No way to restore backup?

[Paul Verizzo]

I got my phone back from warranty repair. The auto-reboot with SD card seems to be fixed. So, it came back from hard reset, not surprising. During the startup phase, it asked if I wanted to set up/login a MS account. I chose Skip. So, now that I'm OK with the rebooting issue, I apparently can't restore my backup! This is absolute idiotic. (And to rant once again about the lack of Ovi/Suite capabilities, for the last 13 years I could backup everything, not just apps, and save to my computer. And restore from same.

This whole cloud/we own you/no control of MY phone is enough to go postal for. No, I'm not serious. But people do take extreme actions and/or suffer depression when things are out of their control.

Apparently Nokia Repair did install Amber.

I think I'll get a rotary wired phone and a phone book.............

 

[gapost]

Take it easy. Just do a hard reset and you will have the option again to restore from backup.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Take it easy. Just do a hard reset and you will have the option again to restore from backup.

That's exactly my point. Doing S*** all over again instead of doing it later, which it implies. To compound the felony, it uses data, you don't have any chance to set up the wifi first.
One should be able to restore at any time of ownership w/o doing the hard reset. Don't forget all it really does is put back your apps and SMS. Photos you can always sync/download later.
Sorry, I just do not tolerate stupidity very well. It's hard to believe people are drawing paychecks for being this stupid.

 

[Guzzler3]

Paul, sorry to hear about your frustration,

But in order to restore, the phone needs to know your MS account, otherwise it just can't determine what to restore, period. It also needs to have your sim card in, in order to verify compatibility of the apps you've installed/purchased and the various phone settings you've made, which does require some data usage. It isn't just WP, Apple and Android phones do the same thing. It's just the way it is now with everything "Up in the Cloud".

You can minimize your cellular data usage after a reset/restore by going straight to your Wi-Fi settings as soon as you can and connecting to your preferred Wi-Fi.

Things that are backed up: (From Back up my stuff | Windows Phone How-to (United States) )

Your call history.
Your theme color.
The accounts you've set up on your phone.
Your Internet Explorer favorites.
Settings from around your phone, including photos, messaging, email and accounts, location, Internet Explorer, lock screen, Speech, and more.​

Supposedly WP8.1 will change the backup/restore process.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Paul, sorry to hear about your frustration,

But in order to restore, the phone needs to know your MS account, otherwise it just can't determine what to restore, period. It also needs to have your sim card in, in order to verify compatibility of the apps you've installed/purchased and the various phone settings you've made, which does require some data usage. It isn't just WP, Apple and Android phones do the same thing. It's just the way it is now with everything "Up in the Cloud".

You can minimize your cellular data usage after a reset/restore by going straight to your Wi-Fi settings as soon as you can and connecting to your preferred Wi-Fi.

Things that are backed up: (From Back up my stuff | Windows Phone How-to (United States) )

Your call history.
Your theme color.
The accounts you've set up on your phone.
Your Internet Explorer favorites.
Settings from around your phone, including photos, messaging, email and accounts, location, Internet Explorer, lock screen, Speech, and more.​

Supposedly WP8.1 will change the backup/restore process.

I do appreciate your calm explanations. Sadly, I don't feel that there is any logic in the method. If I choose to Skip the restore, why can't it be done later? Why don't they give me an opportunity to get the wifi connected first? (I actually came within a couple of MB of hitting my data ceiling yesterday.) Why can't they back up to PC and restore from same like Nokia has done for fifteen years? And restore EVERYthing, just like Nokia has done for fifteen years.

See what I mean? There ARE logical alternatives.

 

[T Moore]

After the email is entered the phone gets the restore information. This has a progress bar, it doesn't take long. Then the phone starts downloading your list of apps. You can then go to WiFi and turn it on so the majority of app downloads is done by WiFi. The phone tells you this when the restore process starts.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

After the email is entered the phone gets the restore information. This has a progress bar, it doesn't take long. Then the phone starts downloading your list of apps. You can then go to WiFi and turn it on so the majority of app downloads is done by WiFi. The phone tells you this when the restore process starts.

I know. Exactly my point. There are logically better ways. i.e., set up wifi first, let people restore after the phone is up and running. Not so hard.

 

[waazzupppp]

I heard a rumor that Microsoft built it this way to protect the carrier locks on the devices. By not allowing 'APN Editing' before restoration, the phone cannot restore itself while not on a native network - IE a Lumia 920 that is locked to AT&T but used on Red Pocket Mobile cannot restore itself due to the data APN not being correct. Unfortunately, this would apply to the Wi-Fi restoration as well. I'm hoping they undo this in the future as I dropped myself to a 500MB high speed plan to save some bucks - which since I have Wi-Fi 90% of the time is normally not an issue, but I would hate to have to run my restore towards the end of the month on 2G... Yikes!

 

[Paul Verizzo]

I heard a rumor that Microsoft built it this way to protect the carrier locks on the devices. By not allowing 'APN Editing' before restoration, the phone cannot restore itself while not on a native network - IE a Lumia 920 that is locked to AT&T but used on Red Pocket Mobile cannot restore itself due to the data APN not being correct. Unfortunately, this would apply to the Wi-Fi restoration as well. I'm hoping they undo this in the future as I dropped myself to a 500MB high speed plan to save some bucks - which since I have Wi-Fi 90% of the time is normally not an issue, but I would hate to have to run my restore towards the end of the month on 2G... Yikes!

It takes very little data to get it ready for wifi. I think what it does is download a framework, for lack of a better term. Then, when you have wifi, the real data. I did it on my 30MB/mo plan that had only maybe 5MB left. It worked, but the next day I was out of data. I'm not very much a man about town, nor travel, so I use very little data.

 

[waazzupppp]

Hey Paul, I wasn't saying that it was a lack of data use to set up Wi-Fi, but that Microsoft may have restricted the setup to protect the carriers. Without either being able to edit an APN or setup via Wi-Fi before restoring, only the original carrier's data connection can be used to restore the device. It's a pretty messed up system that needs to be fixed.

 

[nwildcat]

You do realize that it's no big deal skipping the initial login/setup MS account and you can just enter it later, right? Did you try that and it didn't work or something? I have a 822, I'd assume yours is the same. Under settings, emails + accounts, just enter your information into Microsoft account and it will begin the sync process. What info it pulls depends on what you backed up. Had to do it with my warranty replacement, works the same as if you setup initially, my stuff was backed up, everything synced fine, same info now as my old phone and no hard or soft reset needed.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

You do realize that it's no big deal skipping the initial login/setup MS account and you can just enter it later, right? Did you try that and it didn't work or something? I have a 822, I'd assume yours is the same. Under settings, emails + accounts, just enter your information into Microsoft account and it will begin the sync process. What info it pulls depends on what you backed up. Had to do it with my warranty replacement, works the same as if you setup initially, my stuff was backed up, everything synced fine, same info now as my old phone and no hard or soft reset needed.

No, it did not sync after I set things up later. It insists that I do it at the very beginning of the hard reboot process.

 

[Chris Sandiford]

You're lucky you got that far, just doing my third hard reset now and I "can't connect" when it tries to sign in with my MS account.
Decent signal, no dice.

Edit: When given the option to Sign in or Skip, there is a third smaller option, "sign in later". I chose that.
Hooked up to Wifi, added an account and all synced and restored.

Happy.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

You're lucky you got that far, just doing my third hard reset now and I "can't connect" when it tries to sign in with my MS account.
Decent signal, no dice.

Edit: When given the option to Sign in or Skip, there is a third smaller option, "sign in later". I chose that.
Hooked up to Wifi, added an account and all synced and restored.

Happy.

I guess it's in the semantics, isn't it? Good catch. Skip, to me, is the same as Sign in later. Sigh.

I saw where GDR3 will allow direct to wifi for restore.

 

[sailorboi88]

You're lucky you got that far, just doing my third hard reset now and I "can't connect" when it tries to sign in with my MS account.
Decent signal, no dice.

Edit: When given the option to Sign in or Skip, there is a third smaller option, "sign in later". I chose that.
Hooked up to Wifi, added an account and all synced and restored.

Happy.

yoUr apps got restored when you did this? I tried doing this and only my SMSs and Hotmail contscts got restored. Everything else nada. Or maybe i did something wrong?? Help! I ?pgraded to a lumia1020 and i dont want to start thingson the wrong foot like this...

 

[PB_H]

yoUr apps got restored when you did this? I tried doing this and only my SMSs and Hotmail contscts got restored. Everything else nada. Or maybe i did something wrong?? Help! I ?pgraded to a lumia1020 and i dont want to start thingson the wrong foot like this...

Make all your apps are backed up, if you don't do that then you wont' get them. Just to make sure I have all the apps when and if I need to do a factory reset, I go to store and look at history and resend them to my pc where I create a folder with all the apps so if some don't restore I can find which one didn't. Some won't restore because they are no longer published and you're SOL if you want them back

 

[zippo718]

Still having issue with this. Following the instructions of a previous poster, I chose "sign in later", then set up my wifi. I went to settings and added my MS account, but I was not given an option to restore back up afterwards. It just asked me if I want to enable back up, which I did. Then nothing happened. Am I suppose to do something extra?

 

[PB_H]

This needs to made a sticky I'm surprised peeps do NOT look into anything before they restore to factory setting
or do a major update when they're not sure what to do. Good luck next time.
How do I update my phone software? | Windows Phone How-to (United States)
and this http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/basics/backup-and-storage
AND http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/basics/back-up-my-stuff
THIS http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/basics/restore-a-backup-to-my-phone

 

[Umang Khandelwal]

Try changing the USB Port. It worked for me. Lumia 620. Alternatively, you can try using the 'Nokia Software Updater for Retail' re-flashing.