PHONE SPECIAL ............SWITCH But keep your data

PHONE SPECIAL SWITCH But keep your data





Upgrading your phone? If you're moving from one Android phone to another, it can't get simpler. SOME TIPS

Contacts Transfer

Many users have contacts synced with their Google account. When you sign-in to a new phone, your contacts from the Google account are automatically synced to the contacts app in the new phone. In case your contacts are not synced with your Google account (stored on device only) there are two methods to transfer your contacts.

Use a SIM card Your SIM card has a capacity of 250 contacts. If you have less than 250 contacts, then this is the easiest method to move them to a new phone. Open the contacts app on your phone, tap on the menu icon and select Manage > import export (some phone might offer an importexport option directly). From the pop-up window, select `export to SIM card' to copy contacts from your device to the SIM card. Put the SIM card in the new phone, repeat the steps but instead of exporting, select `import from SIM card'. All your contacts will appear in your phone.

Use a Memory Card

You can export your address book to the memory card. The phone will save a `.vcf' file to your memory card. You can then put the memory card in the new phone and import contacts. The benefit here is that there is no limit to the number of contacts -you can transfer thousands of contacts using this method.

Transfer Text Messages

While transferring contacts is easy, messages tend to be slightly complicated to move to a new phone. We recommend the free SMS Backup & Restore app (by Ritesh Sahu). The app is ad supported but offers the easiest one-touch backup and restoration of your messages from one device to other. You can even setup the folder where you want to create the backup and it supports saving directly to external storage. You can even schedule back ups, password protect the app and even enable disable MMS messages. Finally, it has an alter nate restore method to extract your messages from the backup file if you are unable to re store the messages from the main menu.

All PhotosVideos

To move photos and videos, we recommend that you copy everything from your smartphone to a computer first. Then to the new phone. However, if you don't have access to a computer, try one of these methods Use a Memory Card ­ Use ES File Explorer to copy your photosvideos from the internal storage to microSD card. This app lets you bulk select and then copy move all items together to a new location.

Use WiFi ­ If your device does not have a microSD slot, you can transfer your photosvideos to another device wirelessly. There are multiple apps available on the play store that facilitate device to device wireless transfer. Check out free apps like Shareit, Xender, SFT (Swift File Transfer) and SuperBeam.

WhatsApp Conversations

WhatsApp's popularity is staggering: everyone uses it! Unknown to many, WhatsApp has a built-in feature that backs up all your chats, everyday, at a set time (usually, it is set to 4am). These files are stored in the WhatsApp folder on your device itself. When moving to a new device, first install WhatsApp on the new smartphone but don't start the app. Connect your older phone to a computer and go to the WhatsApp folder on your device.Copy the folder named Databases to your computer desktop. Now connect the new device and create a folder `WhatsApp' in the root directory. Copy the “Databases folder from your desktop on to the new phone inside the WhatsApp folder. Launch WhatsApp, go through the setup process and towards the end it will give you a message saying `Chat backup found, do you want to restore'.Select Yes and WhatsApp will take a few minutes to restore all your chat conversations to the new smartphone

Home Screen Layout

When you're setting up a new Android phone, it can take a long time to place things exactly how you like them: the number of home screen pages, which app shortcuts need to be placed where and where the widgets should go (and what their size should be). With Nova launcher, you can take a complete backup of your home screen layout. Once you re-install the apps on your new device (including Nova), you can restore the layout to get things like you're used to -but with minimal fuss.

Complete App Transfers

Helium is a free app that you can use for complete app backups. Not only can you use it to backup all your apps (if you need to reset your Android phone, you won't have to re-download the apps) but you can also use it to transfer apps to a new phone. Here's how it works: once you install the app on your device, select the apps you want backed up. If you select `app data only', it will give you a smaller backup file but you may need to download data later. Keep this box unchecked for a full backup. You can take a backup to a micro SD card, to external USB storage or to a PC. If you want to get rid of the ads, get the ability to set backup schedules and add cloud backup solutions for Dropbox, Google Drive or Box (login from within the app), you will need the premium version.

Keyboards & Saved Words

It takes a long time to properly `train' a keyboard.You keep adding words that you normally use, names, places and so on. It's a shame that when you switch phones, most of this training is lost and you have to start over. Well, not if you're using a keyboard like Switftkey or Swype. This also means that if you're not using one of these keyboards, you should switch immediately. The idea is simple: when you create an account, all your custom words will get backed up to their servers. Download the app and sign in on the new device and it'll be like you're typing on your trusty old device again.

Multi Platform Transfers

Some phones come with an app that will help you switch data. If your new phone doesn't, try MobileGo by Wondershare -it's an easy (and free) way to transfer data between two mobile devices. MobileGo works to transfer stuff between iOS and Android too. To get started, download the PC installer from http:mobilego.wondershare.com. The built in media manager will help you to manage all your multimedia content as well as transfer it between device. Then you can do other things like clean up your contacts (remove duplicates, edit), manage apps on the device, readsend SMS on the computer and take screenshots. With your device connected, you can mirror apps on the PC, including games. All your notifications will follow you to the PC. And if you choose to get the MobileGo app (Android only), it will help clean up junk, boost speed and help connect the device to the PC wirelessly.

Hitesh Raj Bhagat & Karan Bajaj ET5AUG15