Transfer text messages from 930 to 950

[TheEdge76]

Hello,
Me again. I've made a lot of progress with my Windows Lumia 950, and transferring content from my trusty old 930 to my new phone. Only thing I can't figure out is how to move all my old SMS's/MMS's from my 930 to my 950. They're all backed up, but when I try to run "Transfer my Data" on the 950 (both devices are paired over Bluetooth) it says "Sorry you can't copy anything directly from Windows Phone".
How can I make the 950 find the backup of SMS's etc that I've uploaded to OneDrive? Come to think of it, how can I check it's even uploaded to OneDrive safely?
I guess what I need to ask is:
- how do I check that my messages have been backed up correctly (to OneDrive)?
- how do I get the 950 to look at my OneDrive and import the messages from there? Both devices are signed in to the same OneDrive account, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance

 

[xandros9]

Make sure the option to Backup (WP8) or Sync (W10M) is enabled in the Messaging app's settings. (and set the timeframe you want as well)

 

[KefKef]

Hello,
Me again. I've made a lot of progress with my Windows Lumia 950, and transferring content from my trusty old 930 to my new phone. Only thing I can't figure out is how to move all my old SMS's/MMS's from my 930 to my 950. They're all backed up, but when I try to run "Transfer my Data" on the 950 (both devices are paired over Bluetooth) it says "Sorry you can't copy anything directly from Windows Phone".

What happens when you start "Transfer my Data" on L930?

 

[TheEdge76]

Make sure the option to Backup (WP8) or Sync (W10M) is enabled in the Messaging app's settings. (and set the timeframe you want as well)

These are the settings I have on the Windows 8 phone and the Lumia (how do you change the default screenshot format? It's .png and I'd like it to be .jpg):

 

[TheEdge76]

What happens when you start "Transfer my Data" on L930?

Frustratingly, this:



which is the wrong way around - it's trying to transfer from the 950 to the 930 (which is why there are only 4 text messages - I have way more than that on the 930), when I want it to transfer from the 930 to the 950.

 

[TheEdge76]

Something else I just thought of. When I was first doing this last night, the 950 asked if I wanted to transfer all messages and contacts. Wary of this as last time I got doubled-up contacts, I said no, thinking I would have the option to select what I wanted to transfer later on. Unfortunately that option wasn't presented to me, and now I'm stuck
I also just tried reinstalling the "Transfer my Data" app on both devices but to no avail.

 

[nycny]

Check the 930 back up settings and sync all your text with OneDrive. Then your texts should eventually start showing up on the new phone.

 

[nycny]

https://www.bing.com/search?q=how+to+back+up+photos+and+text+messages+in+windows+10+mobile&filters=guid:"b5173306-d37a-42f4-a4b1-90e4bbe0a0ee" lang:"en-us"&form=S00028

 

[TheEdge76]

Check the 930 back up settings and sync all your text with OneDrive. Then your texts should eventually start showing up on the new phone.

Are both of those setup correctly? Isn't that the setting in the screenshots I posted?
How long is "eventually"? I've just setup OneDrive on the 950...what else do I need to do?

 

[xandros9]

Might be a day or so but I don't know for sure. There was a period of a few months last year where the text message backup/sync feature was almost completely broken with no word from MS.

Also, you can't change the default screenshot format.

 

[TheEdge76]

Ah well. I'll leave it for a day or so then and see what happens.

Any idea (for those of you that have been through this) what happens to the few new text messages I have on the 950? When my 930 messages come through, are they merged with those, or are they lost forever?

 

[humzahyaz]

Go into Messaging app > ... > Settings. Make sure you are signed in. Just select the option of 'Any time' from the drop down list. I had a Lumia 620 and then an Android device and can't remember even if I checked the option of back up. Yet my Lumia 950 fetched text messages from the past 4-5 years.

 

[TheEdge76]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did check that setting and it's already set to "Any time" (see screenshot above) and I'm signed in as well. How long did it take to do the fetching? Days? Weeks? Overnight?
I really hope I don't need to do a reset on my new phone, because that would be a major, major nuisance.
Interestingly, I didn't have any problems like this when I migrated from my Nokia E5 to my 930 last year...all the migrating just happened exactly as it was meant to with no fuss at all.

 

[TheEdge76]

No change overnight...interesting as I thought backups etc happened at 3 in the morning?

 

[TheEdge76]

Day 2 of nothing happening...I don't think this is going to work, is it?

 

[ashram]

If you still have both phones, this is what I would do/have done...

Log into onedrive, go to settings and device backups... delete the backups
on your older phone, start a backup and wait for it to finish
on the new phone, restore from backup.

now for me, I did have an issue with my contacts coming back after a hard reset, and well, I just tried again.

Also, a couple of times it did take a few hours for txts to start syncing, other times they started immediately. Twice it took around 3-4 days for all my txts to finish restoring.

Will this work for you? no clue, just passing along what worked for me.

 

[TheEdge76]

Thanks for the suggestion (and the same to everyone else who suggested something) but I think I'm going to go back to my 930...the 950 is just too much hassle to setup the way I want it to

 

[obakir]

you're going to miss your 930