Security, privacy, transferring data
Hello All,
After my first twenty-four hours with android post, I thought I would write a few posts about a variety of different experiences I had whilst using the Samsung S22.
In this post, I am going to talk about working in a predominantly apple eco system and the transferral of data.
Moving From iOS to Android 12
First of all, I intentionally didn’t transfer over data from my iPhone. I often start from scratch and this instance was no different. However, it did cause me some issues later on.
Note: You are much better off if you already have a google account and sync all of your passwords from the Apple eco system to your google account before moving. I had done this and I am so glad I did. It didn’t decrease all headaches but many issues were avoided because of this foresight.
To move your passwords over though, you should note that for best and most reliable results, you will need a Mac. I cannot attest if this would work under windows but to transfer passwords from your apple keychain on a Mac… Do the following:
- 1. Ensure you have been saving your passwords to your iCloud Keychain. If you log in to websites or apps, and you get the prompt to save or update the password for that account, and you confirm to save or update, you have indeed been saving your passwords.
- 2. Ensure password/keychain access is switched on on all of your apple devices.
- 3. On a Mac, go to system preferences—passwords—export passwords and the system asks you to save the file which you will need shortly.
- 4. Download Google chrome if you don’t already have it.
- 5. Open google chrome, type in password.google.com and sign into your google account.
- 6. Import the file you just created and boom, your passwords are now all in your google account.
- 7. Delete the file so no one has non-encrypted access to your passwords.
The auto fill will now be available on your android device once you’ve signed into your google account and allowed access.
WhatsApp issues
If I had been smart, I would have transferred all data at set up. WhatsApp, although plays nicely with iOs backups on iOS, and android backups over google, unless you have done a wired transfer, you are likely to pull your hair out.
In the end, I gave up trying to get all of my recent conversations back and admitted defeat. I don’t tend to keep media or such within my WhatsApp account and if I need to keep something will download locally… but for some this would have been a deal breaker. My advice, transfer everything when it asks you to.
Privacy and control Over security
I have heard for years, android is less secure, privacy hungry etc. My experience however, was although it is probably true, the level of control the system affords the user is much more in depth than on iOS. They have clearly done some work around permissions and such. Do I understand them and why certain apps needed access to contacts? No, when not obvious, I was quirking an eyebrow in confusion but I was pleasantly surprised on the level of control android gives their users. Is it enough? I don’t know. I am in no way a security/privacy expert. I suspect not but even still, not what I was expecting.
Working with Other non Android Services
Some services, like ring, Amazon’s security system was easy enough to set up. I will talk about the apps in another post.
Surprisingly, Apple Music was a breeze to set up to.
It seems even non android services are capable of playing nicely.
Photos and other media
As I mentioned, I use Apple Music and so getting music across was easy enough as I tend to stream more or less nowadays.
Photos on the other hand, this was a killer.
First of all, I had to buy storage from google. You get 15GB free which is very good. I have a lot more photos and videos than that though. Backing your photos up to Google photos on iOs takes a very long time. You have to have the phone on charge, app open for it to back all photos up. It only finished that process yesterday, a whole week after I started. [I do have in the region of 3200 photos and videos]
Due to my own negligence, when using it on android, I must have been backing it up there and it inadvertently used my mobile data which means I am on rations for the rest of the month. Ooops!
Conclusion
Smoother than I expected but with retrospect, I may have done a few things differently. Definitely recommend researching and finding out what method will work for you as an individual.
I hope this helps.