So I just smashed (and I mean really smashed) the screen of my Nokia Lumia 900. Ugh.
On the plus side, the phone still works flawlessly. It’s pretty amazing, really. The downside is the screen is a bit more difficult to read, what with all the cracks, and you can’t help but feel you’re going to get a piece of glass embedded in your thumb while swiping around the tiles.
Thankfully, I have insurance. So the good news is I don’t have to pay full price for a new phone. The bad news, as it is when upgrading as well, is getting the new phone to a state just like the old phone. Guh.
I’ve never been a fan of this process because no manufacturer, OS provider or carrier has perfected it. Heck, I’d settle for half-way at this point. Microsoft and Nokia have done a good job, between cloud offerings, in making the contacts part of the transfer pretty great. I was pleasantly surprised, as a matter of fact, when I upgraded to my current Nokia. When I signed in using my Live ID, it seamlessly added my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn contacts. Very nice. But then there are the apps. Here’s where it gets painful. Microsoft has, at least, made it relatively easy to re-download all the apps you’ve downloaded previously. I say “relatively” because you still have to download each app, one at a time from the Marketplace or your phone. Remembering you’ve purchased/downloaded an app before isn’t enough, though. And this is never more apparent than when you start re-downloading your games.
Game saves. Uncle Ballmer and Uncle Belfiore, we have the ability to save our games to the cloud on the Xbox. Please, can we do this on the phone, too? When I upgraded to the Lumia 900, I realized every single game would be starting from scratch. That suddenly made me lose interest in a lot of games, simply because I didn’t want to start all over. And if we can’t save our games to the cloud (I can understand the connectivity logistics involved), then why is there not, in 2012, a process or program that allows me to transfer the game states from one phone to the next? Or just move all the games/apps wholesale?
Please, Microsoft. I’m a huge WP evangelist and love talking up the advantages my phone has over just about any other phone out there. This would be a fantastic differentiator, especially with the already existing ties to the Xbox.
5 Responses
Microsoft have to come up with a way of COMPLETLY backing up your Windows Phone. This means everything – apps, contacts, games status, text messages, music, video, pictures….
How many people loose phones, damage phone or have them stolen only to then have to put up with the drama of stating from scratch. Surely I am not the only one that thinks a complete backup or image that is stored in the cloud is a MUST have on the Windows Phone platform!
Oh there is a good way of re-installing though
There is a 3rd party App called “Reinstaller”
scans your phone and the apps associated with your account and goes about reinstalling the apps in one go – select what you want and deselect ones you don’t want to reinstall.
I’m not associated with the app developer..
Although Apple does win on the backup/restore feature.
So easy to wipe your device and restore it over the cloud – even game saves and app locations are restored.
I wish that Microsoft did a backup/sync feature like this. – apple had years to get this far – Microsoft only have just begun – I hope wp8 brings this kind of functionality.
I have 2 windows phones and want the option of syncing my content between devices if on wifi.
I actually used Reinstaller. There are diminishing returns the more apps you have. And it doesn’t differentiate between what you currently have installed and what you’ve uninstalled. It does make the process slightly easier, I’ll give you that. But it still doesn’t alleviate the problem of app/game states.
I agree MS needs to get on the ball with this one. Hopefully it’ll show itself in WP8. You have to agree that they’re working their tails off to make it the best damn mobile OS out there…this is just one of those nagging annoyances.
This is the NUMBER ONE thing keeping me from walking into an AT&T store and upgrading to a Lumia 900. I’m planning on waiting for the WP8 phones this holiday season, if I can make it, but the thought of sitting down for a good hour or more to get the phone the way I like it, (settings, apps, music, etc) is enough to keep my nose to the grindstone with my current device. I’ve got to think I am not alone, and this is something they could really advertise. There must be others thinking, “if I have to go to all that trouble, it would be an almost equal hassle to switch to an iPhone or Android.”
I made the upgrade from the Focus to the Focus S, and yes, this was the worst part about it. I can understand somewhat that Apple has a much smaller ecosystem (in regards to number of platforms they have to support), but Microsoft has so much control over the WP environment this should be a no-brainer. Their should be a sync cable phone-phone, or allow you to connect both phones to your PC via the Zune, er, XBOX app. You should be able to setup profiles for copying apps and settings to multiple phones as well for corporate/government users (and serial upgraders).