I Really Hate

[droidism]

There are options within applications like Astro. It allows you to backup all apps to sd card, then pop that sd card into the new phone, download astro and then restore.

Aside from that I agree with you, seems like a service that google should offer beyond just the paid apps.

Yes, there are options. However that is not the point. It is a basic service and one that I had when I had my original Droid (way back when).

Why in the world do you need all your unpaid apps to come back to you? Why not get them on an as need basis, it's simple to do.

And you could have backed them up if you wanted too. I had it happen to me and I just went and got them back as I needed them. If I didn't get them all back then I probably had no need for them.

Because that is time consuming and I don't like to waste my time on something that should be intuitive.

Why in the world do you need all your unpaid apps to come back to you? Why not get them on an as need basis, it's simple to do.

And you could have backed them up if you wanted too. I had it happen to me and I just went and got them back as I needed them. If I didn't get them all back then I probably had no need for them.

That's what I do too.

But for people that want something else, Titanium Backup is free and will backup the name and Market links for all your apps. You can use that on a new phone to install your apps - you just have to click the various "ok" and "next" screens as it goes along and grabs them all from the Market. Titanium does more than this, and anyone concerned about backups should have this.

The point is, I should not need another service to do this for me. When I got my original Droid (back at launch time) and subsequently exchanged it seven times - not once did I need to redownload all my free apps. They just came back along with all of my settings. There is no reason the X cannot do this as well.

Consider yourself lucky because everyone that I talked to over the time life of the droid all had the same problem. Paid apps where remembered and stored, but the free ones where not.

 

[thelion]

Yes it does, it's not an issue of paid apps. The issue is the OPs expectations are not meeting what he feels the Droid should be able to do.

To the OP all I can say is it's not perfect, it's not a computer, it's a phone. That's the way it is. Everybody knows if you really want to keep your apps you need to back them up. If you weren't aware of that then you probably need to drop by the forum a bit more to keep up on things.

First, I'm a she, not a he. Second, my argument is that my original Droid could do this - based on the same OS - so why can my X not do this? And don't give me some sass about what I do and do not know. I was aware they wouldn't come back. That isn't the point. The point is, this shouldbe something the X can do as there is absolutely no reason it cannot.

I love my X, it is a great phone. My issues is not with the phone. It is with Google not providing this service. Or is that distinction unclear to you?

Sorry for the misunderstanding on the gender. The discussion is quite clear to me, there is no reason for you to make smart remarks. Let's keep it civil.

With a regular Droid you don't always get your apps back. I've had times when everything comes back and times when all I got was my paid apps. I've had times when I've backed up my apps and still didn't get all my apps back.

Now I don't have the X so I don't know if in fact it does work both ways, but I know well enough not to be surprised if I root or install a ROM that I might not get all my apps back.

So if you didn't get your apps back, you didn't back up, then really it's not the Droids fault. You can't expect it to do something that it isn't designed to do. I agree it would be nice to have it give all the apps back, maybe it should but it's a known fact that it doesn't on all occasions.

I think you are really not understanding what I am saying. I am NOT blaming the phone. The phone is blameless in all of this. I am blaming Google for not consistently offering this service. With 7 Droids, I never once had any app go missing.

Heck, for that matter the apps I had in January when I gave up Droid six were promptly returned in June when I got Droid 7.

And I didn't root - I did a warranty replacement.

 

[kwiksilvr]

Does it keep track of all your paid apps and let you redownload them for free? I just paid $29.99 for the slingbox app on my moto Droid and I would hate to lose that switching to the Droid X.

slingbox took like 4 hours to show up in th market after I swithced to the x from my droid, but when it did, you can still redownload it without paying for it again...

 

[wmscottmc]

Everybody knows if you really want to keep your apps you need to back them up. If you weren't aware of that then you probably need to drop by the forum a bit more to keep up on things.

How are you guys backing up this phone? With my BB I could run a full backup to my pc that backed up the internal apps and data, as well as my SD card.

Some apps that Ive installed so far store data on the phone, so just reinstalling the app later wouldnt recreate all of my data.

Is there a free backup program that works this way, backing up both the internal and SD memory?

Thanks

 

[GrillMouster]

I had problems with my droid not consistently restoring my free apps (paid not a problem). After a system restore or a new ROM I would go in and out of the market app to see if the apps would restore. It kept showing only the paid apps. Then one day I went into the market and didn't exit it. I just stayed in the market and left the phone alone. All my apps restored. I've done this more than once since then and it works every time. I think if you exit the Market app after you've opened it, it can prevents the free apps from restoring. I also noticed that after I got a message in the taskbar that apps were restored, it didn't immediately show them all on the download page in the Market, but they were in the app drawer. After going in and out of the market a few time, rebooting, clearing the data & cache (not in that order), the Market weirdness (showing "free" instead of "installed", etc.) went away. Just leave the phone alone after you open the market (20 - 40 minutes?).

Oh, and you have to make sure you've enabled automatic backup of your apps in the phone's settings.

My Droid X is shipping next week, so I'll be able to test whether this works when switching from one phone to another. I've also got a list of my apps just in case. My droid is currently rooted and I use Titanium Backup, but I'd have to root the Droid X in order to use it. I'm gonna wait a while to root the X (if I do it at all).

 

[jntdroid]

appbrain has always worked well for me, at least from the standpoint of getting my main list back (paid and free)... kind of like a web based itunes, though it obviously doesn't restore data