You may migrate to Galaxy S10 easily with the Samsung Smart Switch. Your photos, videos, music, messages, call logs, contacts, files, calendar events, alarms, and apps in the old phone can be transferred to Galaxy S10.
There are many solutions for you to migrate to Galaxy S10. But the simplest way is to use Smart Switch to transfer data between Galaxy S10 and the old phone.
This Galaxy S10 guide explains how to use Samsung Smart Switch to migrate to Galaxy S10.
Samsung Smart Switch is the tool for you to migrate to Samsung devices from other mobile devices including:
In addition to Smart Switch Mobile, you can also download and install PC/Mac version of Smart Switch.
Smart Switch for PC is normally recommended for users who own one or more Samsung devices. It can back up almost all data on Samsung Galaxy phones to the PC and restore the backup to other Galaxy phones as well.
When using Samsung Smart Switch to migrate to Galaxy S10, the following data can be migrated (depending on OS on the old phone).
You can review and select items to be transferred before migrating data to Galaxy S10.
When you migrate to Galaxy S10 using Smart Switch, you can choose one of the following 3 ways to connect Galaxy S10 to migrate data
You need to use the old phone's USB cable and the USB connector in the Galaxy S10 box.
This is the fastest, easiest, and most reliable way to migrate to Galaxy S10.
Wireless connection
You can also connect Galaxy S10 to the old Android phone using WiFi direct. The data on the old device can then be transferred to Galaxy S10 wirelessly.
For iOS devices, you only need to enable iCloud backup. On Galaxy S10, you can then transfer the iCloud backup to Galaxy S10 through the WiFi connection.
External storage
This connection is usually available for Galaxy phones or other Android phones that support back up to external storage (micro SD card, or USB flash drive).
To migrate data to Galaxy S10, you need to:
The 3 connection methods work similarly: you select what to transfer/migrate, start to transfer, restore to Galaxy S10.
You may follow these steps to migrate to Galaxy S10.
As illustrated below, you need to use the USB cable for your old device and the USB connector in the Galaxy S10 box.
Please check the Galaxy S10 layout
for the location of the USB C port.You need to install Smart Switch on the old device if your old Android phone is not a Galaxy phone.
By default, Smart Switch should start automatically when you connect Galaxy S10 to other devices as shown below.
You can choose Smart Switch, then tap Always (Smart Switch will be set as the default app for this USB device) or Just one.
If there is no pop-up window after connecting Galaxy S10 to the old device, you can start Smart Switch at Settings — Accounts and backup — Smart Switch.
Either way, when you start Samsung Smart Switch first time, you need to agree on the terms and grant permissions as shown in the screenshot below.
Tap Start to grant all permissions.
As shown in the screenshot above, now you have to choose the role of Galaxy S10:
In this guide, you want to migrate the data on the old device to Galaxy S10, so you need to choose the Receive data for Galaxy S10.
If your old phone is an iPhone, or Galaxy phone with Smart Switch pre-installed, you only need to accept the connection.
For example, if your old phone is a Galaxy phone, you will see the following notification:
Allow access to phone data?
The connected device will be able to access data on this phone
Tap Allow on your old device to accept the connection so that you can migrate to Galaxy S10
If your old phone is an Android phone from other manufacturers, or your Galaxy phone is running Lollipop or lower version of Android, you need to install Smart Switch on your old device.
In this case, you need to start the Smart Switch app, then choose the Send data.
Once you accept the connection or choose the role as Send data, the old device should now be connected to Galaxy S10 as shown above.
The stage indicator 1 as shown in the screenshot above tells you it is in stage 1 of the migration.
Now, on Galaxy S10, you can find Smart Switch is now trying to scan files on the old device, as shown below.
It will determine what data can be migrated to Galaxy S10, and what cannot. It may take a few minutes depending on data on the old device.
Once the scan is done, you can now review and select data to be migrated to Galaxy S10. You are now in stage 2 of the migration as indicated by the number on the top right.
By default, the Smart Switch will try to migrate all migratable data to Galaxy S10.
As shown in the screenshot above, you can exclude any items in the migration.
You can also check what cannot be transferred (migrated) to Galaxy S10 by tapping Find what we can't bring.
After selecting the data to be transferred to Galaxy S10, you can tap Transfer to proceed.
Now, you just wait for the migration to finish.
The duration of the process depends on the volume of the data. The estimation shown on Galaxy S10 is usually accurate.
On Galaxy S10, you may notice, the data are transferred (copied) to Galaxy S10 first, then restored on Galaxy S10.
In Samsung Smart Switch, this is stage 3 indicated by the number on the top right as shown below.
Once all data are migrated to Galaxy S10, a summary will be displayed as shown above.
Tap Done to close the Smart Switch.
On the old device, once data are copied to Galaxy S10, you will get the following screen telling you data were successfully transferred to Galaxy S10.
You can tap Done to close the Smart Switch on the old device. You can also disconnect the USB cable.
Please note, at this time, on Galaxy S10, the transferred data are being restored. You can disconnect the USB cable now; but you should wait for the restore to finish.
Although it is not required, you'd better reboot Galaxy S10 after migrating data and apps to Galaxy S10.
If you have any questions or encounter any problems when you try to migrate to Galaxy S10, S10+, or S10e, please let us know in the comment box below.
The community will help you find the answer.
If you have questions on new features of Samsung Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 new features guides page.
For using Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 how-to guides page.
You can find the detailed guides of using Galaxy S10 camera in Galaxy S10 camera guides page.
To find and use accessories for Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 accessories guides page.
To read and download the official Samsung Galaxy S10 user guides (in PDF format) in your local language, please check Galaxy S10 user guides page.
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View Comments
I'm upgrading from an s5 to the s10 but want to leave the data on the s5 after migration...Can I?
Of course, you can. When migrating data from S5 to S10, data are "copied" (not moved) to S10. So, all your data, apps on S5 are not affected at all.