How do I transfer or use Games/Apps on a sdcard from my old Lumia 520 to a new Lumia 640?

[Windows Central Question]

I have a new Lumia 640. I want to use the APPS/Games that are on my microsd card, which was in my Lumia 520.

The 640 is AT&T. My 520 was unlocked when I bought it. The 640 is unlocked by AT&T, they sent me an unlock code and I put the sim from the 520 in the 640 and it is all setup. My SIM/Carrier is TMobile.

On the 640 the microsd card shows as Other and says "these are file types we do not recognize that didn't fit in with the rest..."

Apps games show 0 bytes
Other shows 6.46 GB
Video shows 4 GB

They are both Windows 8.1

There has to be an easy way to transfer/use my old games/apps. How do I do it?

 

[PhineasTD]

Unfortunately, while the OS's may be identical your apps are only registered to one. Your best option is to backup the apps that were on your 520 to your PC or Onedrive. Once done, then switch your SD card over to your new 640 and reinstall your apps from your PC/Onedrive.

*edit
I failed to mention, once you're positive that you've secured your information in backup, it'd be wise to clear the SD Card and install fresh.

 

[Rubidad]

Unfortunately, while the OS's may be identical your apps are only registered to one. Your best option is to backup the apps that were on your 520 to your PC or Onedrive. Once done, then switch your SD card over to your new 640 and reinstall your apps from your PC/Onedrive.

*edit
I failed to mention, once you're positive that you've secured your information in backup, it'd be wise to clear the SD Card and install fresh.

What about music and photo files left on the sd card?

 

[pdaneophyte]

Do you have access to pc? If so, take out the sd card (unmount it first from storage setting), put it in pc, copy your photo & music to pc. Put option to show hidden files on your PC file explorer. While there you might notice there is a folder called wpsystems. That's where your old apps are. Copy that too to your pc.
Next put in the sd card to your new phone. When it is recognized, format the card. Set so your new docs, prigram, music & photo to be saved to sd card. Do not put anything yet. Unmount the sd card, and pop it back to pc. Copy your previously saved docs, photo, music to the card. DO NOT OVERWRITE/COPY desktop.ini from your pc copy to sd copy. Next copy your wpsystems file to the newly formated sd card. Eject the card properly after you are done. Pop it to the phone, wait a while to let the files to be indexed by the phone. See if the apps are back on the pho.ne

 

[rhapdog]

I have a new Lumia 640. I want to use the APPS/Games that are on my microsd card, which was in my Lumia 520.

The 640 is AT&T. My 520 was unlocked when I bought it. The 640 is unlocked by AT&T, they sent me an unlock code and I put the sim from the 520 in the 640 and it is all setup. My SIM/Carrier is TMobile.

On the 640 the microsd card shows as Other and says "these are file types we do not recognize that didn't fit in with the rest..."

Apps games show 0 bytes
Other shows 6.46 GB
Video shows 4 GB

They are both Windows 8.1

There has to be an easy way to transfer/use my old games/apps. How do I do it?

Do you have access to pc? If so, take out the sd card (unmount it first from storage setting), put it in pc, copy your photo & music to pc. Put option to show hidden files on your PC file explorer. While there you might notice there is a folder called wpsystems. That's where your old apps are. Copy that too to your pc.
Next put in the sd card to your new phone. When it is recognized, format the card. Set so your new docs, prigram, music & photo to be saved to sd card. Do not put anything yet. Unmount the sd card, and pop it back to pc. Copy your previously saved docs, photo, music to the card. DO NOT OVERWRITE/COPY desktop.ini from your pc copy to sd copy. Next copy your wpsystems file to the newly formated sd card. Eject the card properly after you are done. Pop it to the phone, wait a while to let the files to be indexed by the phone. See if the apps are back on the pho.ne

Apps used on one phone cannot be copied to be used in another phone, period. For those apps that allow the data to be backed up, you should use the phone's built-in Phone Backup function to keep from losing data for those apps. Not all apps will back up data, however. Some will lose data.

When you upgrade to a new phone, as I have done several times, you just need to move the SD card to the new phone. That way you will immediately have access to all your music and photos. Now, open the Storage app, and tell it to save new apps to your SD card. It won't be selected already, because apps are already on the card. When you do this, it will give you a prompt warning you that apps from another phone are already on the card, and will have to be deleted. Delete the apps, and download them fresh. Any apps that allow the backup of user data will get that data restored when you re-install the app.

Best of luck.