Why can't I see the Lumia 520 from any of my PC's.?

[dmusicant]

Re: Can't see Lumia 520 from any of my PC's.

Well, I did a reset, signed in with my other account (dmusicant@live.com, which is not a valid email address AFAIK, but whatever...), and did a restore. The date shown was from July 2014, not yesterday, but it gave me no choice, so again, whatever! Now my tiles aren't as I had them (most all of them small, not big, but right now they are all big and not the ones I had, for the most part). Maybe the tiles will eventually show up, maybe I'll have to redo that stuff entirely. Currently, all my apps that weren't already on the new phone are "pending." They are apparently downloading one by one via WIFI. I don't know if they are all there, but a whole lot of them are, at first glance. With over 160 apps (if they are all there), that's going to take many hours. Not a big problem, certainly, as long as they download. One of them says "needs attention" which is my Chase Mobile app, and when I click that it says there's an error. I'll deal with that later. I hope my tiles show up...

Now, I had the SD card in there (still have), and I was asked during the setup procedure if I wanted to use the card for whatever and I said "yes." I hadn't reformatted it or changed any of the data on it. Of course, I don't know if that's going to work out. I do have the entire contents of the card copied to a HD. The 64GB card has around 14GB free right now. I did check the file system this morning and it is indeed exFat. I will look into installing the KB update that will enable my XP machines to read the card.

 

[dmusicant]

Yes it would have been all perfect .... if you had backed up both settings and app data.
but in your case you opted for settings backup only (turning on backup for appdata has a separate toggle in the same settings page in phone)
you didn't mention about using a second account ...
you have to use the same account to sign in.
Then only it will prompt you to restore.
If you have a win 8.1 pc, the backup file of the pc will be in the same folder in the onedrive as well.

I DID have all options enabled in backup, it has been that way for a while. So, I think that settings backup isn't all I had. I don't have a Win 8.1 PC. I have two Win7 PCs and a few XP, also a Vista Business off site, presently.

I wish I didn't have a 2nd account. That was a mistake. I literally spent hours trying to sort things out when I updated to Windows Phone 8.1. Things weren't working right and I was on the phone with Microsoft support. They never figured it out! Yes, I have two accounts. I would prefer to have just one but now that I know that the @live.com account is the one that the phone is using maybe I can live with that, just ignore the other one.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

Re: Can't see Lumia 520 from any of my PC's.

umm if it was me i would have formatted the sd card from inside the phone and started fresh with the restore.
Now a lot of "unused" hidden files will be there (most probably the old app data).

before signing in you could have formatted the sd card from the phone
and then moved the music/videos/documents into their respective folders from your pc.

and then when you sign in, the restore will be perfect.
sd card would have been clean as well.
the main reason i told you to copy stuff to pc (in a previous post) was to start fresh even if you are restoring.

 

[dmusicant]

Re: Can't see Lumia 520 from any of my PC's.

umm if it was me i would have formatted the sd card from inside the phone and started fresh with the restore.
Now a lot of "unused" hidden files will be there (most probably the old app data).

before signing in you could have formatted the sd card from the phone
and then moved the music/videos/documents into their respective folders from your pc.

and then when you sign in, the restore will be perfect.
sd card would have been clean as well.
the main reason i told you to copy stuff to pc (in a previous post) was to start fresh even if you are restoring.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this stuff. Now, I have a feeling that my restore was from July 2014. That was the date shown when I chose the restore. There wasn't another choice, just that one. Why I didn't see an option to restore from yesterday's backup totally boggles my mind. I wasn't sure that the July 2014 date didn't just signify something else, other than the actual date of backup from which it was about to restore. The date was just displayed, there wasn't an indication what it signified. However, I went into Phone and the recent calls shown there are from July 2014. I have made calls recently, so I have to think that my restore was indeed from July 2014, which was approximately when I did the update to Windows Phone 8.1. Now, the phone informs me that it wants to update to Windows Phone 8.1! Well, I let it, what else can I do? I wonder what could have happened to my backup from yesterday. When I signed into my Microsoft Account using the same credentials and password as the one I used to sign onto the phone when I did the restore, I saw yesterday's backup. But the phone did not!!! It did not offer that one, only the one with the July 2014 date shown below it.

Well, I can, presumably, still do things as you said you would, by reformatting the card in the phone before doing a restore, but presumably I still won't see yesterday's backup. How do I format the card before signing in? Should I remove data from the card before doing this? I was asked if I want to use the card for data, etc. during the setup process (Yes/No, and I chose Yes). I had no idea what that would do to the card, presumably nothing, since the data on it checked out to be the same as what I have on the backup.

At the moment, the phone is doing the update to WP 8.1, evidently. It's not telling me what exactly it's doing, but I got hints that it wanted to update to 8.1 and it now says it's doing an update and it's been around 45 minutes, so I suppose it's updating to 8.1. If the restore had been from yesterday's backup, wouldn't that have included 8.1 without having to do an update?

Presently, Phone Update is in progress and it says "Preparing to install 68%"

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

Windows update and backup/restore are unrelated.
Whatever updated related to OS/Firmware you do will still remain in the phone even if you reset the phone.

I also don't know why your phone didn't offer to restore if you used the same credentials.

Do as follow.

1. Let if finish updating.
2. You said you had already backed up music/videos/files to pc ( So let it be there).
3. go to storage sense press on the sd card scroll down and you will see format option.
4. after formatting is done, reset your phone. (dont worry the 8.1 will still be there)
5. start fresh.(this is entirely your choice/you can also go back to the july 2014 backup) (use only one account).
6. If you remember the apps you can just head to the store and queue it one by one.

 

[dmusicant]

Windows update and backup/restore are unrelated.
Whatever updated related to OS/Firmware you do will still remain in the phone even if you reset the phone.

I also don't know why your phone didn't offer to restore if you used the same credentials.

Do as follow.

1. Let if finish updating.
2. You said you had already backed up music/videos/files to pc ( So let it be there).
3. go to storage sense press on the sd card scroll down and you will see format option.
4. after formatting is done, reset your phone. (dont worry the 8.1 will still be there)
5. start fresh.(this is entirely your choice/you can also go back to the july 2014 backup) (use only one account).
6. If you remember the apps you can just head to the store and queue it one by one.

I would definitely go back to the July 2014 backup because it knows that I had at least those apps. If I start fresh I'd have to add them one by one and AFAIK it wouldn't know that I bought ~3 apps (or maybe it would, I don't know).

I do remember the apps because I have them listed (see post above with the list, some ~160 apps).

What's the advantage of formatting the card in the phone? You did explain that a bit but I didn't understand.

I presume that you also mean that after doing all this I should copy all the data on the PC back to the card. Do I want to copy all that stuff or just my music, videos and photos? There's a \WPSystem folder too. Do I want to copy that back too?

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

Formatting the card in the phone is safe (the file systems and hidden folder structures generated will be safe)

After doing his .. just copy music videos and photos and other documents ...
no need to copy the \WPSystem folder

 

[dmusicant]

Formatting the card in the phone is safe (the file systems and hidden folder structures generated will be safe)

After doing his .. just copy music videos and photos and other documents ...
no need to copy the \WPSystem folder

What is the object in doing it this way instead of how it is now?

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

What is the object in doing it this way instead of how it is now?

Its the 'clean' way

 

[dmusicant]

Coming back to this...

I logged into my Microsoft Account from a PC and saw two backups. They were dated 03/24/2015 and 03/26/2015. Now, the second has to have been an automatic backup done from the new phone. the former could have been either. So, I deleted both, figuring I could make another backup from the original phone (that has the bad USB connector), and then restore that to the new phone after resetting it. So, I delete the backups, reinsert the SIM and SD card in the original phone (don't know that this is necessary, but figure I might as well). I did a Backup Now, it went to completion but at the end it said there was a problem and I should "try again later." I ran it again and it seemed to hang up at 19% (sat there for ~5 minutes), so I cancelled and started a new Backup Now after shutting down the phone. It too seemed to hang up at 19% but about 10 minutes later it proceeded, then seemed to hang up at 97%. That finally completed. Now I'm going to verify from a PC that the backup is there, and if so, reset the new phone and then restore... hopefully the phone will find it!

 

[dmusicant]

Windows update and backup/restore are unrelated.
Whatever updated related to OS/Firmware you do will still remain in the phone even if you reset the phone.

I also don't know why your phone didn't offer to restore if you used the same credentials.

Do as follow.

1. Let if finish updating.
2. You said you had already backed up music/videos/files to pc ( So let it be there).
3. go to storage sense press on the sd card scroll down and you will see format option.
4. after formatting is done, reset your phone. (dont worry the 8.1 will still be there)
5. start fresh.(this is entirely your choice/you can also go back to the july 2014 backup) (use only one account).
6. If you remember the apps you can just head to the store and queue it one by one.

Here's my plan:

I did another backup from my old phone (with SIM and SD card in there, presumably basically unchanged as of yet), yesterday. I then did a backup of the new phone today. So, when I go to Onedrive I see both backups, 3/27 and 3/28.

I plan to do as you say, format the SD card (which is backed up to HD) in the new phone, then reset the new phone and restore from the 3/27 backup (hopefully, presumably, I'll be offered both the 3/27 and 3/28 backups from which I can restore after resetting the phone. The 3/27 should be the old phone as it was just recently, with all my apps and recent, etc. app data.

Will see how this goes. If something goes wrong I can presumably restore from the 3/28 backup of the new phone prior to today's reset.

I could just use it as it is now, it's got most of my apps, but I'll try this, should presumably get all my apps and recent data and have the advantage of a cleanly formatted SD card.

Thank you Daniel and Harrie for helping me here. I'll post back the results of today's activity.

 

[dmusicant]

So far so good, everything seems to have gone as planned. Now, I'm asked if I want to use the reformatted SD card for storage, etc., and I said yes. I will copy the data back to the card. Don't know if I should do this with the phone on or not. I think I'll shut it off now, put the card in a card reader and do it that way. Not sure what's best, probably doesn't matter, but figure this might be safer.

One of the best things about doing it like this is that I get my startup screen the way it was with all my tiles.

I'm copying everything but the \WPSystem directory to the card via card reader.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

So far so good, everything seems to have gone as planned. Now, I'm asked if I want to use the reformatted SD card for storage, etc., and I said yes. I will copy the data back to the card. Don't know if I should do this with the phone on or not. I think I'll shut it off now, put the card in a card reader and do it that way. Not sure what's best, probably doesn't matter, but figure this might be safer.

One of the best things about doing it like this is that I get my startup screen the way it was with all my tiles.

I'm copying everything but the \WPSystem directory to the card via card reader.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USE THE USB CABLE ...... ( IT IS THE BEST OPTION !!! )
DO NOT PULLOUT YOUR CARD AND PUT IT IN ANOTHER DEVICE/READER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dmusicant]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USE THE USB CABLE ...... ( IT IS THE BEST OPTION !!! )
DO NOT PULLOUT YOUR CARD AND PUT IT IN ANOTHER DEVICE/READER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too late, you didn't say that before. I told you I need step by step, I don't have the gotchas internally.

Formatting the card in the phone is safe (the file systems and hidden folder structures generated will be safe)

After doing his .. just copy music videos and photos and other documents ...
no need to copy the \WPSystem folder

Now, I have to do it all over again...
- - - -
...uh, why does it matter?

Should I also use the USB of phone when copying large amounts of data to the card? I sometimes copy ~20GB (for instance) of MP3s to the SD card. I used a card reader for this in the past because the USB connection of the phone was terribly unreliable if not unusable.
- - - -
Resetting phone again right now, concomitantly erasing the SD card. The backup is still there, I can restore it no sweat.

 

[Daniel Gilbert M]

ummm you see the process of repeated removal of sd card from the slot, may damage the slot...
you may accidentally get some hidden files/folders deleted. (using the sd card from cardreader gives more access.
​
you can do the transfer (be it any size) through the usb cable.
just to be safe

Thats why you are given a usb cable.

If your usb cable is unreliable use an ftp server like software if you have a wifi router at place.

repeated removal of sd card from slot is not advisable....

the contacts may get worn out and the slot will be ruined.

 

[dmusicant]

Damn! Now the 3/27 backup isn't there!!!!!!!!! I see the 3/28 made with the new phone, one from July 13, 2014 (which I couldn't see yesterday for some reason, ugh), and another one from 3/28, which must have been created automatically. Now I have to put the card back in the old phone (with SIM, I suppose) and do another backup... This is pretty nutty.

 

[dmusicant]

I made another backup of the old phone, reset the new phone after formatting the SD card (opting to "Erase" the SD card at the same time), restored from the backup and then initiated a copy/paste of all the folders on the backup of the SD card except for the \WPSystem folder and went to bed. In the morning my PC said that the Sample Pictures couldn't be copied and I could Skip or Cancel. I skipped and then it said that some other pictures couldn't be copied. The net result is that only some photos were copied and no music, no videos, documents, etc. I guess I could try it this way again, but am tempted to just put the card a card reader and restore the files that way. The OS seems to be able to find them OK and deal with them, I've done this before. Whether it does it right, I don't know.

I am trying to copying through the phone's USB connection again. This time I'm monitoring how things go, last night I just started the process and went to bed...