Please Allow SmartSwitch to Make Full Backups

[sonic65101]

Every single cell phone I've owned has been a Samsung. I've tried iOS once through an iPod Touch but if there's one thing that it does better than Samsung (and Android in general) is that backups are actually backups.

I've just upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S20+ to a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and it has been the most infuriating phone upgrade experience I've had. I did a device-to-device transfer via cable, and despite the Android OS documentation saying this should bypass app backup policies, I still lost data that SmartSwitch refused to transfer. I've even tried every non-root workaround I could find online and nothing worked. So please allow SmartSwitch to do full backups, like a backup utility should. If security is a concern, then maybe tie it to havinng the same Samsung account. This isn't really an acceptable experience from a backup tool, and it's really frustrating. What's stuck on my old phone may not be important, but it is extremely sentimental.

[Robin621k]

What didn't get moved over during the transfer?

Every time I have moved from phone to phone everything got transfered except logins to apps and text tones in Google Messages.

[sonic65101]

App data from apps with allowBackup=false in their manifest files. And in this particular case there's no longer any way to transfer the data from within the app as support for such a feature was removed in an update three years ago.

[realaud]

Data transfer between an old device and new device with Smart Switch is not the same as backing up.  You can absolutely do a full (or selective) backup to an external drive, flash drive, SD card or computer using Smart Switch.  However, when transferring phone to phone, some apps do not get transferred - either because they require a new install, or the developer does not allow it.  As far as your documents, downloads or other files, you may have to specifically choose to have them transferred.  I know that when I transferred from my old phone to my new one, everything personal came over, just some apps did not, and I reinstalled them. In any case, if you back up to an external device, you can then restore everything to your new device.

[sonic65101]

Just tried that and same issue occurs. Not everything is backed up

[realaud]

I don't know what you are trying to back up, but I have an absolutely complete backup of everything on my phone.

[sonic65101]

Kingdom Hearts Union χ.

[realaud]

What is that? A game?

[sonic65101]

Yes. And one of the best stories and most heartbreaking endings I've ever experienced. Like I said, it's not important data, just extremely sentimental.

[realaud]

It may be digital rights restricted and not able to be backed up or transferred. That would not be the fault of Smart Switch.