There are a few reasons that you’d need to restore your Android device. Some reasons are good, like you finally got the phone you wanted for the holidays, and some are bad, like your old phone broke. For this week’s tip, we’ll go over how you can easily prepare your phone data for migration to a new device.
Even if you aren’t planning on replacing your phone soon, it may make sense to pay attention here, as this process will also make it easier to restore your data to a new phone if needed. Either way, this process is much easier if you make some proactive preparations on your current phone.
Enabling the Native Android Backup Capabilities
The first step is to make sure your current phone has the backup service running. It can be found in your Settings under System. Tap the Backup option, and check to see that the option to Back up to Google Drive is selected. If it isn’t, do so.
Now you have a copy of your current phone’s configuration to restore from, which you can do from the initial configuration of your new device. If you were using the Google Now or Pixel Launcher, even your backgrounds, icons and folder structure is saved.
During setup, hit the Let’s Go button that appears at the welcome screen. Tap Copy your data, and connect to Wi-Fi.
Now, you’ll be presented with your restoration options. Since we just went over how to save a backup in the cloud, let go with the option to use A backup from the cloud. You’ll be prompted to sign into your Google account and to agree to Google’s Terms of Service.
From the list of backup options, select the correct one. You can easily hit Restore to recover all of your previous device’s settings and data and can select which apps to reinstall via Apps.
As your data is pulled over, you will be guided through the rest of the setup process.
There you have it! Your new phone is now equipped with your selected tools and settings, and is ready for you to jump right back in. For more handy tips, make sure you check back at our blog.