It started with the usual routine: My phone was plugged in and charging. But that peaceful routine was rudely interrupted by the shock I experienced when I looked at the screen. Instead of the usual burst of color, my screen remained black. Holding down the power button for ever-longer periods of time did little to help. The phone refused to power up. After three-and-a-half years, I had to say goodbye to my beloved Nokia.
I got the diagnosis at the phone clinic the next day: A fault in the power-management system. The rough estimate of what it would cost to repair the phone was 300 francs – around the price I paid for the phone brand new back in the day.
No phone, no card-based payments
I immediately checked out online stores in hopes of buying a new phone as quickly as possible. It was important to me that I could collect the device immediately.
But I came across a challenge in the process. I generally use payment cards – either my credit card or debit card – to pay for stuff online. But without the card issuer’s mobile apps to authenticate online payments, there was no way to pay. There also was not way to activate credit cards from other issuers because I could not receive the necessary authentication codes by SMS. What now? My phone is dead! I was struck hard by the realization of how dependent we have all become on our phones, and of all the things that no longer work without these little miracle gadgets.
My blood pressure was shooting up! Then I remembered that online stores also offer the option of paying via invoice billing. So I quickly ordered my new phone, jotting down the invoice and order numbers on a piece of paper – something else which I would normally do on my phone.
I then made my way to the online store’s brick-and-mortar outlet. Around one hour after I noticed that my Nokia had died, I was holding a brand-new phone in my hand – this time a Pixel 7a from Google.
Setting up my new phone
Because both my old phone and my new one use the Android operating system, I didn’t expect to encounter any difficulties transferring my data. Would the fact that my old and new phones were built by different manufacturers pose a problem?
After logging in to my Google account, the process moved along rapidly. Of course, the device did take its time for the installation.
I appreciated the fact that all my apps were automatically installed on my new device. My contacts, including all phone numbers, as well as all my old SMS messages, were all transferred.
Annoying apps
Whatsapp is one of the most important mobile apps. I use this messaging service all the time. I had set up Whatsapp to automatically save a backup to the cloud every day. Luckily, the backup system worked well, and I could restore all my backed-up data onto my new device from the cloud. Once I entered my phone number into Whatsapp on my new device, it recognized that I had an existing account. An SMS was sent in the background, and the synchronization began. But I did have to wait for what seemed like hours until the synchronization process was complete.
But I also discovered, at the cost of my nerves, that getting some other mobile apps up and running again can be very complicated. The differences between apps are curious. I completely understand why additional security processes are needed to install a banking app, but it’s difficult to figure out why I should lose all the progress I’ve made in a mobile game just because I changed phones. Here, I list some of the things I encountered while getting my apps back up and running on my new phone:
- My favorite apps are those which I can easily continue using on my new phone. The app recognizes me, and I can simply carry on using it with all my old preferences, as if nothing had changed. There are also some games that let you carry on where you left off.
- For some mobile apps, I received an email. All I had to do was click on the link in the email, and the apps were up and running again. It may not be an optimal approach, but it worked just fine.
- The process is very similar for SMS messages. Some apps require authentication via a code sent by SMS.
- The apps that I find annoying are the ones that require me to log in with my username and password. Which username and password did I use for that app again? I had to get rid of some apps completely because I couldn’t remember the login information, and the apps just weren’t important enough for me to waste too much time on recovering my account.
- What I also find extremely annoying is when I have to request a one-time code that is sent to me via snail mail. Here too, I can understand why that may be necessary for banking apps, especially when the service provider clearly explains their process. But what gets my goat is when I just can’t log in to a payment card app using my username and password, and only find out about the need to request an authentication code by mail when I call the customer service line to find out what in the world is wrong. Simply communicating this requirement would not be that difficult.
- Some apps, including a game, could no longer be restored at all. The game “forgot” my gaming history, and there was no way to log in. My response: I promptly deleted that game from my phone.
One thing that stood out to me was how different the approaches to login were across similar mobile apps. Here are two concrete examples:
- With the Coop app, I could simply open the app and carry right on scanning my Supercard at the till. But the process was a lot less simple for the Migros app: The app would not show my Cumulus card at all until I had first entered a username and password, and authenticated the login with a code I received by SMS. The credit card I had linked in the Migros app no longer worked for app-based purchases. I had to endure the hassle of deleting the existing credit card and then linking the same credit card over again from scratch. I found that quite annoying. Migros should rethink this process and come up with something more user-friendly.
- I have various credit card apps because I frequently test different credit cards, and like to test the apps offered by different card issuers. The process of getting the app for my Migros credit card up and going again was relatively easy. I entered my username and password, and that was it. But the mobile app for another credit card was a different story: Only when I finally called up the customer service line did I find out that I could only log in using an authentication code which would be sent by mail.
To wind up this journal, I’ll offer you two tips that can help you avoid some frustration when changing phones:
- Enable automatic backups of Whatsapp data: A small survey of people I know revealed that many people do not have automatic backups enabled in Whatsapp. Some of them had thought that they had enabled backups. I recommend that you adjust your settings in Whatsapp so that data is backed up once per day.
- Regularly back up your data: Because I save most of my data in the cloud, I did not lose much when my phone died. While it is not the end of the world, there are some things I lost which I would rather not have lost. For that reason, my recommendation would be to regularly back up your data using cloud services.
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