 I got myself a new phone and am displeased to tell you that Android-to-Android migration is *still not good*. How I imagine #Android works: There are files under `/storage/emulated/0`. Some folders, like ‘Pictures’ are writable by user. Also, each app has it’s ‘data’ lying *somewhere*. When migrating, three things are done: 1) Apps get pulled as APKs and re-installed; 2) Apps’ data gets placed where it belongs; 3) User’s folders get copied as-is. It’s not how it works. 6 comments
My alarm clock, ‘Sleep as Android’, got transferred with settings. My authenticator, ‘Aegis’, didn’t get re-installed, but kept its data. My habit tracker, ‘Loop’, neither got re-installed nor kept its data. Most apps got re-installed, but lost their data and settings. Kudos to apps that allow exporting everything: Data AND settings. Less kudos to apps that can export data, but not settings (looking at you, @AntennaPod). No kudos to apps who can’t do either and need to be reconfigured manually. @kytta We know the experience is not ideal. Unfortunately our typical database size (let alone the size including audio files) is too big to be included in Android's automatic back-up functionality. Thus we haven't integrated this functionality in our app.  @kytta I could rant all day about iOS, but migrations are heaven, I still have chatlogs from 2015. Weirdest thing that happened to me was on lineageOS and titanium backup on a rooted S7, after reinstalling it my custom messaging sounds for telegram got replaced with random music mp3s from my sd-card. |
Gregory's Server
How it works instead:
1) Apps that are on the Google Play get re-installed. F-Droid? Russian banking apps? Unlucky!
2a) The half of the data gets copied, the other half doesn’t. You can’t figure out which is which. You need to open each app and look for yourself.
2b) It doesn’t matter if the app gets reinstalled or not; its data *may or may not* be there.
3) Only the ‘standard’ folders (‘Pictures’, ‘Downloads’) get transferred. Other folders that I’ve deliberately put in the root don’t.