Data transfer is complicated when it comes to phones. You can move photos and videos easily enough, and sometimes music can be transferred too if it isn’t DRM protected but a phone has more than just photos and media. It has apps, contacts, call logs, messages, and more. They’re not easy to copy, in fact, they’re almost impossible to copy like the photos and videos. You need an app for the job and you will most likely be able to find an app that can copy contacts or call logs. Messages are a bit trickier. The easiest way to transfer data between Android phones is by using an app on your desktop. You can connect the phones you want to transfer data between to your desktop, and the app will take care of everything.
The only problem with using apps to transfer data between Android phones is that they’re mostly built for when users buy a new phone. The goal of these apps is to help you set up a new phone so that it has everything your old one did. To that end, these apps don’t really let you retain data on the phone you’re transferring data to but there are always exceptions. MobiKin Transfer for Mobile is a data transfer app that can clone the data from one phone to another but also lets you selectively move it to another phone without overwriting existing data.
MobiKin: Data transfer of Android phone
MobiKin Transfer for Mobile costs $49.95 for a single license for a year. At the time of writing, a huge deal is going on and you can get this for only $29.95. There’s also a lifetime license that costs $59.95, which at the time of writing is avaiable for only $39.95.
It has a trial version as well that can transfer ten contacts, ten log entries, and ten messages. It’s perfect for trying the app out and if you decide to buy it and it doesn’t work as advertised, the developers will give you a refund within thirty days of your purchase.
In terms of features, MobiKin has a single purpose; transferring data. It has a dead-simple interface that you can easily learn and it can guide you through the few permissions you need to enable on your Android phone. As for the Android phone, MobiKin supports Android 4.4, and later. That will include most phones that are in use today
In order to transfer data, MobiKin will install the MobiKin Android app on both the source phone and the destination phone. You can remove the app later once you’re done transferring data, however, if you ever need to transfer data again, the MobiKin desktop client will install the Android app to both phones.
Transfer data between Android phones
Run MobiKin and connect the phone you want to transfer data from. On the phone, enable USB debugging. If you do not know how to enable USB debugging, the MobiKin desktop app will guide you.
Once you’ve enabled USB debugging, MobiKin will connect to the phone and read the data from it. It will take time depending on how much data there is to read. Repeat for the phone you want to transfer data to.
Generally speaking, the first phone you connect is the ‘Source’ phone, and the second one is the ‘Destination’ phone. You can click the ‘Flip’ button at the top to interchange them.
Once you’ve sorted the source and destination phones, you can use the column in the middle to select what it is you want to transfer. If you’re looking to keep data on the destination phone i.e., not wipe it, make sure the ‘Clear data before copying’ option is not enabled at the bottom of the destination phone. Click ‘Start Copy’.
The time it takes for data to copy depends on the amount of data there is. It may also be impacted by the USB standard the two devices support, and the version of Android that they’re running. Older devices will take longer to read/write data.
The data once copied over, will be indistinguishable from the data that was already on the phone. You have to know which message, call log entry, contact, etc., wasn’t there before to be able to pick it out. The copied data will appear in the default apps on the destination phone. For example, if you’ve copied messages from an old phone to a new one, the messages will appear in the default messaging app on the destination phone.
Conclusion
MobiKin works as advertised though the price might seem steep to some users. The app’s interface indicates that it can also transfer data between iPhones and other iOS devices and you can try it but we did not have much luck getting the app to recognize an iOS device. You should definitely start with the trial version if you intend to use the app for an iOS device.
