Google drive restore after factory reset

[Buco]

The tablet is S6 lite. Some apps were buggy (only Samsung apps interestingly), for example Samsung Internet would open to a blank page, Penup would immediately crash etc... so instead of troubleshooting I decided to factory reset. Now I need to troubleshoot anyway. 

The tablet backup is on Google Drive. After the reset, I connected to the WiFi and I logged into my Google accounts. As the screens are promoting me to continue with the setup, I get to the screen asking to *copy data from your Android device ".

If I tap next, it takes me to the screen where it prompts me to install Smart Switch on my old device. There's no old device, I'm trying to setup the old device. I can't see that I can circumvent this. Even though one instructions I read say that one there should be an option for "I don't have old device". But that option doesn't show.

 If I select don't copy, it takes me to eventually do a fresh setup, without ever offering to restore a backup. 

What am I missing? 

I chatted with the tech support person but didn't go well. It was as if we talked in two different languages and neither person understood the other. 

Thank you for any help.

[realaud]

In this case, you would do a fresh setup and after you log into your accounts, you should be prompted for your Google backup. If not, go to accounts and backup and choose restore data, and your Samsung backup should restore - assuming you were also using Samsung's auto backup .

[Buco]

That's what's strange, I'm never prompted to restore a Google backup. I've done this with various Android phones without an issue in the past. I'd at some point get prompted to restore a Google backup. But never with the Samsung device until now, my last Samsung phone was S3. 

I didn't use Samsung backup, only Google. 

[realaud]

Google restore, if offered, is only offered on the first login on a new device. Many time it does not offer, it just does the restore. But first the device must be set up clean and then you log into your Google account. When you log in, it starts restoring. As I said, if Google restore does not happen automatically, you should still be able to restore your Samsung backup if you have one. Google may have stopped prompting after Android 10. Every time I got a new phone prior to Samsung, the Google backup was just automatic.

[Buco]

Oh, right, I forgot to mention in the previous post, I went back to a fresh start twice hoping there was something that I didn't catch the first time through. No luck, it's just not restoring the backup or offering to restore. I never setup a Samsung account so don't have it backed up on that side. 

Ok, thank you. 

[realaud · Accepted solution]

Sometimes you have to give it a little time to come down. I don't know why this is, but I have a nephew who lost his phone once and thought he lost a lot of stuff and was very surprised when the next day everything was back in place on his new phone. In any case, once you set your device up again, use Smartswitch to make a complete backup to a flash drive, so at least you will have a backup backup.

[Buco]

That could be, I'll give that a shot. I'll just let it finish the setup and we'll see. Nothing to lose at this point.

[realaud]

Just reminder, Google backup keeps your apps and settings but not necessarily your home screen layout, so your apps may come back, but they might all be in your app drawer.

[Buco]

Ok, success, finally. It only stole several hours of my life. But here's what happened, in case someone else has this issue.

First, when it asks "easy setup with another device", select to setup manually. Because if you let it log you into the accounts using a nearby device, and you have more than one Google account on the device, it will pick one to sort of lead the process. In my case the one it selected wasn't the one that I used for backups. So it never prompted me to restore because that account doesn't hold any backups.

Then you will connect to Wi-Fi and log into the account that holds the backup, manually.

Then, you'll get to the screen that says "copy apps and data". Select "next" here. The next screen is "use another device". This is where another button will show up that says "can't use other device"

Next it will ask you to restore a backup.

Ta-Da 

@realaud thank you for starting a conversation, that's what prompted me to start digging again and finally arrive where I needed to be.