How To Transfer Data From Your Old Phone To Your New Phone

September 19, 2023

Device Reset

When you’ve bought a new phone, whether it’s an upgrade or to replace a broken device, one of the main tasks you’ll want to do is transfer your apps and data from your old phone. There’s a bigger understanding with modern smartphones that users want a seamless transition between devices, one that lets them bring their contacts from their old contacts, precious photos and useful apps with them, whether they’re on iPhone or Android. This process should not be difficult, but doing it right is essential for keeping the change smooth.

With new devices being introduced to the market constantly or when old phones break down, changing to a new phone is incredibly common. With a variety of different manufacturers making excellent phones for Android, like the Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel or OnePlus, alongside brilliant new iPhones there are more people than ever looking to transfer their data between different models or operating systems.

At Greener Mobile we can take your old phone off your hands for cash, but before you do that, you’ll want to transfer what you can from your old device. So without further ado, let’s get into how to transfer data to your new phone.

Before you do anything, back up your old phone

Whatever you’re doing, it’s important to minimise the risk of losing any data. The last thing you want is to lose valuable personal photos or miss text messages from important contacts. That means your first port of call on both Android phones and iPhones, is to back up your data. This will help you recover it if anything goes wrong, and is also useful for transferring data as many devices will use your backups to perform the transfer.

The process varies slightly depending on your handset, especially across Android. For starters, make sure you’re logged into either your Google or iCloud accounts or wherever your backups are stored. It’s often worth having these backups set to occur automatically, as this way you’ll have your data stored should the worst happen and your device breaks or gets stolen.

How to back up data on your Android phone

As Android’s OS works on a number of different manufacturers, the process can change a little for each device. Android phones use Google Drive for backing up your data. It generally follows the following steps.

The following example is based on a phone running Android 7.0 Nougat or above.

Go to the Settings app
Scroll to the bottom and select ‘System’
Press ‘Backup’ and follow any on-screen instructions, including turning ‘Back up to Google Drive’ on.
Select ‘back up now’ to get going.

Note: If your device doesn’t follow this exact folder structure, you may need to search for ‘back up’ within your settings app. You’ll need to be logged into your Google account.

Some other Android phones, like Samsung, have their own systems for backing up your data.

How to back up data on your Samsung device

Samsung gives you the option of using their own Samsung Cloud storage. Other manufacturers may have a similar system if you don’t want to use Google Drive. To back up to Samsung Cloud, use the following steps:

Open the Settings app
Browse to Settings> Accounts and Back-Up
Here you’ll have two options, either follow the instructions above and press ‘Back up and Restore > Back-Up Data’ or select ‘Samsung Cloud’.
Both options will back up your data using either Google Drive or Samsung Cloud, and you’ll just need to follow some basic on-screen instructions.

Transferring your data and apps

Once you’ve backed your data up, it’s time to look at transferring that data to your new phone. If you’re transferring from iPhone to iPhone or Android to Android, this is pretty easy, but it’s slightly different if you’re changing from Android to iPhone or iPhone to Android. Whichever you’re doing though, just check the relevant guide below.

Transferring data and apps from Android to Android

Restoring data, settings and apps to your new Android from another Android device is pretty easy. Make sure you’ve got both devices to hand before you get going.

Transfer your SIM card over to your new device.
Power on your new Android phone and follow the steps on your phone, including connecting to your Wi-Fi network.
Eventually, it’ll display a screen called ‘Copy apps & data’. Click next and you’ll have some options.
When asked where you want to ‘Bring your data from..’ the best way is to select ‘A backup from an Android Phone’, then press next again.
On your old Android phone, open the Google app and keep it open.
In the app choose to ‘set up & restore‘ and then ‘set up nearby device’
Once you press ‘next’, you’ll be asked to verify the devices in question. You’ll need both to hand and to verify the other device on each. This is done with patterns and is to stop you from transferring your data to the wrong phone.
After you’ve matched the patterns, your old phone will ask for your password to approve the transfer and select ‘copy to your new device’.
You’ll be presented with a progress bar.
Now, on your new Android phone, you’ll need to log in to your Google account.
This will be followed by entering your screen lock code from your old device.
You’ll then be shown a page that gives you a selection of things you can transfer, called the ‘Choose what to restore’ page. Everything is automatically ticked, but you can untick anything you don’t want transferring. This includes apps, call history, photos and other data points.
If you only want to install certain apps, you can select them from a list by going on the ‘Apps’ setting.
Once you’re happy with your selection, click ‘Restore’.
You’ll then be able to continue with setting up the new device, including setting up the screen lock code, face ID or fingerprint recognition.

Restoring apps can also be done through the ‘Google Play’ store, so if you want to synchronise old apps after this, you can just do so from there. The Google Play store will have your account history and a list of previously installed apps.

Transferring data and apps from iPhone to iPhone

With a new iPhone, it’s just as simple. Again, you’ll need your new phone and your old iPhone ready before you get going, iCloud should be enabled on your old phone and it will help if you have your Apple ID to hand too.

Make sure your old iPhone is switched on and then power on your new phone.
Place your new device next to your old one, and the ‘quick start’ screen will pop up, showing you the Apple ID you’ll be using.
If you’re happy with this, click ‘continue’.
An animation will appear on your new device’s screen.
Position your old phone over your new device to centre the animation.
It will then display a message stating ‘Finish on New’. (Note – if you can’t use your old phone’s camera for any reason, select ‘Authenticate Manually’)
Your new device will ask for your old phone’s passcode.
Once you’ve set up any lock screen authentication, like Face ID or Touch ID, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your Apple account on your new iPhone.
You’ll be asked whether you want to transfer the app data and photos directly from your old phone or to transfer everything from your most recent iCloud back up.
Now just sit back and wait for all of your data to transfer to your new phone.

Transferring data and apps from iPhone to Android

If you’ve made the decision to move over from iPhone to Android, or you’ve added an Android device to your collection, the steps are a little different. Maybe you’re looking to set up a new Samsung phone after years using iOS. Rather than using your iCloud, you’ll need to upload your data to Google Drive to make sure you can access it. So here’s how to upload your iPhone data to Google Drive:

First, download the Google Drive app onto your old iPhone. To access Google Drive you’ll need to have a Google account.
On your new Android phone, begin your startup process.
You’ll be asked whether you want to transfer data from an old device, select ‘yes’ and then choose ‘an iPhone device’.
On your old iPhone, open your web browser and go to android.com/switch
Open up Google Drive and click the menu icon in the top left corner.
Select Settings > Backup
It will then give you options on what you’d like to include. You can select from ‘Contacts’, ‘Calendar events’ and ‘Photos & Videos’. Clicking on one of these gives you further options within them.
Press ‘Start Backup’ in the bottom corner of the screen when you’re ready.
This could take a while if you’ve got a lot of data.
If you’re moving your number over too, turn off iMessage and FaceTime on your old iPhone.
On your new Android, continue with the on-screen instructions and you’ll be prompted to log in to your Google account.
Your data will begin to download.

Note: Please note that you can’t transfer apps from iPhone to Android, but most available apps on iOS have an Android equivalent that you’ll find in the Google Play store.

Transferring data and apps from Android to iPhone

As an Android user that’s making the change to iPhone, you’ll need a specialised app called Move to iOS, and you’ll find it in the Google Play store. Once you have downloaded the app, you’re ready to set up your new phone.

Grab your new iPhone and turn it on.
Follow the on-screen instructions until you’re asked whether you want to use ‘Quick Start’. You won’t be able to, so you’ll need to select the option to ‘Set Up Manually’.
Next, you’ll be prompted to connect your iPhone to Wi-Fi and set up your security features, like Touch ID, Face ID and a PIN.
At this point, you’ll be asked about transferring data. You’ll be able to select ‘Move Data from Android’.
Once you have selected this option, you’ll be asked for a unique code that’s either 6 or 10 digits long.
Back to your old Android. If you haven’t downloaded ‘Move to iOS’ then do so now, otherwise open that app up.
Open the app, agree with the terms and conditions.
You’ll then be given a ‘Find Your Code’ screen. This will provide you with your code, either 6 digits or 10 digits.
You then just need to enter this into your iPhone.
Once you’ve done this, your Android will be paired with your iPhone.
You’ll be given a selection of data that you can transfer, simply choose what you want to be moved and tap ‘Next’ to get going.
Depending on how much you’re transferring to your new one, it could take some time, so just sit back and wait.
One it’s completed you’ll be able to set up your new Apple ID.
At this point, it’ll access your apps data and ask you whether you want to download the iOS versions of the applications you had on Android, where there is an equivalent.

Once this is done, it’s worth setting up your iCloud ID settings so that your new iPhone will automatically back up to iCloud. You can see how to do that above.

How to transfer photos and videos from one phone to another

It’s not just new phones that need you to transfer items. Sometimes you may simply need to transfer photos and videos between your devices. This means you won’t be doing it during the main set up of the new phone. The process is a little different on both iPhone and Android, but the basics are the same.

How to transfer photos and videos to your new Android phone

On Android, transferring your photos relies on the Google Photos app. Google Photos lets you back up the photos and videos on your phone in high resolution, and then access them on other devices.

To get Google Photos set up, follow the following steps.

Open the Photos app on your Android device.
Tap on the menu in the top left corner of the screen (the 3 lines, otherwise known as a hamburger menu).
Select Settings > Back Up Sync
Make sure you toggle Backup & Sync to ‘on’
Select ‘Backup mode‘ and then select ‘high quality‘ if you want to make sure your photos are backed up in the best possible quality.

Once you’ve backed them up, you’ll be able to re-download them from Google Drive. If you do this backup process before you get your new phone, they’ll download as part of your transfer.

How to transfer photos and videos to your new iPhone

So, finally, we’ll run through the best way to transfer your photos from one iPhone to a new one. The best way to do it uses an iCloud backup. This is a good way to reduce the volume of photographs stored on your iPhone too.

Open Settings on your old phone.
Navigate Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Photos
If it’s not already, change iCloud Photos to ‘on’
On your new iPhone follow the same process as above.
Select ‘Optimize iPhone Storage’ or ‘Download and Keep Originals’ depending on what you want to do. The first of these options will reduce the space used by photos on your device.

There are other ways you can transfer photos, for instance, if you only want to move a small number you can use AirDrop. If you have a Mac you can connect your phone and use the Finder, but iCloud is the most efficient way that doesn’t require you to have additional technology to hand.

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