I'm over 50 and last time I did this I got one of my student lab technicians to show me.
I'm getting a new android phone. I get that on set up and log in then seamlessly all my google stuff will appear on the new device. I also get I'll have to do some faffing for eg: bank logins that use MFA, etc.
But files that are either in the phone memory or on SD card, what's the best way to transfer if the new phone doesn't have NFC. In particular the SD card - I know that can just plug it into the new phone but the card is old and nearly full and I would like to move the files (music mainly) either to the phone memory or to a larger SD card.
If you want the files from your SD card on your new phone then putting it into the slot then transferring is probably the quickest and easiest.
Most major manufacturers have apps that will move your stuff from your old phone to your new one in the way you wish.
If your music is bought via the Google Play Music app and store, there is no way around having to redownload on the new device.
36gb currently downloading here on a shiny new phone.
However, Google transferred over all my passwords so when I activated fingerprint, every password apart from banks transferred over.
Music is either mp3 versions of albums I've bought on the SD card or spotify downloads (plus some podcasts, etc.) so will need moving physically or by copying.
Good point above. Current phone is 32GB and a 16GB SD card, both nearly full. New phone Moto G8 Power Lite will be 64GB, so I could put the SD card in, copy it into the phone, put in a new SD card and copy back?
Plug it into a PC. Copy there, copy back.
Also has the side effect of avoiding you needing to start a post in a few months asking for help because your SD card has died and you've lost twelvety years worth of data that you've never backed up.
Moving SD cards about might not work. I'll explain why in a bit, I've got a meeting to go to.
Or just plug your old phone in to a pc, when the phone acknowledges the connection tell it to allow file transfer, then just use explorer to copy files you want backed up off it, and do the reverse with your new phone.
Right. On SD cards:
The "old way" is to have the SD card as you'd expect a hard drive in a PC, it appears as an external drive and you can move files between it and the internal storage. Moving it between phones or a card reader works just as you'd expect.
The "new way" is what's called adopted storage. It's an option when you format the card on (most) modern Android systems. This mounts the card as an extension of the internal storage so they're the same logical device for most practical purposes. Android handles the nitty gritty of what needs to go where. BUT this is an encrypted format which ties the card to the phone, you cannot just move the card between devices to transfer data around. If you want to move an adopted card to a new device you'll need to reformat it.
It’s an option when you format the card on (most) modern Android systems
Except Sony, who steadfastly cling to not doing that, and not allowing movement of apps to run from the SD card, like (nearly) everyone has permitted since, well, donkeys ago *grrr*
Yeah, my Nokia doesn't support adoptable storage either, though I think it's because they can't get it to work reliably rather than by design.
"Your storage is 86% full, you may want to think about deleting some apps"
No it's you ****ers, there's a 256gb SD in the slot!
Cougar
Right. On SD cards:
The “new way” is what’s called adopted storage. It’s an option when you format the card on (most) modern Android systems.
This is an option though, is it not? It certainly was on my phone when you first plug a new SD card in.
I can't remember the terminology, but it basically asks if you want the card to become part of the phone's memory so you can store apps etc. on it, or just keep it as a storage space.
My Lenovo just runs the SD card like an extra drive with no problems.
Or, is it manufacturer dependent?
It's an option, yes. But once you've decided on one the only way to change it to the other is to wipe the card.
Easiest I guess would be connect to a pc and copy the files from the sd to the pc. Then just transfer back to your new shiny phone.
Another option would be to back up to a cloud service, google drive or Dropbox etc.
Not sure you can transfer the downloaded songs from Spotify. They are still locked to the app. It might just download the songs again once you login to Spotify on your new phone.
File transfer - use Feem - move files over your wi-fi between devices.