Move from iPhone to Fairphone 4

We just made the move from iPhone to FairPhone 4.
Apple becoming more and more repair unfriendly.
What is the best procedure to move from iPhone to FairPhone 4.
To make the transition as smooth as possible.
Hope to be able to keep using most apps and copy their data.
Will it be a process of one app at the time and using their individual backup strategies?
Thanks
Remko van Dokkum

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Welcome to our Community! :slight_smile:

If you are willing to embrace Google services, then Fairphone has a few tips here (I know it is for the FP3, but the basics should be the same – unfortunately the FP4 article on the same issue seems to be incomplete):

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Hi there

I’m also a new FP4 owner and getting used to a very different way of thinking after apple for over a decade. I’m grapping with how to transfer as much data as possible so that I can make the final switch. Having followed the guidance here and used Google 1, I still seem to only have contacts, calendars and pictures… not quite as much as I was hoping for.

Reading around the wider topic of iPhone to Android transfer, it seems that there is a way of directly connecting the devices, mentioned in the link below, but I can’t find whether this will work with an FP4.

Can anyone shed any light please?

Kind regards and happy new year

Claire

What else are you looking for?

I suppose the features discussed in that article are about recent Android versions. The Fairphone still runs Android 11. I recently also transferred an iPhone to a Pixel. The initial boot up menu made it very easy to transfer apps, WiFi, messages and indeed the calendar, contacts and pictures.

I can’t really make up which version of Android does this magic. For sure Android 13. Soonish we will get Android 12 for the FP4.

Thank you for the responses. The way it is described in the FP4 article and on the google switch pages do make it sound more comprehensive and no less simple. Google clearly know it is a stumbling block for potential new recruits.

I had my suspicions that any lack of functionality might be because of the version of Android. I have read the recent communications from FP which suggest android 12 will be available soon. I’m considering if I should wait for that to make a proper job of it or try to do things via a mixture of google 1, third party apps and manually installing apps. In particular, I want to keep my WhatsApp chat backup and there seems to be no way to do that without A12 or a third party app.

Thanks again.

I haven’t used WhatsApp in a few years. But can’t you just create a backup and import it on your new phone? Back in the day WhatsApp was using Google Drive to create these backups in the Cloud. So if that’s still current then you should be able to import your backup from there. And otherwise you can transfer the backup to your new phone and import it there.

I don’t think WhatsApp was included in the iOS to Android transfer. I had to do that manually when I helped that person, because I remember it took a long while to create this backup.

Re: a backup file - I don’t think so the backups are saved to iCloud.

You’re right about it not being part of the inbuilt transfer process, WhatsApp has a special tool, but it only works with Android 12. If it was only going to be a few weeks or a month so, I would probably wait.

Thank you for discussing.

If you don’t want to wait that long you might consider to use a 3rd party app to help you like mentioned in

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Thank you for responding! Yes, I’ve had a look at the article and the app in question. I think it too will do most things, but not apps. I can understand the difficulties with that but seemingly they have been overcome with Android 12/13 (?).

Also there is a subscription required. I’m possibly a bit tight and might be inclined to wait, but then I do like the FP4 now I’ve turned her on!

Happy new year to all.

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Sure? See, e.g., > Apple’s Self Service repair program expands to eight European countries - GSMArena.com news

For the migration, you might wan to check out > Switch to Android | Android. I highly doubt, though, that you will be able to copy app data cross-platform.

Happy New Year and best wishes,
Thomas

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As mentioned above at least A12 is needed here…

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Thanks for all the comments on this thread. To hopefully bring a happy conclusion to it, I updated my FP4 to Android 12 yesterday when it became available and performed a factory reset which then enabled me to use the transfer Android-iphone transfer process.

It was a little bit clunky and I think missed a few things, perhaps because I briefly lost WiFi connectivity, but it worked and was so much better than doing it manually.

Happily finalising my separation from IPhone/apple now and am genuinely enjoying Android.

Hooray!

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