Windows Back up migration between laptops

joho

Morning clever tech peeps,

I bought a new laptop and used the Windows Back up app to back up the old one to transfer stuff to the new one. We don't have much stored, or valuable, on the old one so it was more for the convenience of apps, bookmarks, logins etc. 

When I started the process on the old one I couldn't remember my password for Microsoft. So I reset it, and it partially backed up.

When I came to add everything on the new one it asked for my Microsoft login but refused the new password that I had just created, several times. In the end I had to verify my Microsoft account using my phone. And it hasn't carried over my apps, etc. But did do when I created a user account for my husband using a yahoo.co.uk email (carried over his apps, profile photo, that kind of thing).

I think maybe I used a different email to login to the old one but obviously I didn't use it every time, just had to put in a password, and can't remember which email. Is there an easy way to find out which account my back up from the old laptop is under? Does that make sense? It's possibly a Yahoo.co.uk address. I haven't tested this theory yet as I'm at work at the mo.

Thank you
Jo

Neil_Jones

The Windows Backup isn't intended to transfer "everything", programs and everything, its more intended for documents, pictures, downloads etc.

Its more intended for one computer system.

I know what the documentation says about apps but that's only for stuff you download from the MS store.  "traditional" programs you install outside of the app can't be transferred this way.

As the MS Store in its Windows form only launched in 2012, that's still 40 odd years of Windows programs that haven't seen a Store distribution and probably never will either.  You'd have done better to be honest get an external drive, copy your key stuff onto that and restore it yourself rather than relying on the built-in tools.  There is no need for an MS account in Windows 11 never mind what the blurb says.

The most likely scenario is you've only backed up the one account and tried to use the other one on the new computer, which may be why nothing has come down.

Vitor

I'm assuming the OP is talking about Windows Backup and not "File History or Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" which copies file to a USB stick etc.

Best bet is to go back to the old laptop (if possible) to confirm exactly which Microsoft cloud account(s) were used on the device. A Yahoo.co.uk address can be a Microsoft account if the Yahoo address was used set up a Microsoft account at some point in the past. If you can login to the old laptop, check what Backup is copying to the cloud; the full set would be Microsoft Store apps, Settings, Credentials and OneDrive Folders.

On the new laptop, you'll need to login with exactly the same accounts; during setup or login, Windows should offer to restore from the backup linked to that Microsoft account. Note that each account holder on the old laptop will need to use their account on the new laptop as the data is linked to the specific account.

Try login to https://account.microsoft.com to see which of your cloud accounts are recognised with the passwords you beleive are correct.

joho

Thank you Victor. Yes, I couldn't quite remember the name of the app - Microsoft Back up or Windows Back up?

Anyway, I'm no further forward and have actually managed to create a new user on the old laptop by trying to login using my yahoo.co.uk account, which I thought was the login for my original profile (the one I wanted to carry over).

I've already done the set up on the new laptop. It didn't carry any of my user info over - maybe I logged on with the wrong account, I don't know. But like I say I thought I would try setting up my husbands user profile on the new laptop (after trying mine) and it has carried over all his settings. So the back up thing does work - with the right account details obvs.

I've gone back to my original profile on the old laptop and some settings have disappeared - the profile picture has gone, Firefox has lost all my favourites. I guess that is because I've created a new profile on the new laptop.

I can't work out how to get back into the app to retrieve the settings I took from the old laptop and try them with another user on the new laptop.

I'm probably not explaining things correctly. I'm thinking I'll just have to sit with the laptops side by side and do it manually.

Vitor

Look at what accounts are actually on the old laptop to help figure this out.

1. Press Windows Key + R, type control, and press Enter.

2. Click User Accounts → again User Accounts.

3. Click Manage another account.

This displays a list of all user accounts set up on the device with usernames

Tassie_Devil

Log into your previous Firefox profile and your settings will still be there. 

Frozen_up_north

Firefox bookmarks can be exported/imported quite easily, you can also sync them between 2 (or more) computers. See:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

joho

Frozen_up_north said:

Firefox bookmarks can be exported/imported quite easily, you can also sync them between 2 (or more) computers. See:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/restore-bookmarks-from-backup-or-move-them

Thanks Frozen. Part of the problem is that Firefox has lost all my bookmarks, somewhere beween the two laptops and multilple user profiles i appear to have created!

Never mind. 

Thank you all for your help. I genuinely don't understand what has happened and which account does what. I'm signed in on the new laptop and appear to have both my gmail and yahoo.co.uk mail assigned to the one profile. So I'll just sit here and manually copy bookmarks etc. Probably a good opportunity for a clear out and unsubscribing from lots of things.

Happy Easter to you all.x

400ixl

Good opportunity to move away from Firefox to something like Brave Browser.

And to implement a password manager like Bitwarden as well.

joho

400ixl said:

Good opportunity to move away from Firefox to something like Brave Browser.

And to implement a password manager like Bitwarden as well.

Okay. What's wrong with Firefox?

I use Roboform password manager.