just copy them off your phone to your computer. They're saved in a folder on either your SD card or internal storage (guessing your SD card on your Droid X2). I don't recommend at all restoring app backups from two different devices, let alone two completely different versions of Android. It's guaranteed to screw up your ROM in one way or another. It's fine to restore an app to a different device/version of Android, but not the data with it.
Why do the reviewers stay to stay clear of devices without SD card slots?
A few reasons, though none of them have to do with the ability to root:
- If your phone dies (completely, due to damage or just having a bad unit), the data is pretty much gone and unrecoverable. If you were using a microSD card, you could have just pulled it out of the phone and called it a day.
- You can expand the storage for cheap; one of the biggest flaws of the iPhone is that going from 16GB to 32GB costs $100. A 16GB microSD card is like, what, $10? Nuff said.
- Apps can only be installed to internal storage (unless you use some root apps that are a pain in the butt). If you offload all your media (photos, music, videos, etc) to your external storage, you can have room for all your apps. Remember that games are starting to take up over a gigabyte each in some cases. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Asphalt 7, etc.
Should I get the One, and now that I think of it, should have I got my Nexus 7 since I'm a rooter and might change ROMs/have to factory reset?
It depends on your preferences. The One is a great phone in itself; it depends on you whether or not the lack of microSD card slot is a deal-breaker. It won't affect your ability to root the phone, but consider the answers to your questions that I gave you (I'm not swaying you from or towards it). The Nexus 7 is a great tablet; again, having a microSD card slot has nothing to do with the ability to root your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for replying so quickly, I appreciate that! I know that SD cards don't affect rooting whatsoever, but some features that you need to root like titanium backup for restoring app data/apps.
As far as cloud backups go, I know how to backup my applications and app data to the cloud, but how would you go about restoring the apps and data? I'm asking because if you have an SD card you find the location on the SD card where your backups are and you just restore straight from titanium. Since they're in the cloud, would you have to manually move them from PC to the internal storage folder? Or download them from the cloud one by one to you're device? (I know you can create a flashable zip file, but last time I tried it on my X2, it boot looped, so I had to factory restore it.)
That's my main concern is backups and restoring data. How do you do it from the cloud that's as fast as from an SD card? Or how do you perform restores at all from the cloud? Thanks so much!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Thank you for replying so quickly, I appreciate that! I know that SD cards don't affect rooting whatsoever, but some features that you need to root like titanium backup for restoring app data/apps.
On phones running Ice Cream Sandwich and above, the internal storage shows up as an SD card (the phone may not say it, but if you go into Android's root directory with a file browser, you'd see /mnt/sdcard/ , which is really just the internal storage. If you put a memory card into a Galaxy S3 or S4, the card shows up as /mnt/extsdcard/. Most technical apps allow you to choose where to save/load to and from. Titanium Backup is one of those apps. You can copy your backup folder from the memory card in your X2 to the internal storage in the One. Or you can even use one of those USB OTG cables to put it on a flash drive or card reader directly into the One (remember, a USB OTG cable gives you a full USB port).
As far as cloud backups go, I know how to backup my applications and app data to the cloud, but how would you go about restoring the apps and data? I'm asking because if you have an SD card you find the location on the SD card where your backups are and you just restore straight from titanium. Since they're in the cloud, would you have to manually move them from PC to the internal storage folder? Or download them from the cloud one by one to you're device? (I know you can create a flashable zip file, but last time I tried it on my X2, it boot looped, so I had to factory restore it.)
To be honest, I haven't used Titanium Backup's cloud feature because my home internet isn't too fast, so uploads would be slow, so I don't know much about restoring from the cloud. But I would assume you'd be able to do so. A quick Google search should help you out.
That's my main concern is backups and restoring data. How do you do it from the cloud that's as fast as from an SD card? Or how do you perform restores at all from the cloud? Thanks so much!
Well pulling files over the internet will always be much slower than reading them from local storage; like I said, you can specify to Titanium Backup where your backups are located. You can even export certain app backups into one file (if you hit Menu in TB, you'll see the option if you scroll down a bit). Then you can import it to your One. Or like I said, just move the TB folder on your memory card to your One's internal storage. Like I said, I don't have experience with cloud backups for TB or Nandroid, so Google or someone else would get you a better answer than I can give you.

[Q] Titanium backup showed less current bkp's after...

To be clear from the start, my titanium backup is the paid version and it was set to store all backups on my external SD card. I had been recently manually running the two scheduled programs "Redo backups for modified data" and "Backup new user+system apps & newer versions" over the last couple of weeks. I wiped my phone entirely and using TWRP put on a clean backup of a fresh full firmware flash and did my system all over again since I had removed one too many system apps and "Videos" app was not working correctly and a few others.
Well I got my phone encrypted (not SD card), rooted it, got titanium backup installed and set it to use the SD card instead of internal but when it refreshed I saw many many many apps only had backups as of March... I purposefully ran the two schedules before I did the phone wipe, to ensure that I would have current up-to-date saved data for all apps. I remember scanning down a bit and seeing April 17 for the backup dates. So why did so many backups not appear? I have had a hell of a time setting everything up correctly again, my launcher was disorganized as it was before I set up my phone entirely to my desires. Everything was messed up. A few apps did in fact have current backups. Especially the new apps.
Is there something I am missing about "Redo backups for modified data" and "Backup new user+system apps & newer versions" as to what their function is? Don't those two fuctions ensure that every app both old and new get all backed up and all their data with it? Or do I have to go to batch actions and manually just tell it to do an entire backup of everything and ignore those two features? I am very confused by this and a bit angry since I thought the whole point of those scheduled programs were to ensure you had everything backed up.
Can you help me figure this out?
Thanks.

Do anyone have a good root free backup solution?

After reading about the problem people have with video playback the latest OTA versions"IN: 11.0.6.7.KB05DA ; EU: 11.0.6.8.KB05BA ; NA: 11.0.6.7.KB05AA "
I want to ask what is the best way to backup as much data as possible before updating in case I need to wipe and downgrade later. On my older phones when I was rooted I would just fire up TWRP and take a nandroid backup before updating. If any problems I would just restore that.
What is the best alternative without root? Adb backup? and manual sync/copy of photos and stuff to the cloud/my computer. I read about adb backup that not working properly for some people and possible being deprecated in the future.

One of the reasons I got the 10+ was for the SD card slot. I use the SD card like a data drive. The internal memory is for the OS, programs and to temporarily store downloads (to check for malware).
Samsung's also have Smart Switch to back up settings data, apps, etc. That backup copy is also on the SD card (haven't tested it yet).
Right now I can do a complete reload with little or no internet connection and be good to go in about 2 hours.
You can use external memory instead though. Cloud crap takes too long, same with Playstore.
Use ApkExport to copy all your apps and updates then load directly from those copies.
Save all critical data on the external hd. Make sure your bookmarks are recoverable. Any app that allows you to backup their settings, do so and add those as well.
Make sure you copy your contacts and text messages.
I keep master folders on my phone for documents, music, vids, dcim by year, etc that match to those stored in my laptop which serves as a secondary backup to my SD card. Keep at least two backup copies and store in separate locations. Ideally one should be completely off line and stored in a earth grounded metal box.
Hdds are preferable to flash memory.
Workout a plan within the limitations of your device and software before you need it.

Help migrating data from old device

So I just got a Note20 Ultra and had a Note 9. I used smart switch and samsung cloud to transfer everything. The apps transferred fine, but none of the app data did.
I was able transfer everything to my Tab S7+ just fine, and it even syncs with my apps. Like if I make it to another level of a game on the Note 9 it will carry over to the tab. Why isn't it doing that with the Note20?

May not work well with different devices and especially OS's.
Never use it to store critical data.
Apparently it does not save secure folder data.
If it doesn't work right you may need to do a factory reset and hand load.
I use it to save homepage settings, contacts and not much more. I load app from saved copies. A clean load can last a year or longer, a bad load won't.

blackhawk said:
May not work well with different devices and especially OS's.
Never use it to store critical data.
Apparently it does not save secure folder data.
If it doesn't work right you may need to do a factory reset and hand load.
I use it to save homepage settings, contacts and not much more. I load app from saved copies. A clean load can last a year or longer, a bad load won't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the same OS though, on all devices. It's just not syncing the app data correctly, and helium is outdated now

link1227 said:
It's the same OS though, on all devices. It's just not syncing the app data correctly, and helium is outdated now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Apps that allow backup like Poweramp, ColorNote, Digi Clock are hard or impossible to recreate. Fortunately they allow for complete backup. The lesser apps I don't worry about.
Homepage settings however are a pain and can't be completely backed up. I keep a image of my favorite icon pack from Galaxy store so I can easily search for it. Shortcuts need to be recreated. SmartSwitch will partially recreate homepage but loses the icon pack, icon/folder position and so on.
Use your SD card as a data drive; all critical data and backups go here. Redundantly back this up to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Use ApkExport to make installable copies of all your apps and app updates; no Playstore needed for a reload. Do not encrypt data drives, ever... or you will lose data eventually.
Only loaded apps, the DCIM and download folder go on internal memory. Regularly backup the DCIM folder to the data drive. Do Not name it DCIM folder there as it will cause issues.
If your OS crash and burns, all your data and backups are on the data drive... everything you need for a full reload.
No perfect but you can easily backup a stock Samsung like this and carry everything you need to do a full rebuild in the phone.

So I was able to transfer it from the tab s7 but not the note 9, so whatever

Between Swift backup and nova prime- can one not get everything backed up completely including app data?

dj24 said:
Between Swift backup and nova prime- can one not get everything backed up completely including app data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've never heard of those, but I will try. Thank you!

link1227 said:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've never heard of those, but I will try. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The reason you do a factory reset most times is to give the OS a clean slate.
Migrating app data can also migrate problem(s). If the degradation is subtle you may never pick it up.
A fast running, stable, glitch free platform is worth a little more set up time.

Your can only backup/recovery full data on a rooted device.

If you use the SD card as a data drive, backup the apps that allow there. Take some screen shots of the homescreen layout/icon pack apk used, use SmartSwitch to save homescreen, backup contacts and use ApkExport to save installable copies for quick reload. Backup all passwords.
I use ColorNote to save all bookmarks and many of my notes because it backups to the SD card.
Hyperlinks can open directly from it.
Takes about 2 hours to get it back to 99%. If you organize it, it's not that bad. I keep a master backup folder that has that kit in it.
♤Preplanning is the key, otherwise it's a data gauntlet.
The first load is the hardest. After 2 back to back boot loops I stopped screwing around with reloads and got very efficient at it
A couple weeks ago I brought my second N10+ online. I simply swapped the older N10+'s SD and sim card to it. It didn't take long to set it up.