[HoosierDaddy]

I have been using a 521 on T-Mobile ($30/mo - 100 min talk, unlimited text and data) but just got a 925.

Can I just move the sim card and link it to my Windows account on the new phone?

I assume apps are "married" to a particular phone but am not sure. But if they are, what do I have to do before and after swapping the sims to make sure I have them on the new phone? I'm not asking how to reinstall them, but how to make sure they are linked to the new phone and not the old one.

Are there any gotchas?

I have an unlock code on the way from T-Mobile for the 521 but they say that CAN take 14 days though typically 2. They said I can move the sim now and move it back when I get the code just long enough to unlock it. If that doesn't sound right or causes any side effects, I'd like to know.

I will either keep the unlocked 521 as a backup phone or I might give it to a die hard feature phone user to bring them into the fold. Any advice on what I should do to the 521 for either scenario?

TIA

[thelostsoul]

When you get a new phone, at first boot (or after a hard reset), when you link it to your microsoft account, it should ask you to restore settings from a backup. If you have app backup enabled, it will automatically install all of these apps and they will be linked to that device. Most settings will not sync, and there is no way to sync those settings.

If you are changing device models, or you do not want to restore from backup, you may reinstall all apps by going to windowsphone.com, logging in, selecting your new device, then going to purchase history and manually clicking reinstall next to each.

The only problems you may encounter are regarding in-app purchases. It is up to the developer to program their app to maintain these purchases. It may or not work depending on the app.

Unfortunately, these are the only two ways that I am aware of.

[shmsnh]

I cannot advise about the SIM issue, since I don't know how these things work in the US.

Your apps are tied to your Microsoft account, so as long as you use the same account on your new phone, you will be able to use the apps. In-app purchases depend on whether the developer supports them or not.

[HoosierDaddy]

Thanks. I think I only have one in-app purchase. So will cross my fingers.

[Reebs Reebs]

I did the same move from 521 to 925. I failed to back up the apps for the following reason: If you miss that "Back up" question in the setup phase, I don't think you would still be able to backup after. You would have to go to the store webpage and push the apps you want from all the apps that you've ever downloaded.

[anon(123856)]

Good advice I have seen elsewhere on this forum would be to update to Black before you restore a backup. That way you can connect to a WiFi network before you start the restore. I've done a couple of hard resets and the restores have always gone fine, no hiccups. And as others have stated, re-downloading your apps from the store is fairly painless.

[HoosierDaddy]

Good advice I have seen elsewhere on this forum would be to update to Black before you restore a backup. That way you can connect to a WiFi network before you start the restore. I've done a couple of hard resets and the restores have always gone fine, no hiccups. And as others have stated, re-downloading your apps from the store is fairly painless.

Makes sense. Thanks.

[HoosierDaddy]

I've done the swap. For posterity here are the good, the bad, the ugly.

Per suggestion, I did NOT restore apps and that worked well because I had some I had tried and hadn't uninstalled. So reinstalling from my account was a good exercise to make sure I ended up with just what I need and want. The only downside was eye strain from scrolling thru the seemingly endless list of apps I had already uninstalled after deciding I didn't want them. LoL

Unfortunately, before reinstalling apps I spend 45 minutes trying to figure out how to turn on the alphabet placeholders in the phone's app list. Never did find how. Gave up and proceeded to reinstall the apps. For those who aren't already laughing at me, the placeholders apparently just kick in once you have a certain number of apps or apps starting with enough different letters. In other words they just showed up on their own as I reinstalled apps.

My pictures, videos, music and maps did NOT restore to the new phone, I suspect because I had them on an SD card in the 521. But I had manually copied the SD card contents to my PC just in case, so it took just a few minutes to drag the pictures back into the new phone and re-download maps. I'm still deciding what music to put on the phone.

The only ugly was that my text message history only restored thru late December initially. But the rest "magically" appeared more than 2 days later. They all were still on the 521 but I was really sweating about what would happen if I gave away the 521 and then got summoned to appear on Judge Judy. I'm sure you all know what happens to anyone who can't show her the smoking gun text messages on their phone.

Side note: I got my unlock code for my 521 today and I want to choke what ever bean counter decided they could discourage unlocking by preventing you from unlocking UNTIL you already installed a competitor's sim. I can't think of any reason but to make it more likely that a used phone gets sold to someone who want's to stay with T-Mobile because I sure as hell would not pay as much for a phone that I had to unlock myself after buying it. I think its very uncool of them because it means that someone traveling won't be able to unlock the phone UNTIL they are overseas and get the sim they want to use. Not a convenient place and time to find there is some issue with unlocking the phone. Fortunately, someone in the WPCentral forums had posted the "secret" procedure to unlock a T-mobile WP8 phone regardless of the sim (or lack of) in it.

[Wacky_Packy]

Nice Summary!