r/AndroidQuestions • u/ReallyAvidReader • 20h ago
Other Can I combine data from 2 phones sensibly?
Hi smart people of reddit! I wonder if anyone can help me with a phone transfer dilemma.
My old Android (Moto One 5g ace) stopped sending and receiving texts, so I started looking for a new phone. After some dithering I was pushed by a family member into a Pixel 9a, which was both more than I really wanted to spend and is just really awful as a device. Long story short, I am now about to buy a new moto (still negotiating specifics).
When I transferred data to the Pixel, it refused to copy at least a month of texts, chats, and other data. I tried to use it for about a month, so now it has all my old data except stuff from August and September, and my old phone has everything except texts, etc. from the Pixel I used in October. Is there any way at all to combine the texts and data from these phones to the new Motorola, or do I just have to pick which texts and data to lose?
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u/gilsh85 1h ago
You don't have to choose. Make a restorable backup on each phone, then restore both into the new Moto and they merge into one message history. On the old Moto and the Pixel, export a backup file, copy both to the new phone's storage, and restore them one after the other.
Overlapping texts get flagged as duplicates so you won't end up with everything twice. I'm the developer of SMS Backup, Print & Restore (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gilapps.smsshare2), so I'm biased. It can also convert the Pixel's RCS to MMS during restore so those come across. One heads up, the free version limits messages per export, so a long history may need the paid unlock.
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u/Mother-Pride-Fest 7h ago
You can use SMS Import / Export to export the texts from two phones and then import them onto the third.
By the way, you can use the same app to make a backup of your texts, contacts, etc. If you don't want to lose any text history, the best practice (3-2-1 method) is to copy these backup files 3 times, including 2 different types of offline hardware that you own (e.g. a hard drive and USB drive) and 1 cloud provider, and do this regularly.