[chrysaurora]

Got my PRIV few days ago. Loving it. But I haven't even inserted SIM in it yet (traveling out of country, don't want to risk cutting my MicroSIM and be without a sim here). So, I have been using it on WiFi and setting it up as I like it.

My preliminary review:
First, learning Android is not as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. Sure, I miss how efficient I was (am) on my Q10 but Android is not too steep of a learning curve. Some points I lose on efficiency (of Q10), I more than make-up for by having native-apps on Android. Eg: I'd (previously) login to banking site and do certain things via BlackBerry Q10 browser. But now I have app for this bank and I am able to do same actions in roughly 1/3rd the time. You win some, you lose some, holds true here, I guess.

Second, physical keyboard is not as sleek as Q10's. But again it is touch capacitive so I think overall it compensates for being slightly worse than Q10 by offering me useful new features. I use scrolling via touching the keyboard a lot. I also swipe left on physical keyboard to backspace a word and that's pretty cool. It has become a second nature now. I don't even look for backspace key anymore.

Third, I definitely want Hub to improve (I am probably going to write a separate wishlist thread for Hub later). It's a good starting point for now. I'd probably continue to use Hub as my primary email application but (coming from BB10), I definitely feel hamstrung a bit. But for people coming from pure Android world, with no background in BB10 hub, Hub probably feels very good.

Overall, I am happy with PRIV.

Questions around apps:
Anyway, I noticed reliance on Google account is too much and I don't want to rely on Google for everything. So, I was hoping (perhaps) existing PRIV users may have gone through similar experience and figured out solutions.

1. Photo/Video backup: on BlackBerry10, I had box and my BB10 device would simply backup all photos/videos to my box account. But on Android, the photo app backs-up on Google account (which gets synched to multiple devices) so I don't want to do that. I installed Box but the free version of Box app does NOT auto backup your photos/videos like it does on BlackBerry 10.
- Any recommendations? I want an app that monitors all my photo folders and constantly backsup (over wifi) my pictures/videos/documents to my cloud account (box or dropbox).

2. BlackBerry Travel replacement - I installed WorldMate (which is what BB Travel was based on). It kinda works but it does not monitor your trip for changes to flight time, gate changes etc. For that you've to purchase $9.9/year membership of WorldMate Gold. I wish BB had included a coupon for WorldMate Gold as replacement for BB Travel. But since BB did not, is there any other free alternative?

3. File Manager: I am using Solid Explorer and it seems pretty good. But open to other suggestions.

4. Text Messaging - I haven't been able to fully utilize it because I don't have SIM in my Priv yet but I installed Textra, set it as default text-messaging app and later after rebooting my phone and next day, I did content transfer from Q10 to Priv via MicroSD card. Content transfer worked fine but when I open Textra it does not show me my restored text messages. But when I open 'messenger' app (which is NOT default), it shows all restored text messages. I don't understand why Textra is not showing texts that were restored by content store app. Any ideas?

5. Any other content transfer app? Perhaps instead of BlackBerry's content transfer app, I should use some other app? Any one app or combination of multiple apps that will:
1. Backup my files (photos, documents, videos) from Q10 and restore to Priv?
2. Backup contacts from Q10 and restore to Priv?
3. Backup SMS/Texts from Q10 and restore (correctly) to PRIV?
4. Backup Notes, Tasks from Q10 and restore (correctly) to PRIV?

[DINGSTER1]

For #2: Try Tripit. Free version works well.

[randall2580]

Photos: If you have an office 365 account you can use Microsoft's OneDrive. They were offering 15 GB for photo back up but I think they stopped recently. Amazon Photos works if you have Prime. I was backing up to DropBox as well.

[ajwan]

For #1, Google Photos works well.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[DenverRalphy]

1. Photo/Video backup: on BlackBerry10, I had box and my BB10 device would simply backup all photos/videos to my box account. But on Android, the photo app backs-up on Google account (which gets synched to multiple devices) so I don't want to do that. I installed Box but the free version of Box app does NOT auto backup your photos/videos like it does on BlackBerry 10.
- Any recommendations? I want an app that monitors all my photo folders and constantly backsup (over wifi) my pictures/videos/documents to my cloud account (box or dropbox).

Have you tried FolderSync? There's a lite and paid version.

There's also an app called DropSync that's specific to DropBox, but I've not tried it.

[chrysaurora]

For #1, Google Photos works well.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Don't want to use Google Photos backup as I mentioned before. Want to backup to Box or DropBox (utilizing free storage available, don't want to pay a recurring fee, one-time fee for a paid-app that does all this is fine).

Photos: If you have an office 365 account you can use Microsoft's OneDrive. They were offering 15 GB for photo back up but I think they stopped recently. Amazon Photos works if you have Prime. I was backing up to DropBox as well.

Thanks!
I don't have Office 365 but I'll try the OneDrive app. I have free account and about 10gigs of storage there.

For #2: Try Tripit. Free version works well.

Will try. Thanks!

Have you tried FolderSync? There's a lite and paid version.

There's also an app called DropSync that's specific to DropBox, but I've not tried it.

DropSync sounds like it'd work. I'ld try this too. Thanks for the suggestion.

[DetritalGeo]

I switched from Box to onedrive for media backup some time ago and it's the same thing as long as you have storage.

On the Priv there is a setting to backup via WiFi only. To save battery in the beginning I would recommend turning on the backup only while charging option as well.

For Travel; also try out "Trip case".

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[Jonneh]

I use "SMS Backup and Restore" from the Play Store (have for several years now) to always backup my texts, including MMS, and then restore them to the device after a factory reset, a device switch, etc. It's awesome. Takes a little while to back up if you have a ton of messages in some threads and also lots of MMS, but it's worth the wait.

To backup contacts, what I've found easiest is to just have them sync across Google. It automatically has them within your google account. So if you go to gmail.com and at the top-left corner where it says "Mail" with a little arrow, click it and go to "Contacts", all of your contacts appear there. This means that any device you log into your gmail account with, the contacts will be on the device too.

TripIt is a highly recommended travel app.
I also use Flight Track Pro to track my flights and gate changes and all.

[chrysaurora]

Thanks! Is this the one for sms backup and restore? The app has to be available on both BlackBerry 10 and Android Google Play for it to transfer texts from Q10 to Priv.




Posted via CB10

[anon(870071)]

DO NOT USE BlackBerry content transfer app. It glitches the hub and your information.be warned!

вιaсĸвεггч� ᕵяiv (STV100-3 Rogers Wireless)via CB for Android 5.1.1

[zipro]

Don't want to use Google Photos backup as I mentioned before. Want to backup to Box or DropBox (utilizing free storage available, don't want to pay a recurring fee, one-time fee for a paid-app that does all this is fine).

The free version of DropBox works perfectly fine for photo and video backup - have been using that for years!

[zocster]

For #1, Google Photos works well.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

I like this too. Unlimited, high quality.

[dawnjc79]

DropSync sounds like it'd work. I'ld try this too. Thanks for the suggestion.

I've been using Dropsync Ultimate for BB10 and I loved it very much because it syncs fast and well and I do not have to delete a file on my PC if I have already deleted it on my device due to the sync (not simply upload) function.

However since switching over to PRIV, I have been facing a issues (fast sync and instant detect do not work) Dropsync. I was wondering if you have tried it out and how your experience has been.