How to transfer a game from one phone to another
After a long time, you have finally managed to buy that phone you wanted so much and you can’t wait to make the most of it, even in terms of gaming. There is something, however, that holds you back from doing so: your old smartphone, a trusted companion for moments of relaxation, contains games that you care so much, that you would not want to miss in the passage. It is not just about the progress (many are now linked to the account), but also about the weight.
In fact, you want to go back to playing your favorite titles right away, but your Internet connection is not very good and you have no intention of using the data connection, “wasting” precious Giga. In the end, then, you have come here, looking for information on how to transfer a game from one phone to another. On the other hand, there must be a way to do this, right? You are not wrong, and in fact you have come to the right place.
Do not worry if you have never carried out this type of operation, you have no reason: the steps that I am going to illustrate are simple to apply and do not require specific skills, so I am sure that, after reading this guide carefully, you will be perfectly able to act in complete autonomy and move your favorite games to the new smartphone. Having said that, I just have to wish you good reading and have fun!
Index
- How to transfer a game from Android to Android
- Play Store native functionality
- troubleshoot
- How to transfer a game from iPhone to iPhone
- iTunes / Finder
- iCloud
- How to transfer a game from Android to iPhone (or vice versa)
How to transfer a game from Android to Android
Android is notoriously an operating system that allows a certain freedom of action in many respects. In this context, there are clearly several ways to switch a game from one smartphone to another. Just think that Google itself offers, obviously only for devices that have Google services and the Play Store, a feature that allows you to do this.
Before showing you how to transfer a game from one phone to another, however, a clarification is necessary: pay attention to the progress. In fact, it all depends on the game you have chosen to transfer: some save the data, for example, directly on your Google account (via Play Games), on the Facebook profile or on a specific account created for the occasion, while others keep the progress in local, i.e. inside the device memory. My advice is therefore not to delete the game from the “old” smartphone until you have verified that the saves are correctly available on the new one.
Having made this necessary premise, it’s time to get to work: below I will explain how you can proceed both through native functionality and through a third-party app (especially useful if you have a smartphone that does not have Google services). In any case, don’t worry: you will not need cables to carry out the operation, as everything will happen wirelessly. In fact, we go through systems that go beyond connecting to the Internet, for example using Bluetooth.
Play Store native functionality
As for Android, the best method is probably to go through the native functionality offered by the Play Store, which is Google’s official digital store.
In fact, you should know that since 2021 the possibility of transferring apps from one device to another quickly and easily has been integrated in the latter. Of course, this method can also be used to pass some games to the new smartphone.
Before explaining how to do it, however, I would like to clarify that this feature does not allow you to transfer all the titles on the Play Store, but only some. In fact, it all depends on the games involved. In some cases it is possible to make the switch without problems, while in others the data may not be complete (so the game may not be able to start properly) or the saves may be missing.
In any case, it costs nothing to try, also considering that it is a quick operation and that in any case the “copy” of the game on your old device will not be removed (at least until you decide it). Using this method you could also be able to transfer a good number of titles without wasting precious Giga. In fact, we pass by geolocation and Bluetooth: it is enough that the smartphones involved have Google services and that they are physically close to proceed.
In this regard, completing the operation is very simple: as regards the “old” device, just open the Play Store (via the colored ▶ ︎ symbol icon on the Home screen or in the app drawer, or the page where all the apps installed on the smartphone are present), press the account icon at the top right, tap the Manage app and device item and press the Send button, located next to the word Share app.
You will therefore be prompted, if necessary, to activate the geolocation, necessary for the correct transfer, by first pressing the Continue button and then the OK button. After that, you can select some titles, by checking the appropriate boxes, as well as press the Send icon, present at the top right, to start the search for the other device. At this point, take the new smartphone, start the Play Store, tap the profile icon at the top right, reach the Manage app and device tab and press the button receive.
Also in this case, you may be asked to activate geolocation, while Bluetooth is generally activated automatically (once the operation is finished, you can possibly deactivate it using the classic quick button in the notification curtain). At this point, the icon relating to your new device will appear on the old smartphone: press on the latter and take a look at the pairing code that appears on both screens (it serves to verify that you are sending the game to the right device, without nobody gets in the way).
If everything is correct, just tap the Receive button for the new smartphone. The transfer of the games will therefore be initiated, which is generally very fast. On the new device, just press the Install All button to have the games already available. In any case, once the procedure is finished, you can tap the Disconnect button, in order to “disconnect” the two devices.
At this point, pay attention to the fact that, as previously mentioned, there may be problems. In fact, the fact that a game is selectable and transferable does not necessarily mean that it works. Before removing the title from the old device, I therefore strongly recommend that you try to start the game on the new smartphone, in order to verify that it works and that there are all the saves.
To give you some concrete examples, transferring a title like Call of Duty: Mobile in this way does not work, as the message appears on the screen: “Unfortunately there was an error while downloading Google Play”. A similar situation occurs when trying to transfer a game like ARK: Survival Evolved: in this case, the message is “Bad download or not enough storage”, or “download not successful or successful or too little space available”. In short, I repeat that this transfer method does not work with all games.
However, some games can be safely transferred from one device to another in this way. To give you concrete examples also in this sense, Crash Bandicoot: On the Run lets you switch from one device to another without problems, even if you may then be required to download additional data (however, at least you will save some time and eventual Data connection). The saves also in the case of Crash Bandicoot: On The Run are based on the owner account, so you shouldn’t have too many problems.
In short, despite everything, this method could be useful for certain games, but always be careful (if you want to avoid finding “nasty surprises” related to data and progress). So check everything well before deleting the game from the old device. In any case, this is the only official solution on Android and therefore more and more developers may decide to allow users to transfer titles through this method over time.
troubleshoot
How do you say? Are you in possession of an Android device without Play Store or simply, given the limitations of the native functionality described above, you would like to try to pass for a third-party application (attention, however: often the impossibility of transferring a game correctly depends on the way in which it was developed, so you might encounter any same problems you had with the official method)? No problem, in this case might find useful TrebleShot, which is a free app that allows you to clone in seconds games between two Android phones, without the need for cables or difficult installation procedures.
To have TrebleShot on your device, just get the app from the Play Store or alternative stores and install it on both smartphones involved, both the old and the new.
Once this is done, start the app on the two devices and press the (>) button at the bottom right, in order to “skip” the welcome screen. Then, always carrying out the operation on both smartphones, first press the Set button and then the Ask button. TO
at this point, tap on the item ALLOW to provide the right permissions, necessary for the proper functioning of the app. Keep in mind that you may have to press the Ask and ALLOW buttons again. Once you have provided all the permissions, the tick icon will appear on the screen.
At this point, press several times on the (>) key located at the bottom right, until you reach the screen that indicates that Everything is ready (in the meantime, you will be asked if you want to change the name of the device and so on, but if you can safely “skip” these steps, optional for your purpose). Then, tap on the check icon and you will access the main screen of the app.
Before proceeding, however, I would like to make a clarification that I consider necessary: some games provide for saving your progress only after logging in to an online account. So, before proceeding, make sure you have synchronized everything via the Internet, using the game settings, to avoid accidental losses. Also, before deleting the game from the previous device, I recommend that you try to start it on the new one, making sure everything is working.
Either way, don’t worry – TrebleShot just makes a copy, so the transfer process won’t delete the game from your old smartphone.
To proceed, press the Send button on the previous device, select the games you want to send and press the send icon at the bottom right. At this point, press the + button and select a method for the transfer. If you want some advice, you could think of going for the Use Existing Networks option, in order to use a method “similar” to the official one, but in this case going through geolocation and Wi-Fi network (clearly you have to connect the devices to the same net).
Once the various permissions have been granted on the old device, a specific QR code will appear on the screen. So take the new device in your hand, clearly connected to the same Wi-Fi network and press the Receive button. Then select the Scan QR Code option, provide any authorization (both for the camera and for geolocation) and press the RECEIVE button.
In this way, the transfer will start, which will take place quickly. Once the latter is complete, just click on the box relating to the game’s APK file and select the Open item. If nothing happens, it means that you need to give the right permissions to the app. To do this, go to the Settings of the smartphone, reach the path Apps and notifications> Advanced> App with special access> Install unknown apps, tap on the entry related to troubleshoot and move the switch located next to the Allow from item from OFF to ON this source. If necessary, reply affirmatively to the warning that appears immediately afterwards.
The procedure may vary slightly depending on your device, but you shouldn’t have too many problems. In any case, you can now go back to TrebleShot: you will see that by pressing on the game box you can continue and press the INSTALL button. Perfect, now you know the method to transfer a game from one device to another via this third-party application.
In any case, I would like to reiterate further that with some games this procedure may not work. For example, trying to use this method with Call of Duty: Mobile, you always get the same message: “Unfortunately there was an error while downloading Google Play”. In short, the advice is always to check that everything works on the new device, before deleting the application from the old one.
In short, unfortunately for some games it is not possible to do much (due to the choices of the developers), but I can assure you that these methods work with some titles, so they could be useful and potentially save you time and any data connection. In short, it costs nothing to try: at most you will simply have to download the non-transferable games again in this way.
I also remind you that many titles save progress via account, so you may be interested in learning more about the way your favorite game does this, so that you can find everything as it was once the title was installed on the new device.
I know: this is a somewhat “tangled” situation, since you have to be a little careful, but in any case I am sure that in the end you will find the method to return to play your favorite titles safely, by trying to transfer the games in the methods I have indicated to you. For the rest, for the sake of completeness of information, I provide you with some indications that could be useful for groped to recover your bailouts in case you have not been able to reach your goal so far.
In fact, in addition to using accounts such as Play Games, which can potentially allow you to recover data when you switch to another device, there is also a manual method to try to “restore” your saves. In other words, you go to “recover” from the old device the additional OBB files of the games through a file manager, then move them to the new smartphone and try to access the data again. I will not go into further detail here, as there are many variables at play and it is a not exactly “official” method, but it seemed right to let you know that some users have managed to recover the saves also in this way in the ” more desperate cases “.
How to transfer a game from iPhone to iPhone
Are you not interested in exchanging data between Android terminals because you need to carry out the transfer in question between two iPhones? In this case, I have good news for you: to move a game from one iPhone to another there is no need to rely on third-party programs, as iTunes (and Finder on macOS) has a feature in itself that allows you to transfer backing up an “old” iPhone to a new one in just a couple of clicks.
Furthermore, if you do not have a Lightning cable available to complete the procedure, you can obtain a very similar result by relying on the iCloud cloud service, which does not require additional cables or computers.
Before even starting, however, I want to point out an important detail about it: the illustrated procedures allow you to move entire backups, including apps and games, from iPhone to iPhone, without the possibility of individually choosing the data to be transferred. Furthermore, for the procedure to be successful, the new iPhone will have to be reinitialized – except, of course, if the terminal in question had just been purchased or at least not yet activated.
Finally, even at this juncture, what has already been said for Android applies: pay attention to the data of the games. In some cases you may lose them, depending on the title involved. I therefore recommend that you inform yourself well about the possibility of saving progress. For example, in some cases it is possible to restore game progress on the new iPhone by downloading the titles through the App Store and logging in with the same credentials used on the old phone.
Having said that, it’s time to take action: below I am going to show you how to transfer a game from one phone to another using iTunes or via iCloud. Before proceeding, you must update both devices to the latest version of iOS (I explained how to do it in my dedicated tutorial ), otherwise the backup transfer will fail; also remember that, in order for the procedure to be carried out, you will need to associate the same Apple ID to both iPhones.
iTunes / Finder
Do you have the iPhone Lightning cable supplied and have you decided to proceed from your Windows PC or from your Mac with macOS 10.14 Mojave or earlier using iTunes? Perfect: first of all, if you don’t already have it, install iTunes on Windows following the instructions I gave you in my dedicated tutorial; this operation, on the Mac, is not necessary, since iTunes is already pre-installed within the operating system.
Either way, start the program by calling it from the Start menu in Windows or toolbar Dock Mac (via the icon in the form of musical note ) and, once the software is loaded, connect your old iPhone (that is it will transfer games ) to your computer using the supplied Lightning cable. If you are asked to update iOS to the latest version available, accept, as already mentioned the version of the operating system must be the same on both iPhones.
Once this is done, access the iTunes File menu, click on the Devices item and then press the item Transfer purchases from “iPhone of [your name]” to move the data relating to the games and apps purchased to the computer. At this point, click on the iPhone- shaped icon located at the top of iTunes, choose the Summary item attached to the left sidebar, put the check mark next to the item This computer and then click on Back up now to immediately create a source iPhone backup to computer.
Once the backup procedure is complete (you can realize this by checking the progress bar located at the top), disconnect the source iPhone, completely close iTunes, connect the new iPhone (i.e. the one to copy the games to) and open the software again from Apple.
If the device has already been activated, first transfer the purchases already made on the computer (otherwise these will be lost) by going once again to the menu File> Devices> Transfer purchases from “iPhone of [your name]”, then click on the icon of the ‘ iPhone located at the top left, select the Summary item again and click on the Reset iPhone button to restore the device to its factory state, remembering to disable the Find my iPhone feature before proceeding.
During the restore process, choose Don’t back up your new iPhone; on the contrary, if you were asked to update the operating system to the latest version, accept without hesitation (as I have already explained to you, the versions of iOS on the two iPhones must match).
Once the restoration procedure is finalized, or after connecting the iPhone not yet initialized, click again on the button in the shape of the iPhone located at the top left of the iTunes window, put the check mark next to the item Restore from this backup, choose from the drop-down menu immediately adjacent to the backup to restore (the one previously created by the other iPhone), click on the Continue button and wait patiently for the process to be completed. Once this is complete, the new iPhone will have the same data, the same settings and, above all, the same apps and the same games present on the old one.
Easy, right? If you are using a Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina or later, iTunes is not there and you can proceed directly from the Finder. This makes everything even easier. In fact, you just need to connect the iPhone with a USB cable to the computer, provide the necessary permissions to the computer (as explained above for iTunes) and select the device from the Finder sidebar.
You will then have to press the Back Up Now button and that’s it. If you have any doubts about it, I recommend that you consult my guide on how to backup your iPhone.
iCloud
Can’t (or don’t want to) connect iPhone to computer? You have nothing to worry about, as you can transfer games from one terminal to another using the iCloud service. Also in this case, if the “target” iPhone had already been activated, it will be necessary to restore it in advance: I have shown you the details of this operation in my guide on how to restore iPhone.
So, without further ado, grab the old iPhone (ie the “original” one), make sure it is connected to a Wi-Fi network, access the Settings menu > [your name]> iCloud> iCloud Backup and press the Run button backup now, to instantly create a backup of your phone and send it to the cloud. Of course, you must have previously linked the iPhone to your Apple ID.
Once the backup is complete, take the new iPhone instead and, if it had already been activated, bring it back to the factory state by going to the Settings> General> Restore iOS section, press the Initialize content and settings item and press the Initialize button twice iPhone to start the procedure immediately. As already mentioned, you do not have to perform this step on a new iPhone or, at least, not yet activated.
In any case, after restarting the iPhone (or the first time it is turned on), activate it by following the instructions shown on the screen: first select a Wi-Fi network to connect to (essential step for posthumously restoring the iCloud backup ), choose whether to activate location services, configure Face ID or Touch ID and set an unlock code.
Once you have reached the restore options, choose Restore from iCloud backup, log in to your Apple ID, accept the terms of use of iOS and, finally, choose the backup to restore (the one previously created with the old iPhone) from the list proposal.
How to transfer a game from Android to iPhone (or vice versa)
How do you say? Haven’t found what you need yet, as you’re interested in figuring out how to transfer a game from Android to iPhone and/or vice versa? Unfortunately, this time, I think I have no good news for you: since these are phones equipped with different operating systems, capable of processing structured data in a profoundly different way from each other, this operation is not officially possible.
To be more precise, there is the official Switch to iOS application, but the latter may not be effective due to differences between file formats and conversion difficulties. In fact, as you can also read in the description of the Play Store, the app promises to securely transfer only contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts and calendars. It is possible to transfer only some apps that are present on both the Play Store and the App Store, but the “magic” does not necessarily work with the games you are interested in. For more details, read my tutorial on how it works switch to iOS.
On the other hand, there is no official application to transfer apps from iPhone to Android. However, in 2021 Google announced that it is working on it: as soon as there are news in this regard, I will update the tutorial with the relative instructions.
In any case, what I advise you to do currently in this context is to check if there is an option within the game you are interested in to synchronize progress and purchases directly to the cloud (e.g. via Google Play Games, iCloud, Facebook and so on): if so, you just have to log in from within the game installed on the old phone, wait for the data to be synchronized, download the same game on the new phone and access it using the same credentials adopted previously.
A concrete example of this are the games that involve the use of the SuperCell ID, thanks to which it is possible to transfer Brawl Stars from one phone to another, and the same goes for the other games of the same company.