Switching from wp8 to another wp8

[ThinkFast81]

This is my 1st post and I have a wonder about switching from windows mobile to another mobile (Lumia 920 to Lumia 1020) would my purchased apps and games appears in my account? In another word, would it be possible to use my purchased apps and games again with new windows phone device? Keep in mind they are running the same WP8.

 

[maclancer]

Yes, if my understanding that if you backup your phone settings to SkyDrive. You will have same settings and apps in the new phone.

 

[ThinkFast81]

No I think you misunderstood what I mentioned, I meant the apps and games in the marketplace not the SkyDrive, however the SkyDrive is for images uploads and saving.

 

[KrisJoeEll]

Yes. Purchases are simply tied to your Microsoft account. Log in with your account (used in your previous device) to your new device - go to store - choose your purchased app - click BUY - it will automatically install.

 

[gerzhwin]

If you check your backup settings, you will see that your apps and games can be synched. If enabled, synched and logged in with the same MSFT account, your stiff will be automatically installed on your new device.
Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Board Express

 

[ThinkFast81]

Thanks for your help , but no offense , have u tried it with wp8 ?

 

[KrisJoeEll]

Thanks for your help , but no offense , have u tried it with wp8 ?

If you meant me, Yes. I done it several times.

 

[ThinkFast81]

I meant both of u , but thanks man that's really helpful

 

[Pete]

I just did this with my new 1520 (moved from my old HTC 8X). As long as you have the back up option turned on, you'll get everything back on your new phone (except for manufacturer exclusive apps of course). You'll have to re-enter the password for your accounts though.

Before you swap over, make sure that all of your photos/videos are backed up to SkyDrive. I'm pretty sure that if you turn the "auto-upload" feature on before you swap, any previously taken photos videos won't automatically be uploaded.

The restore won't copy across your music files though, you'll have to re-sync those manually.

 

[sym1a1a]

also bear in mind that on the new phone, although all your purchases are restored, all game data will be lost ( progress, game saves ect ) also if you want your text history make sure you have your old phone set to back up text as well as app data, other than that it is a pretty painless transfer, also note it will not remember your start screen setup, you'll have to set it up again.

 

[ThinkFast81]

Good job guys I really appreciate it

 

[nathanb131]

I wrote this a few months ago so it was pre gdr3. I know that fixed the connect-wifi-before-sync-starts issue, not sure if it changed anything else for the reset/change-phone procedure. Bottom line is that the WP8 auto-backup is nice but pretty limited. Here's the gory details. FYI gdr3 did fix that dreaded 'other' memory issue for me! Hope you find it helpful.

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I've needed to factory reset my wp8 several times. Not to recover from glitch and lag <cough, Android, cough> but to swap phones with the wife. Most recently to clear up a stubborn 6gb of 'other' storage that gdr2 didn't make go away. So yeah, glitch I suppose. I'm hoping that the update will keep 'other' from taking over the phone from now on. Anyway, if you use the backup service then the restoring process isn't too bad but not perfect.

Here is a rundown of what to expect. Of course everyone's setup is unique and I'm sure this list is far from incomplete.

My setup and account situation: Verizon htc8x (but I've done this with wife's nokia 822 and it's the same). Photos all synced automatically to skydrive. I use One-Note extensively and that is also on skydrive. Any other files either live on skydrive or dropbox. My email is live.com but I still sync gmail because of shared calendars with other people. I use rhapsody for music and the built-in player for podcasts. I use multifactor authentication for both microsoft and google accounts. So basically the only data I lose by wiping my phone is some locally stored app data which for me isn't much of anything besides progress saves/history of non-xboxlive games. All my other app data is cloud based (amazon kindle, rhapsody, lastpass, baconit, pocket, facebook, linked in, nextgen reader, pandora, etc).

Before reset:

1. Make sure the phone is synced with the latest changes. For me that means going to settings-backup. I always have all 3 choices turned on and make sure to check the last time it was backed up (under apps list+settings). Yes I am aware that backing up my pics to skydrive may be a big cause of my 'other' storage issue but again gdr2 supposedly has that nipped. Note that the default for photo backup is to NOT upload big things without wifi, so the other thing I check is to look to see if my latest photos have been uploaded to skydrive.
2. Take a screenshot (or several) of your start screen if you want to restore it exactly the way it is. That'll be reset. I'm sure you already know that screenshot is power+windows button. Also, make sure that your screenshot actually is uploaded before you reset. I'm sure you already know that screenshots default save into a 'screenshots' album, NOT the camera roll. I've actually done this before and reset before my newest photos synced! Felt pretty silly. See step 1, I'm serious.
3. You should also know your wifi settings because those WON'T be restored!
4. Be close to another internet connected device if you use multi-factor authentication because you'll need to generate app passwords!
5. Time: Your phone will be basically functional (calls and texts) within 10 minutes or so after you wipe. You should be 80%functional with most your apps and data after about 20 more minutes of direct tinkering and an hour or so of waiting for the syncing to be thorough. You can use the basic functions as it syncs, just don't plan on having access to any one particular app, photo, etc for at least an hour.

To reset: Go to Settings-About. Scroll to bottom and tap 'reset your phone'. Boom. This doesn't take too long. Like a long reset, 3-5 minutes maybe.

Restore:

1. The first thing it asks for is your microsoft account login so it can retrieve your phone settings. Since I use multifactor authentication I have to go online with a pc and generate a new app password. Then it should ask you if you want to 're-store' your phone, YES!
2. It should then retrieve the other integrated accounts that were on your phone before you erased it. Again, since my gmail is multi-factor authentication you have to log into gmail on a pc and generate an app password. Facebook just straight password. All the other logins are established once you open those specific apps (baconit, lastpass etc).
3. CONNECT WIFI ASAP! You'll be tempted to re-establish your start tiles but don't do that until you check your wifi! Once you log in to your windows account, wp8 immediately starts to sync a bunch of stuff back to your phone. It's not obvious though that your wifi defaults were lost. So it is now happily sucking cell data even though you may be sitting on your couch bathing in your glorious home network. If cell data is valuable to you then don't do any other step before re-connecting to your wifi. Hope you have your wifi password handy.

The rest of the steps are in no particular order but here's what you'll need to deal with to get yourself back to normal:

-Start Screen/live tiles: Back to factory settings, also be prepared for any of your specific tile settings per app will need to be tweaked again. For example, your calendar and weather apps will be showing default views once you re-pin the tiles.

-SMS and call history: One of the BEST features of WP8. It ALL shows back up. Only weirdness I see is that some olders sms messages pop up as 'unread' sort of randomly. Quick to fix.

-Contacts, calendar, mail: This is why we use smartphones. Outlook, gmail, etc. All back like nothing happened.

-Lock screen: Back to factory settings.

-General Apps: All the apps you had installed before the wipe will immediately be re-downloaded. As far as I can tell, it only restores the apps you had right before you reset as opposed to EVERY app you've ever installed then deleted. I sort of miss how Android does this with having a 'my apps' part of the store so you can always browse what you've ever tried and then pick and choose what to re-install. Closest thing I think we can get to a 'my apps' list is to go to wp store online (on a desktop) then look at your 'purchased' history. This seems to show free apps you've downloaded too, so there's your complete app collection history. Also, every time I've reset I end up with a list of empty apps that just say "Download application-attention required". I THINK these are apps that I had downloaded before but no longer exist in the store. But I don't ever remember ever missing any apps after a restore so I really don't know. To get rid of them just go into 'downloads' from the store app, long press on the offender and 'cancel download'.

-Bloat apps will be back: You'll probably want to delete them again. Feels so good to delete verizon garbage apps without having to root!

-Microsoft Authenticator app: IF you use multifactor authentication then you'll need to be near another internet connection because it will require you to activate it through your skydrive account.

-Skydrive app: You assumed this was connected at the time you established your microsoft account right away? WRONG! How silly of you to assume. Not only do you need to re-log in to it but it will ask you for your Authenticator app password (assuming you use multi-factor authentication of course, right? RIGHT?). It's cool that you can just pop open the auth app to get this done but if you haven't activated THAT app before you left the house with your laptop then you'll be out of luck until you can find another TRUSTED internet device. The joys of security!

-Any apps you have a account with: You'll need to of course re-enter those passwords. If you wait to do this until your **** break at work then your gonna have a bad time.

-Any apps that AREN'T synced through an online account or microsoft servers: I'm looking at you, non-xbox live games. Unless they have some sort of individual backup option then just expect your progress to be lost. This is perplexing to me and another thing that Android is better at. I should add that I'm HAPPY I switched from Android but so put down your pitchforks. Just being honest about what is given up for the silky smoothness of WP.

-Settings that are reset: Ringtones, alarm tone, what is allowed to run in background. Account syncing back to default (for me this means my gmail will sync email, cal, and contacts when I only want to sync the cal). Easy to change, but again, not part of Microsoft's 'restore' function.

-OneNote: I sync several notebooks, all on skydrive, some shared with others. The good news is that all those notebooks show back up without any trouble but they all appear under 'closed notebooks'. Meaning they won't sync in the background until you open them. Don't wait until you NEED them that second to do this! Open any that you use regularly so they'll be pre-synced and ready to rock. It won't let you set any onenote shortcuts as livetiles until that notebook section is synced.

-Photos: I have all my photos uploaded to skydrive so it automatically re-populates my albums. I think it fetches thumbnail previews and this all happens within an hour or so. The only thing different is that it re-establishes an empty 'camera roll' album on the phone but still sends those pics to the existing camera roll folder on skydrive. So now in your 'pictures' folders view (from phone) you'll see a new camera roll at the top but will also have pre-reset cameral roll pictures down within your other albums.

-Podcasts: I forgot about this annoying nugget. I use the built-in xbox music for podcasts. All those disappeared. I understand having to re-sync any episodes I want stored offline, but I even lost my list of subscriptions! Though I don't subscribe to xbox music so maybe if I did then my podcast stuff would be synced online. Either I need to use a 3rd party app that syncs my settings or I have one more reason to subscribe to xbox music.

-Music: I had some locally stored music, gone. No biggie, I'll just put it back on there. I use Rhapsody instead of xbox music for saving offline music. Of course that got wiped and I'll need to re-download. If you use xbox music I'd bet good money that you'd also have to selectively re-download what you were storing offline.

-SD card: Of course my 8x doesn't have one, but our 822 does. The reset doesn't wipe the card so if you put music there then it'll still be there. I don't recall that being helpful with saving 3rd party app data though because you generally don't have a 'save to' option for those. I could be wrong though, it's been a while since I reset the 822.

-Internet Explorer: All bookmarks automatically restored. This is surprising to me since I'm not experiencing any sort of browser syncing through microsoft. Like being able to earn bing points from mobile searches. Though the rest of my machines are win7, maybe that's a win8+IE thing.