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I am considering buying a new phone. Is there a way to easily redownload all of my apps onto the new phone without having to search for each one individually?

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5 Answers

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Yes you can. There are a number of utilities around to do backup and restore, as well as other options.

I recently moved from the HTC Magic to the Desire HD. The way I did it was to use a free AppBrain account. This has a few advantages, in my opinion:

  • You can search for, read about and tag for installation, applications, on your computer, with a larger screen/keyboard etc.
  • You can organise apps into groups if you have multiple android devices.
  • You can share your apps with other people.

You can check out appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/ If you just want straight backup and restore, Titanium backup, as mentioned by others, is a good choice. ( http://www.matrixrewriter.com/android/ )

You can also find both of them in the Android Market.

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up vote 3 down vote

If you're getting another of the same phone running the same firmware then you should be able to use Titanium Backup, pull the backup to your computer, get the new phone, install Ti Backup, replace the backup files from your computer, and then run batch restore of your apps. I have not done this before, hopefully others will have more input.

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If you don't backup data and only backup User apps (instead of System apps) you can do this on any phone/hardware. Sounds like Casebash wants only that anyways. I've done it and it's great. – Matthew Read♦ Jan 16 '11 at 2:26
up vote 3 down vote

Someone should back me up on how this works, but...

Apps you have installed are synched with your Google/Gmail account, and will download upon initial sign-in to your new phone.

My Droid just recently broke, and I was close to the upgrade time, so I got a Droid 2 Global. I know, of course, my contacts and calendar are synched with my Google account, however so were my apps. The Verizon rep didn't touch my old phone, yet all my apps began downloading as soon as I signed in for the first time. Also, to my surprise, my Cyanogen background also showed up (I was running CyanogenMod 6 when my original Droid died). So, in theory, this should also work for you. Verizon uses a proprietary tool called BackupAssistant that normally takes care of synching most things on your phone, but I specifically deleted it as I don't want my info backed up to Verizon. I believe the app sync is built into your Google account.

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Is there anyway to check whether my apps are in fact backed up? Apparently it can be disabled – Casebash Jan 16 '11 at 8:31
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I can back Ryan up here. My previous Android phone (an HTC Magic running stock Android 1.6) was stolen, so I had no chance to back anything up, or prepare for switching phones in any way. When I got my new Galaxy S running Android 2.1, as soon as I went into the Downloads part of the Market, it listed all the paid and non-paid apps that I'd had on my previous phone. – GAThrawn Jan 17 '11 at 11:45
I recently upgraded from DROID to DROID 2 Global. My apps automatically downloaded. – Jim Schubert Jan 18 '11 at 3:39
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I tried upgrading, but only a small portion of my apps were automatically downloaded. Fortunately, I had been using App Brains before, but I strongly recommend backing up your applications – Casebash Apr 10 '11 at 6:23
In my experience, they don't all always re-download. I find that I've had to go back and manually install some again. And I also had some apps that I had uninstalled, install again when restoring using the Google account sync. If you're rooted, go with a solution like Titanium Backup. It's much more robust. – Tim Scarborough Dec 14 '12 at 13:22
up vote 2 down vote

Matt has a first-hand experience with accidentally having Google backup all his applications: Cancel All Market Updates/Downloads at Once

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I've never gotten this to work myself. Titanium Backup works great though (see Joe's answer). – Matthew Read♦ Jan 16 '11 at 2:24
up vote 0 down vote

The only issue with Titanium Backup is that your phone needs to be rooted. If it is not rooted and you are not prepared to root the device, then a suitable alternative would be to use My Backup Pro:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rerware.android.MyBackupPro&hl=en

http://www.rerware.com/

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If I remember correctly @Liam W has experience of this particular app – Simon Dec 14 '12 at 12:50

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