Looking for a robust phone migration tool

[Chris.Nelson]

When I moved from my S5 to my Pixel a couple of years ago, the Helium app was the only method I could find to transfer all my data (app no longer in the Play Store, etc.) from phone to phone. Now as I contemplate a Pixel 3 purchase, I can't get Helium on my to see my phone. My phone is running Android 9, has an unlocked boot loader, but is not currently rooted. Any recommendations?

 

[Soccerref12]

Go into your Google account settings and do a backup of everything. When you get your new phone it will all you to restore your Google apps & data. It takes a long time to restore, but everything will be there...apps & data.

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[Chris.Nelson]

Go into your Google account settings and do a backup of everything. When you get your new phone it will all you to restore your Google apps & data. It takes a long time to restore, but everything will be there...apps & data.

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That has not been my experience. Has native Google backup and restore gotten a lot better? What I've found is that it will take an inventory of my apps and install the newest version from the Play Store. That is not at all the same.

 

[Soccerref12]

You didn't do it right then.

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[Sajo]

I think Google backup does just reinstall the apps from the Play Store. So if you were using a specific version of an app and didn't want the newest version, I think you end up with the newest version.

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[Soccerref12]

Google has a setting to back all apps and data. It will restore everything.

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[sherri]

I "inherited" this phone when my Motorola X Pure died. My old phone was rooted, this is not. Even though I backed up everything correctly, made a copy, put a copy on pc and SD card, data of apps did not transfer. Also, ONLY apps from play store will transfer. If I rooted this, I'd use Titanium Backup. That is the ideal, but I have no "need" right now to root this.

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I do think that the native Google migration tool will restore apps and data of ONLY Google apps. Never restored data of games.

 

[Soccerref12]

If you don't back up your data, you can't restore it. I have done this several times: Back up or restore data on your Android device - Nexus Help

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[sherri]

The article states not everything can always be restored. Even suggested "try re-downloading from the play store". I believe OP said app was no longer in play store.

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[Soccerref12]

I give up.

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[Chris.Nelson]

I now have my Pixel 3 and the migration tools failed as expected. :-( There are two apps -- one a favorite old game, one an essential utility -- which didn't copy over. (Neither did my Tasker tasks but that's another issues.) I even tried to use Helium Premium to back up those apps and their data to Google Drive and restore to the new phone. Helium says it succeeds but the app doesn't show up. I have two generations of phones from the same manufacturer, running the same version of Android and I can't copy simple apps between them? Surely I'm missing something.