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App data transfer without root?

Trying to migrate some of my more critical data from my HTC 10 to my S8+, used Helium but it's a bit crash happy right now, and what it did migrate is virtually useless. Is there a manual method I can follow? I have done an ADB backup as well but it seems rather small @ 3gb even though I have 11gb in app data.
Because I've always had root, TiBu was my goto tool. If there are any advanced methods using ADB or something else (I've done alot of searching) to backup and restore data to a phone without root, I'm all ears. Hopefully it can help others besides myself as well.

Hi Opieum, Unfortunately I am not here to answer your question but to second it...
Based on my research I can't transfer app data from my s7, apps transferred, even sideloaded apps using SmartSwitch, but bluetooth, wifi, accounts and other app data would not switch . I even used cable method.
Helium which is supposedly a great app that does not require root unfortunately also fails to restore app data on the s8 as other users have reported on here and on Reddit
I have an s7 and before I trade it in I want to make sure all my app data is transferred, at least a full backup on my pc. I do not trust SmartSwitch to backup everything

I am also trying to transfer my app data from my rooted s6. Helium wont work, smart switch wont transfer app data. Has anyone found a way of doing it without rooting their s8?

Helium is the only app that works so far, make sure you use app data backup only. If you want to backup sms/mms/call logs just use mybackup from the playstore.

I was actually looking at this earlier, thinking I could just copy the app folder from my old rooted android onto the new one, but I couldnt even find any files in the app folder to move over! just tried helium, backed up one apps data, restored it on my s8 but it had no effect at all.

Helium wont work for me either keep getting the desktop password error even though password is set to blank. Have tried removing lock screen and turning off private mode.

peachpuff said:
Helium is the only app that works so far, make sure you use app data backup only. If you want to backup sms/mms/call logs just use mybackup from the playstore.
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Can you explain steps and do you need premium version ?

rick james b1tch said:
Helium wont work for me either keep getting the desktop password error even though password is set to blank. Have tried removing lock screen and turning off private mode.
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Click to collapse
Remove any screen locks that you have, fingerprint/pattern/pin.
JeffATL said:
Can you explain steps and do you need premium version ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Premium helps but just do app data only backup, then copy the /carbon directory to the new phone and restore from internal storage.

peachpuff said:
Remove any screen locks that you have, fingerprint/pattern/pin.
Premium helps but just do app data only backup, then copy the /carbon directory to the new phone and restore from internal storage.
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Click to collapse
I tried all of this and even tried setting a password in heilum and dev settings but still no luck. Looks like ill either have to root the s8 (trying to aviod it), or give up on my old app data annoyingly as some apps i have dragged data across multiple phones for upto the last 5 years.
Surely there is another way aside from root options.

Problems to transfer app data to new S7 without rooting

Hello!
I have an two S7.
The old one is rooted. I am trying to transfer all data - especially app data to a new S7 and I have failed so far.
The new S7 is encrypted because it is company phone and company requires that. It is not rooted.
The old phone is not encrypted. It was not possible. I suspect because it is rooted.
That is the reason why I don't want to root the new phone.
I have tried Samsung Smart Switch, but of course it only transfers the apps, but not the data.
I have tried Helium. The backup went fine, but the new phone did not connect to the PC. It constantly said I should switch to PTP for USB debugging, although it was activated. I found that someone recommended to switch off screen lock. But this is impossible with the new phone now.
I have tried several times and gave up.
I have tried Holo Backup, but no backup was created.
I have tried Super Backup. Seemed to work fine. No app data transfered.
I have tried Samsung cloud. Seemed to work fine. No app data transfered.
Any suggestions please?
Thanks!

ingomhhf said:
Hello!
I have an two S7.
The old one is rooted. I am trying to transfer all data - especially app data to a new S7 and I have failed so far.
The new S7 is encrypted because it is company phone and company requires that. It is not rooted.
The old phone is not encrypted. It was not possible. I suspect because it is rooted.
That is the reason why I don't want to root the new phone.
I have tried Samsung Smart Switch, but of course it only transfers the apps, but not the data.
I have tried Helium. The backup went fine, but the new phone did not connect to the PC. It constantly said I should switch to PTP for USB debugging, although it was activated. I found that someone recommended to switch off screen lock. But this is impossible with the new phone now.
I have tried several times and gave up.
I have tried Holo Backup, but no backup was created.
I have tried Super Backup. Seemed to work fine. No app data transfered.
I have tried Samsung cloud. Seemed to work fine. No app data transfered.
Any suggestions please?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do an ADB Backup and restore it on the new phone, it's what Helium does except it does it app by app instead of all at once (it will only backup apps for which backup is allowed but that's the max you can do without root). Another way is Google backup which should backup app data (same as ADB but easier)

Best method to restore to new Note 20 Ultra?

I currently have the Note 9 and will be transferring to the Note 20 Ultra. What is the best method to transfer EVERYTHING across? I know SmartSwitch doesn't transfer app data. Should I therefore use SmartSwitch first and then use Google to restore the app data? Or vice versa? Or is there a better option?
Is there any difference restoring with SmartSwitch on PC backup vs via USB to USB between the phones?
Cheers

Good questions. For previous transfers, I've used SmartSwitch via USB, Google restore, and Samsung restore, usually jumbled together. I don't have a clear idea of which one does what, or how to select only one method (as I recall, the phone asks for Google and Samsung account information early in the setup process).

Kash said:
I currently have the Note 9 and will be transferring to the Note 20 Ultra. What is the best method to transfer EVERYTHING across? I know SmartSwitch doesn't transfer app data. Should I therefore use SmartSwitch first and then use Google to restore the app data? Or vice versa? Or is there a better option?
Is there any difference restoring with SmartSwitch on PC backup vs via USB to USB between the phones?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I prefer to start fresh, and yes - I know that I lose app configuration. Small price to pay for the weirdness that can happen in some apps when you restore from a backup.
That said, I backup my phone log, messages and such to Samsung Cloud. After loading the base stuff and logging in, I restore those items on the new device so I have message and call log consistency. Then I march through the app store collection and install the apps I want, taking a look at each one to decide if I used it and/or really need it again.

I usually get a fresh clean start when I get a new device.
But the best way to restore everything is to use a combination of Samsung Cloud, Good back ups, and Samsung Smart Switch.
On your Note 9, use Smart Switch to back up your device to the SD Card. Then put that SD card in your Note 20 and restore from there.
I did that going from Note 10+ to Note 10, and it restores all my settings. My quick panel apps. I didn't even have to log back into many of my apps, as it transferred over data from several of them.

Gary02468 said:
Good questions. For previous transfers, I've used SmartSwitch via USB, Google restore, and Samsung restore, usually jumbled together. I don't have a clear idea of which one does what, or how to select only one method (as I recall, the phone asks for Google and Samsung account information early in the setup process).
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Click to collapse
So when I was on google products, namely I went from a Pixel to another Pixel recently. ALL of my prior connected wifi networks / SSIDs were fully saved. In other words when I went to my favorite brewery, it's password protected wifi network automatically connected with nothing more to do.
When I moved from Pixel to Note, none of my previously saved wifi network connections were saved. I've only used smartswitch thus far.
Is there anything else I can do to get all of the wifi networks I have saved on my Pixel over to my Note?

Kash said:
I currently have the Note 9 and will be transferring to the Note 20 Ultra. What is the best method to transfer EVERYTHING across? I know SmartSwitch doesn't transfer app data. Should I therefore use SmartSwitch first and then use Google to restore the app data? Or vice versa? Or is there a better option?
Is there any difference restoring with SmartSwitch on PC backup vs via USB to USB between the phones?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would never transfer your data and settings from the Note 9 to the Note 20 Ultra. There have been numerous posts and threads here about the phone being slow an buggy and the common denominator was transferring from another phone, most had to do a FDR and start over the way they should have done in the first place.

gts24 said:
Is there anything else I can do to get all of the wifi networks I have saved on my Pixel over to my Note?
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For me, WiFi-network credentials carried over from my N10+ to my N20U. Unfortunately, I have no idea if that was thanks to SmartSwitch, Google cloud backup, or Samsung cloud backup.

Need help - switch from xz1 compact to s20 fe

Hi everybody,
I am struggling with smart switch to transfer data from my old lovely xz1 compact (Android 9) to a brand new s20 fe (android 11).
I used the smart switch tool from Samsung, but I notice that the following is missing when the transfer process is over:
- phone parameters are not transferred (Bluetooth, wifi, home screen image...)
- apps are all starting as if it were a new install (data app are not transfered or not usable by the app?)
If any of you can help to get back my apps on my new device, it would be highly appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Gaspoune
Note that I tried also to make the app transfer on a Galaxy tab s2.. same issue.

unfortunately that'd be quite difficult, atleast the apps.
the only way I can think of copying the app data is opying the userdata partition, but that presents an issue;
they're installed on different versions so it'd be unlikely that they would work right if you copied the data partition and you need root for that too.
the settings are the easy part, atleast wifi is, modern phones allow you to present a QR code to scan and connect to the network, use that. for bluetooth you'll have to onnect manually and the wallpaper is also saved under /system/data/ so unless you have the original image you need root access

Question Have I lost my data or what

Hello. My Pixel 7 pro had some dust under the selfie camera, so I had to send it back to google for RMA, I then got a Samsung A03 as a loner phone, really low end, but I got a loaner and that was better than nothing, I then proceeded to erase my Pixel 7 pro as I knew everything was backed up by default as I had sync on in the settings under account and they said I had to do that so they could test the phone, now when I logged into the samsung phone after starting it, it did not restore my data, I just tought the phone was too low-end, but now I was looking to restore SMS messages and saw a bunch of internet post mentioned about google drive backup for phones and now when I look at google drive on my phone I see an option to start backup and I have never seen that before, so now I am wondering if I really did not do a backup on my Pixel phone and some data is lost or not.

Think that's sort of typical on Samsung's. Even when you turn off Google Google backup Transport it seems to retain the data it previously saved.
That said I don't trust it and back up everything redundantly to multiple drives. I don't use cloud in part because it's a huge resource hog.
In your case I be tempted to error on the side of caution and wait to restore the data on the original phone... and hope it works.
That's one reason I keep a backup phone, ready to go in case my primary phone needs service or whatever. In addition to backups to flash and hdds I also use my phone's unencrypted SD card as a data drive. All critical data goes there. That way I can do a full reload using just the card. Not having or properly using expandable storage is a handicap.

blackhawk said:
Think that's sort of typical on Samsung's. Even when you turn off Google Google backup Transport it seems to retain the data it previously saved.
That said I don't trust it and back up everything redundantly to multiple drives. I don't use cloud in part because it's a huge resource hog.
In your case I be tempted to error on the side of caution and wait to restore the data on the original phone... and hope it works.
That's one reason I keep a backup phone, ready to go in case my primary phone needs service or whatever. In addition to backups to flash and hdds I also use my phone's unencrypted SD card as a data drive. All critical data goes there. That way I can do a full reload using just the card. Not having or properly using expandable storage is a handicap.
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No I dont think you understand me, I am wondering if the data on my google phone is lost or not, when I switched from my Samsung Galaxy S10 to my Pixel 7 Pro all the data came back including the apps and so on, so I tought ok, when sync settings is turn on in account settings then I am all good and also tught that google had all thease backup things on automatically, but now when I switched to the loaner Samsung Galaxy A03 non of the data came back and even the apps did not restore, on all my other phone (they have been high end tho compared to this one) there was the nromal google menu when you started the phone for the first time and it logged in and presented me with my apps list and asked if I wanted to restore them.
Now the problems is that I see in google drive that there is a backup option that I Have never used before and did not know that it was there, so I am wondering if the data on my Pixel 7 Pro is lost like SMS, apps list and so on.
When I started the Samsung A03 there was an option to use the Samsung Smart transfer, but skipped that and now that I think of it, that might have been the method to transfer things, tho I have never used that on any of my other samsung phones that I have owned.

thomashacked said:
No I dont think you understand me, I am wondering if the data on my google phone is lost or not, when I switched from my Samsung Galaxy S10 to my Pixel 7 Pro all the data came back including the apps and so on, so I tought ok, when sync settings is turn on in account settings then I am all good and also tught that google had all thease backup things on automatically, but now when I switched to the loaner Samsung Galaxy A03 non of the data came back and even the apps did not restore, on all my other phone (they have been high end tho compared to this one) there was the nromal google menu when you started the phone for the first time and it logged in and presented me with my apps list and asked if I wanted to restore them.
Now the problems is that I see in google drive that there is a backup option that I Have never used before and did not know that it was there, so I am wondering if the data on my Pixel 7 Pro is lost like SMS, apps list and so on.
When I started the Samsung A03 there was an option to use the Samsung Smart transfer, but skipped that and now that I think of it, that might have been the method to transfer things, tho I have never used that on any of my other samsung phones that I have owned.
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I do understand. I would avoid switching the data from phone to loaner phone with Google backup Transport if there's any doubt. SmartSwitch has it's own issues and can lose data. I don't trust either.
Try this...

blackhawk said:
I do understand. I would avoid switching the data from phone to loaner phone with Google backup Transport if there's any doubt. SmartSwitch has it's own issues and can lose data. I don't trust either.
Try this...
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Click to collapse
ok, but my question is still there is my data lost from my Pixel 7 Pro as I did not use any specific backup funktion other than the standard account sync options on my google phone, but yes only time will tell when I get the phone back from repair.

thomashacked said:
ok, but my question is still there is my data lost from my Pixel 7 Pro as I did not use any specific backup funktion other than the standard account sync options on my google phone, but yes only time will tell when I get the phone back from repair.
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Click to collapse
It looks like some of the backup functions are limited to Pixel phones. Since I only use Samsung's I may not be aware of some of Google backup's advanced functions. Maybe they should of given you a Pixel loaner...

blackhawk said:
It looks like some of the backup functions are limited to Pixel phones. Since I only use Samsung's I may not be aware of some of Google backup's advanced functions. Maybe they should of given you a Pixel loaner...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was looking at this site https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6305834?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Android and that was what got me concerned that I had lost a lot of stuff as I had never seen that backup funktion before.
Yes they only had that Samsung phone in the electronic store that I went to.

thomashacked said:
I was looking at this site https://support.google.com/drive/answer/6305834?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Android and that was what got me concerned that I had lost a lot of stuff as I had never seen that backup funktion before.
Yes they only had that Samsung phone in the electronic store that I went to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Time will tell. If you value your data in the future always backup critical data redundantly and regularly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. OTG flashsticks can also be used but if they fail there's no tangible recovery option unlike hdds.

blackhawk said:
Time will tell. If you value your data in the future always backup critical data redundantly and regularly to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. OTG flashsticks can also be used but if they fail there's no tangible recovery option unlike hdds.
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Yes time will tell, I will see when I get the phone back.

You can look to see if you still have a backup(s), by going to drive.google.com, click Storage on the left, and then Backups, in the upper right. This will show you a list of whats-what, at the given time point (backups expire after 2 months if the phone isn't (cloud) connected).
I use SMS-backup-and-restore (app), before I do ANY phone migration, or similar (any reset, root or wonky adb things that are iffy, on recovery), at least that saves all your SMS and call history, which you can restore to any phone, using the same (app).
Additionally, if you backup your pics (Gdrive, OneDrive, whatever...), and other non-replaceable data, then if the backup isn't usable, you have most of what you'd want, it's just a hassle to sift-sort.
There are tools to restore your installed apps (list, XML), but this is almost more of a hassle then just doing it, IME/IMHO.
On the A3 restore, was it running Android 13, BEFORE you went to restore? Down-level restores generally don't work. If this is the case, you should see your backup in the first suggestion, above, and it should be there, as long as you get your P7P back, before it expires (or you restore it to an equivalent or up-level device).

pgrey2 said:
You can look to see if you still have a backup(s), by going to drive.google.com, click Storage on the left, and then Backups, in the upper right. This will show you a list of whats-what, at the given time point (backups expire after 2 months if the phone isn't (cloud) connected).
I use SMS-backup-and-restore (app), before I do ANY phone migration, or similar (any reset, root or wonky adb things that are iffy, on recovery), at least that saves all your SMS and call history, which you can restore to any phone, using the same (app).
Additionally, if you backup your pics (Gdrive, OneDrive, whatever...), and other non-replaceable data, then if the backup isn't usable, you have most of what you'd want, it's just a hassle to sift-sort.
There are tools to restore your installed apps (list, XML), but this is almost more of a hassle then just doing it, IME/IMHO.
On the A3 restore, was it running Android 13, BEFORE you went to restore? Down-level restores generally don't work. If this is the case, you should see your backup in the first suggestion, above, and it should be there, as long as you get your P7P back, before it expires (or you restore it to an equivalent or up-level device).
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Ok yes I can see some backup in there, so I think I am all right, lets hope it worked.
The A03 was running android 13, so I dont know if it should work or not, I was not presneted with the normal android menu with all my apps and if I wanted to restore them, but that might be due to the phone having the samsung skin on it.
I will see once I get the phone back, it should only take 2 weeks max they said.