8.1 phone backup is awful

[missionsparta]

The battery on my 920 is practically fried. Doesnt keep a charge anymore. Long story short, I have now got another 920 to hold me over until a 1520 replacement comes. I figured with 8.1, backup and transferring to the new phone would be a snap. This feature has deemed itself practically useless. I have attempted to do a backup and restore to the new 920 about 6 times with the same results:

1. None of the apps settings or progress (games) are recoverd. I realize that if the dev doesnt add the feature it won't work, but I am having a hard time believing I havent come across on app that has utilized this.

2. It seems it will only retrieve your start screen if you are using the old 8 start screen column set up. If you use anything other than the medium tile, it does not carry that over. All my larger and small tiles are just put back to medium and everything is just two columns of medium.

3. None of the folders are saved. They are just gone.

4. Backup takes so long that it times out most of the time and want tells you it was unable to do it. Hangs at 24% and 98% like a champ.

5. Same for restore. It takes forever and when it does time out, it doesn't give you the option to try again. That was your one chance. You have to restore the whole phone again in order to try to restore your back up again.

About the only thing it did do was bring the wallpaper over. Ugh. Both phones have been updated to 8.1 and both are using the same Microsoft account. Double Ugh.
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[berty6294]

Er I'm sorry to hear about your poor experience. I myself have just done a backup and restore recently and was actually impressed.

1) I don't play many games, but the few I do did not transfer over either. The way WP does app restores is simply redownloading them from the store as if you went in there and pressed install on your own.

2) my restore pulled my start screen back perfectly. Every size and in their exact locations. (large medium and small)

3) I don't use folders, couldn't tell you.

4) well I've always just allowed it to autobackup, but from my understanding, all you have to do is sync the Microsoft account to force another backup.

5) The restore took about 30 minutes. And yes that's the case with IOS as well.

In addition all of my settings and texts were backed up and restored as well. The only mobile OS that does that.

 

[ashram]

ok.... considering i used this, i can give my opinions...

1: about settings and saves... as hard as it is to believe, yes, not even half my apps restored any kind of data (i would say 10-15%) This is all on the devs

2: I went from 8.1 update 1 dev preview on black to 8.1 update 1 dev preview on Cyan. I did wipe the phone and updated to cyan, then installed ONLY dev preview, updated to update 1, wiped and restored data. Apps took about 2-3 hours (i wasn't near wifi) and txts took about 5-6 hours for everything to reappear. My start screen, with folders and multi-sized live times came back with no issue (as did my ringtones, which I was not expecting)

3: not sure what folders you speak of

4: you can always try deleting your backup, then attempt it again. This has helped a few people

5: Read #2 above...

I would definitely delete your backup and try creating it again. There was a story here a week or 2 back about it....

 

[missionsparta]

I'm looking foe the backup on OneDrive. While the phone sees the update, I'm not. Any clue where it saves it (docs I assume) and what it is called?

 

[ashram]

you do it from the phone settings, while it does use one drive, it may be hidden for security reasons...

Error with your Windows Phone OS backups? Here is how to get them back on track | Windows Phone Central


update: it's not hidden. on the onedrive site, go to options (gear icon on the top right). There you will see device backups... you shoud see your device backups there (i see my 920 and 2 pc backups)

 

[btbam91]

Worked great for me.

 

[hprvez]

So you changed phone because of an exhausted battery instead of spending 20? to replace it? The backup problem is well known and is entirely devs' fault

 

[missionsparta]

I know someone that gave me one that had been used for one week. AT&T wanted $100 and two weeks to replace the battery. Have no clue why I am explaining this to you or why it is relevant. I also specifically stated that I knew the apps backing their data up was solely on the devs' laps, and was just amazed that none of my apps utilized this ability. Thanks for repeating my post right back to me.