New phone - advice before using

Sunshine_and_Roses

I am upgrading from Samsung Galaxy S21 to S24.  I know there is a way of transferring everything from old phone onto new, but before I start...

I have folders on my phone with apps for each category.  Will they transfer as folders?

I have continual annoying pop-ups (from Google I think).  Will a new phone stop this?

Should I back up data, contacts etc to laptop?  How can I tell what is on sim and whats on phone?

Any other advice or tips you can think of before I transfer?

Thank you for any help

flaneurs_lobster

Have a look at the descriptions/reviews of the Samsung Smart Switch app which is almost certainly already installed on both phones. Does all the heavy lifting of a phone swap including folders and contents.

Doesn't copy WhatsApp contents.

Are you using the Secure Folder? There are restrictions on how the contents are moved - check.

Always a good idea to back up your phone before doing anything (but it should have been backing up in any case).

Very unlikely that there is anything stored on your SIM card, don't think it's even been an option for a few releases of Android.

The pop-up thing. The transfer operation transfers data and apps, it doesn't copy permissions. The first time that you start things on the new phone be very watchful about what permissions you grant, especially for notifications. If in doubt don't give permission - you can change it later if you find you are missing stuff.

Remember that you will have to sign in again for stuff accessed via apps - login ids and passwords are not copied across. 

The old phone will be unchanged (apart from having the SIM card removed) so there's always a fallback. 

Sunshine_and_Roses

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. 

I am alwaus unsure about permission with apps, whether its safe or essential for access.  Hopefully the new phone will stop this.

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

flaneurs_lobster

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

Get a password manager, especially if you are going to have to reset some forgotten passwords. Good opportunity to start the sensible habits (all passwords long, complicated and DIFFERENT - and set up 2FA wherever you can). 

Neil_Jones

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I am upgrading from Samsung Galaxy S21 to S24.  I know there is a way of transferring everything from old phone onto new, but before I start...

I have folders on my phone with apps for each category.  Will they transfer as folders?

I have continual annoying pop-ups (from Google I think).  Will a new phone stop this?

Should I back up data, contacts etc to laptop?  How can I tell what is on sim and whats on phone?

Any other advice or tips you can think of before I transfer?

Thank you for any help

If you are referring to the folders on the home screen that depends on your launcher.  If you're using another one they may not be transferrable, but as you're going from Samsung to Samsung it may be okay.  need to see if you can export and then reimport.

If your old phone is set up properly your contacts, photos etc should already be on your online Google account.  The contacts will resync when you sign into your account on the new device and come down automatically.  You can see what's been backed up photo wise by signing into here:

https://photos.google.com/

If you use WhatsApp this can be backed up to Google Drive and then restored from said backup through WhatsApp itself.  This may or may not protect the images, but again if your device is setup properly they should have been picked up through Google Photos and online as per above link.

Sunshine_and_Roses

flaneurs_lobster said:

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

Get a password manager, especially if you are going to have to reset some forgotten passwords. Good opportunity to start the sensible habits (all passwords long, complicated and DIFFERENT - and set up 2FA wherever you can). 

Any suggestions on password manager? Are there different ones?
Not familiar with them, so sorry if this is obvious. Is it one password for password manager then this will work for all devices? 

flaneurs_lobster

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

Get a password manager, especially if you are going to have to reset some forgotten passwords. Good opportunity to start the sensible habits (all passwords long, complicated and DIFFERENT - and set up 2FA wherever you can). 

Any suggestions on password manager? Are there different ones?
Not familiar with them, so sorry if this is obvious. Is it one password for password manager then this will work for all devices? 

The National Cyber Security Centre has some introductory words here 

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/top-tips-for-staying-secure-online/password-managers

You can use the manager built into your browser (free, easy, better than nothing) or a free/paid for program (better, takes some effort to set up and use).

Here's a piece from the NYT on their choice of Manager

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-password-managers/

Lots of other articles online with the same sort of "Best......".

But basically yes, you store all your passwords in the app (and use it to generate new ones) and access it using a single password (and/or biometrics).

jbrassy

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

Get a password manager, especially if you are going to have to reset some forgotten passwords. Good opportunity to start the sensible habits (all passwords long, complicated and DIFFERENT - and set up 2FA wherever you can). 

Any suggestions on password manager? Are there different ones?
Not familiar with them, so sorry if this is obvious. Is it one password for password manager then this will work for all devices? 

I personally use 1Password. It syncs across my phone and laptop. You have to pay for it ($43 per year), but I think it's worth it. Bitwarden is a free one which seems to get lots of good reviews as well.

Eyeful

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Sunshine_and_Roses said:

I will need to try to remember all my logins and passwords which my fingerprint replaced, that will be interesting!! 

Get a password manager, especially if you are going to have to reset some forgotten passwords. Good opportunity to start the sensible habits (all passwords long, complicated and DIFFERENT - and set up 2FA wherever you can). 

Any suggestions on password manager? Are there different ones?
Not familiar with them, so sorry if this is obvious. Is it one password for password manager then this will work for all devices? 

Bitwarden is a well regarded Password Manager. The free version does a lot & the paid version is very cheap and does even more.
https://bitwarden.com/products/personal/
https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/choosing-a-password-manager/

Sunshine_and_Roses

I have downloaded Bitwarden app and now have this on my phone and laptop.  I can't get my head around whether I need to add every log in for banking, memberships, forums etc and auto generate each password, or am I overcomplicating things?

flaneurs_lobster

There's certainly no need to have every password in Bitwarden (although I do - including the one for Bitwarden), and if your passwords are all 20 characters + long, contain special characters and are all different then just carry on as you are - but I bet they're not.

Start with your email account(s), the most important to secure strongly, then continue with other accounts as and when you access them. No need to change passwords, you can just store existing ones and change when you want to.

To familiarise yourself with Bitwarden, pick an account you have with something not too important that you can access by app and browser. Make sure you are happy with the different ways that you interact with BW according to the access method. 

Thing you might not have spotted - the BW browser extension that allows easier filling of details into login screens etc - needs you to be running the BW Windows app on the machine as a prerequisite. 

Consider securing Bitwarden with a four or five word passphrase (it can suggest them, keep generating until you find something that might stick (but write it down on paper and hide it somewhere). You will need this from time to time so it's good if you can recall it from memory.