Android phone wrong restore

When switching from my old Nexus S (old, huh) to my Galaxy Nexus, the restore didn't work correctly for some reason - basically none of my Apps auto-restored. I tried installing an App from the Market, but that actually made things worse, which I found out when I did further factory restores.


The reason is that the initial sync didn't happen correctly, so G-N didn't know about the backup sets, so when I installed an App it created a new set. Doing a factory restore then only restored from the wrong restore.


The way out of this is to use the SDK bmgr tool to choose the backup set from the Nexus S to restore.

1. First install the SDK, which you can get from developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
   
2. Then you need install the platform tools to get ADB.
   
3. Put your phone into Developer Mode
   
   In Ice Cream Sandwich its moved to Settings - Developer options
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Connect the phone by USB and then run
   
   Applications/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/adb shell bmgr list sets
   
   (text may wrap)
   
   374a7d88a08e82f5 : crespo
   30bba37bbaeabc40 : maguro
   
   crespo refers to Nexus S backup set
   maguro refers to Galaxy Nexus
5. So what I did was to restore 'crespo' over the top of 'maguro'
   
   Applications/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/adb shell bmgr restore 374a7d88a08e82f5
   
   (text may wrap)
   
   This is safe because its not a root level restore, we're not flashing the ROM. However use at your own risk.

Then leave the device for a few minutes, and your Apps will start to appear.

Its not a root restore so you don't get data or settings. The thing that took the time for me was swapping my five Authenticator accounts over.