Switching to a new budget phone: the data transfer checklist

Setup · 5 min read

The transfer itself is the most automated part of getting a new phone — the setup wizard does the copying. What it does not do is check that a backup existed before it started, warn you which apps will arrive signed out, or stop you handing the old phone to a trade-in counter while it is still the only copy of something. This checklist is built around that asymmetry: everything is recoverable while both phones are on your desk, and very little is afterwards.

Phase 1 — the pre-transfer audit (before the new phone is opened)

1. Verify the backup, do not assume it. Google's official switch guide lists the before-you-begin conditions: charge both devices, make sure you can unlock the old device with its PIN, pattern or password, sign in with your Google Account on the old device (that sign-in is what lets the most data transfer), back up your data, and check you have a Wi-Fi connection. Treat "back up your data" as a step you watch complete, not a setting you remember turning on.
2. List what does not ride along automatically. Banking and authenticator apps commonly need fresh sign-ins or re-enrolment on a new device even when their data copies. Write down the accounts you cannot afford to be locked out of, and make sure you can sign in to each from a second device or a browser before you start.
3. Decide the SIM question now. If your plan uses a physical SIM, it physically moves. If it uses an eSIM, the transfer happens in carrier settings, not in the copy wizard — this site's eSIM guide covers the Canadian carrier specifics.
4. Charge both phones and clear an hour. A large photo and video library can take an hour or more to copy, per Which?'s transfer guide, and an interrupted transfer is how partial libraries happen.

Gate check: a backup you have seen complete, a written list of must-sign-in accounts, and a SIM plan. If any of the three is missing, the new phone stays in its box.

Phase 2 — the transfer, by the official path

For Android to Android, Google's flow is: turn on the new device; when prompted to set up using another device, select Android device; scan the QR code to pair the two phones; enter the old phone's PIN, pattern or password, which transfers your Wi-Fi credentials and Google accounts; then choose to copy apps and data and select what to move. Keep both phones close together until the transfer completes.

What can move is broad — apps, contacts, photos, videos, music and other audio, text messages, wallpaper and more — with the honest caveat from Which? that the exact set varies by manufacturer and Android version. Two specifics worth knowing from Google's guide: WhatsApp chats and data can be transferred from the old device as part of this process, and Google Maps Timeline data transfers along with Maps data.

Samsung's Smart Switch sequence, from its official guide, is the one non-wizard path worth memorising: install the app on both phones and place them close together; on the new phone open Settings > Accounts and backup > Bring data from old device and tap Receive data; on the old phone tap Send data; choose Wireless (or connect the USB cable — a connector may be needed depending on the old phone), allow the connection, select the data, and tap Transfer. Samsung's own caveat applies to every path: only transfer content you own or have the right to transfer.

Phase 3 — verification, while the old phone is still yours

1. Counts match: contacts total, photo library total, and message threads present on both phones and equal (or explainably different).
2. Sign-ins work: open every account on your Phase 1 list — banking first, then email, then your authenticator-dependent logins.
3. The SIM question is closed: calls and mobile data work on the new phone with the old phone powered off.
4. Photos are really there: open a handful of full-resolution photos and one video on the new phone, not just thumbnails.
5. Wait before wiping. Keep the old phone, charged and un-wiped, for several days of normal use. The thing you forgot surfaces on day two, not minute two.

What success looks like: with the old phone switched off, a full normal day runs entirely on the new phone — calls, messages, photos, banking, and your two-factor logins — and nothing sends you back to the old device. Only then is it a spare, a hand-me-down, or a trade-in.

Common questions

Can I transfer after I have already set up the new phone? The clean copy flow runs during initial setup. Manufacturer tools like Smart Switch can still move data afterwards, which is one reason it is the recommended fallback path rather than a factory reset.

Wireless or cable? Wireless is the preferred route in Samsung's guide and keeps both phones on their chargers during a long copy. Cable earns its place when the library is huge or the Wi-Fi is unreliable — either way, closeness and charge are the constants.

What if the old phone is broken? Then the Phase 1 backup is the whole ballgame: the transfer restores from your account backup rather than from the device. That is the scenario the audit exists for — discovered before the break, not after.

The four things that actually go wrong (and which phase catches them)

The backup that was a setting, not an event. Phones back up on schedules and conditions — on Wi-Fi, while charging, when the account has space. A phone that has been travelling, full, or signed out may not have completed a backup in weeks, and the transfer happily restores that older state without announcing the gap. Phase 1 catches it because the audit requires watching a backup finish, not remembering a toggle.

The authenticator left behind. Time-based login codes live on the old device. If the old phone is wiped or traded before the codes are re-enrolled on the new one, recovery becomes a support-ticket process measured in days. This is why the must-sign-in list is written in Phase 1 and worked through in Phase 3, in that order — the list is easy to write while everything still works and painful to reconstruct when it does not.

The partial photo library. Long transfers get interrupted — a phone sleeps, a connection drops, someone picks a handset up and walks away with it. Which?'s guidance to keep both phones close together until the copy completes is the prevention; the Phase 3 count comparison and the open-a-few-full-resolution-photos check are the detection. Thumbnails are not evidence: they can render from placeholders while originals are still missing.

The SIM that moved too early. Moving the SIM or activating the eSIM before the transfer finishes can strand verification codes mid-setup — the new phone asks for a code sent to a number that currently rings nowhere. The checklist's order (SIM decided in Phase 1, verified working only in Phase 3, with the old phone powered off) exists because this failure is entirely self-inflicted and entirely avoidable.