Things missing after moving to a new phone? Check this first

You’ve set up your new phone, the transfer said it was finished – and now photos are missing, a chat history has gone, or half your messages never arrived. It’s a horrible feeling, especially if the old phone is already wiped, traded in or broken. The good news is that in most cases the data hasn’t disappeared: it’s either still on the old phone, still in a cloud account, or still downloading. The important thing is not to make it worse before you’ve checked.

First: don’t reset or hand over the old phone

Until you’ve confirmed everything is on the new phone, the old one is your most complete copy. So:

• Don’t factory reset it, even if the setup screens suggest it.
• Don’t post it off for a trade-in or return it to your network yet. Most trade-in schemes give you a window – use it.
• Keep it charged and switched on occasionally so it can finish syncing to iCloud or Google.
• If it’s damaged, keep it as it is. Don’t throw it away because the screen is smashed.

Moving iPhone to iPhone (Quick Start or iCloud backup)

If you restored from an iCloud backup, the phone often looks ready long before it really is. Apps, photos and attachments carry on downloading in the background, sometimes for days on a slow connection. Go to Settings, tap your name, then iCloud and iCloud Backup – if a restore is still in progress it will say so. Leave the phone on Wi-Fi and on charge overnight.

It’s also worth knowing what an iCloud backup doesn’t contain. If you use iCloud Photos, your photos aren’t in the backup at all – they sync from your iCloud account. Check you’re signed in with the same Apple Account on the new phone and that iCloud Photos is switched on. The same applies to Messages in iCloud: switch it on and give it time.

If you used Quick Start’s direct phone-to-phone transfer and it was interrupted, the old iPhone still has everything. You can erase the new phone and run the transfer again, or back up the old one to a computer first so you have a safe copy.

Moving Android to Android (Smart Switch or Google backup)

Samsung Smart Switch can move data by cable, by Wi-Fi or from a backup on a computer or memory card. If items are missing, look at what was ticked for transfer – it’s easy to skip a category. You can run Smart Switch again from the old phone and choose only the missing items.

If you restored from your Google account instead, remember that Google’s device backup and Google Photos are separate things. Photos only come back if Google Photos backup was turned on in the old phone; open Google Photos on the new phone, signed in to the same account, and check. Photos that only existed in the old phone’s Gallery or on a microSD card won’t be in your Google account.

Moving between Android and iPhone

Apple’s Move to iOS app copies contacts, messages, photos, videos, calendars and some other data, but not everything – for example, app data from Android apps doesn’t carry across. Going the other way, Samsung and Google both offer tools to bring data from an iPhone. Whichever way you move, check each type of data separately rather than assuming the transfer was complete.

WhatsApp and other apps

Chat apps usually keep their own history separate from the phone backup. WhatsApp restores chats from its own backup – Google Drive on Android, iCloud on iPhone – and only offers to do it during WhatsApp setup, with the same phone number. If you skipped that screen, the history may still be sitting in the backup or on the old phone. Don’t reinstall WhatsApp on the old phone and set it up again, as that can replace the backup.

When the old phone is broken

If the transfer failed because the old phone died, or it was dropped part-way through, the data is still in its internal storage. Modern iPhones and Android phones encrypt that storage, and the key is tied to the phone itself, so recovery normally means getting the original phone working again – repairing a charging fault, a dead board component or water damage – rather than “reading the chip” on its own. That’s why it matters that the phone hasn’t been reset, and that you still know its passcode.

We recover data from damaged handsets through our iPhone data recovery and Android phone data recovery services.

A quick checklist

1. Keep the old phone, unreset, charged and with its passcode.
2. Confirm you’re signed in to the same Apple Account or Google account on both phones.
3. Check iCloud Photos or Google Photos backup status on the old phone.
4. Give a cloud restore time on Wi-Fi and power before deciding something is lost.
5. Re-run the transfer for just the missing items if the old phone still works.
6. Check app-specific backups, such as WhatsApp, before reinstalling anything.

Need help?

If the old phone is damaged, or you can’t find where your photos and messages went, call Data Retrieval on 020 7064 4996 or request a quote. We offer a free assessment, with no obligation.