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How to get emails in HUB/Inbox to transfer to new device?

Asked: Jun 11 2022 | 7:37 pm EDT 3120 Views 23 Answers

I was forced to abandon my beloved BlackBerry after the Key3 was permanently shelved the other month. I have since migrated to a Samsung S22. I used BlackBerry Inbox/Hub on my Keyone and would like to continue using it on my S22.

My question is as follows:

When my apps and content transferred from my Keyone to my S22, the emails that I had kept in my Hub, i.e. emails not deleted from my device, were not transferred. My Hub is totally blank on my S22. I do not want to download, say, all emails from my various Gmail, Yahoo and AOL account inboxes or all of the last 30 days of emails because I maintain a 3 tier system for managing my emails and do not want to download Tier 2 emails to my S22 unnecessarily.

Tier 1.
I do not delete emails that are pressing/that require my active follow-up from either my phone or email account inbox,

Tier 2.
I do delete those emails that are not pressing/do not require active follow up, but that I foresee could need to be referenced at some point in the future, from my phone but not from my email account inbox. This declutters my phone inbox and makes it easy to quickly scroll through all of my really important emails.

Tier 3.
Emails that I know won't have any future value whatsoever, I delete from both my device and my email inbox.

Did anyone else have this problem? Can anyone offer a solution?

For additional context:

I initially used Google Drive to transfer my content from my Keyone to my S22. However, it, unexpectedly, only transferred my apps. But my call history and text messages were NOT transferred to my new phone.
Moreover, I was logged out of every app on my new phone and had to waste time logging into each and every singular app one and by one, all the while struggling to remember the passwords for each. The emails that I had in my Blackberry Hub were also not transferred. By right, this is data stored on the phone, so it should have been transferred in the same way my text messages should have been transferred from my google messages app, no?

The built-in Samsung content transfer didn’t work to transfer the missing call history and texts.

Blackberry Content Transfer didn’t work to transfer the missing call history and texts.

Finally, the Verizon Transfer app worked to transfer this material.

HOWEVER, the emails that I had in my Blackberry Hub were still not transferred. By right, any one of those 4 data transfer apps should have transferred the emails, no?

To summarize, I basically want to get the emails I stored on my Keyone (i.e. didnt delete) to transfer to my S22 and then, once transfered, upload all of my various email accounts and choose the option NOT to download any emails in my inboxes.


55
By Josh3

More Answers

12,879
Jun 11 2022 | 9:03 pm EDT spARTacus

I dont think I understand how you are using your email services/accounts. For me, all my emails are actually always on the service servers and various email clients (eg: hub on phone, Samsung email app on tablet, browser on PC, etc) only access what is on the service. If I open an email using my phone, the email shows as opened if I later view emails using my tablet. Likewise, if I delete an email when accessing using the PC, the email is deleted on the service and no longer available to access from the phone or tablet (unless when using hub I select delete only on device, not on server). When I get a new device or reset one for example, after I setup my email accounts, all/any emails that exist (on the server) become accessible on the phone.

55
Jun 11 2022 | 9:26 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by spARTacus
I dont think I understand how you are using your email services/accounts. For me, all my emails are actually always on the service servers and various email clients (eg: hub on phone, Samsung email app on tablet, browser on PC, etc) only access what is on the service. If I open an email using my phone, the email shows as opened if I later view emails using my tablet. Likewise, if I delete an email when accessing using the PC, the email is deleted on the service and no longer available to access from the phone or tablet (unless when using hub I select delete only on device, not on server). When I get a new device or reset one for example, after I setup my email accounts, all/any emails that exist (on the server) become accessible on the phone.
I am talking about the instance of "when using hub I select delete only on device, not on server." I want all of the REMAINING, non-deleted emails in my hub to transfer. Them and them only. Those are the old emails that I deem to be most important and that I want on my new phone for quick scrolling through.

12,779
Jun 11 2022 | 9:33 pm EDT Yamahammer

Originally Posted by Josh3
I am talking about the instance of "when using hub I select delete only on device, not on server." I want all of the REMAINING, non-deleted emails in my hub to transfer. Them and them only. Those are the old emails that I deem to be most important and that I want on my new phone for quick scrolling through.
You could just email them to yourself.

55
Jun 11 2022 | 9:40 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by Yamahammer
You could just email them to yourself.
That would:
1. be time consuming bc there must be 200/300 emails from the last 5 years that I deemed necessary to keep on my device
2. not preserve the dates the emails were received, which is always an important method of sorting and finding emails.

12,779
Jun 11 2022 | 9:42 pm EDT Yamahammer

Originally Posted by Josh3
That would:
1. be time consuming bc there must be 200/300 emails from the last 5 years that I deemed necessary to keep on my device
2. not preserve the dates the emails were received, which is always an important method of sorting and finding emails.
Hey if nothing else works keep it in mind.

4,173
Jun 11 2022 | 9:51 pm EDT Paul Reichert

I wonder if Ultimate Backup would work for that. It's a paid app, $15 or so, but it's supposed to be pretty good. Others here on this site would probably know one way or the other.

55
Jun 11 2022 | 9:59 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by Yamahammer
Hey if nothing else works keep it in mind.
Thanks for your attempted help. But most importantly your suggestion wouldnt preserve the sender's info. All the emails would be one undifferentiated blob from "Josh." I would have to open each one to see whats what. Forwarding the emails to myself would technically accomplish the goal of getting them to my new device, but would render the whole purpose of them being on the device worthless. Namely, quick scrolling to jerk my memory into doing something or following up on something.

12,779
Jun 11 2022 | 10:02 pm EDT Yamahammer

Originally Posted by Josh3
Thanks for your attempted help. But most importantly your suggestion wouldnt preserve the sender's info. All the emails would be one undifferentiated blob from "Josh." I would have to open each one to see whats what. Forwarding the emails to myself would technically accomplish the goal of getting them to my new device, but would render the whole purpose of them being on the device worthless. Namely, quick scrolling to jerk my memory into doing something or following up on something.
Ok, don't do it.

12,879
Jun 11 2022 | 10:14 pm EDT spARTacus

Originally Posted by Josh3
I am talking about the instance of "when using hub I select delete only on device, not on server." I want all of the REMAINING, non-deleted emails in my hub to transfer. Them and them only. Those are the old emails that I deem to be most important and that I want on my new phone for quick scrolling through.
I am not sure if you can do what your trying to do. Seems you are trying to retain your "device view" that you have accumulated over the years (because the view you have on the device is not actually what is on the server), and then you are wanting to copy that "view" over to another device, so the new device doesn't show all the emails that are on the server. I don't think hub has a "switch to a different device and retain same view" feature.

55
Jun 11 2022 | 10:21 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by spARTacus
I am not sure if you can do what your trying to do. Seems you are trying to retain your "device view" that you have accumulated over the years (because the view you have on the device is not actually what is on the server), and then you are wanting to copy that "view" over to another device, so the new device doesn't show all the emails that are on the server. I don't think hub has a "switch to a different device and retain same view" feature.
Yes, I am trying to do precisely that. I assume HUB doesnt have such a "feature" but I would assume some content tranfer app should be able to do this. There should be no functional difference between transferring texts stored on my Keyone and emails stored on my Keyone. So I was wondering if anyone had success doing this with a particular transfer app.

12,879
Jun 11 2022 | 10:30 pm EDT spARTacus

Originally Posted by Josh3
Yes, I am trying to do precisely that. I assume HUB doesnt have such a "feature" but I would assume some content tranfer app should be able to do this. There should be no functional difference between transferring texts stored on my Keyone and emails stored on my Keyone. So I was wondering if anyone had success doing this with a particular transfer app.
..but texts aren't stored on the service like imap does for email, for example. The content transfer apps transfer texts fine because those aren't stored anywhere except locally on the device.

55
Jun 11 2022 | 11:02 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by spARTacus
..but texts aren't stored on the service like imap does for email, for example. The content transfer apps transfer texts fine because those aren't stored anywhere except locally on the device.
OK, interesting point, but then by that logic, photos that I have stored on my phone and also backed up to google photos shouldnt transfer either. But I dont think thats the case. I believe photos stored locally on the phone would transfer together with other content like texts, regardless of whether they are stored in the cloud too (which is the analogue to emails also stored on a server).

12,879
Jun 12 2022 | 7:16 am EDT spARTacus

Originally Posted by Josh3
OK, interesting point, but then by that logic, photos that I have stored on my phone and also backed up to google photos shouldnt transfer either. But I dont think thats the case. I believe photos stored locally on the phone would transfer together with other content like texts, regardless of whether they are stored in the cloud too (which is the analogue to emails also stored on a server).
Good point. I am not sure what to say. If none of the new device content transfer apps do it for you, then you might be out of luck.

Presumably, if your emails were somehow only "local device emails only" (like say as POP or something like that), then I assume the content transfer apps would be able to recognize them and then copy them. In your case however, not sure how that would work for setting up the email account on the new device because then you'd probably have everything duplicated.

What about if on the old device, you put all those emails into a specific folder on the service (on the servers). Then, setup the account on the new device and also setup a view for that folder. You can probaby later move them around again between different folders.

901
Jun 12 2022 | 11:39 am EDT Ph1llip

Originally Posted by Josh3
I was forced to abandon my beloved BlackBerry after the Key3 was permanently shelved the other month. I have since migrated to a Samsung S22. I used BlackBerry Inbox/Hub on my Keyone and would like to continue using it on my S22.

My question is as follows:

When my apps and content transferred from my Keyone to my S22, the emails that I had kept in my Hub, i.e. emails not deleted from my device, were not transferred. My Hub is totally blank on my S22. I do not want to download, say, all emails from my various Gmail, Yahoo and AOL account inboxes or all of the last 30 days of emails because I maintain a 3 tier system for managing my emails and do not want to download Tier 2 emails to my S22 unnecessarily.

Tier 1.
I do not delete emails that are pressing/that require my active follow-up from either my phone or email account inbox,

Tier 2.
I do delete those emails that are not pressing/do not require active follow up, but that I foresee could need to be referenced at some point in the future, from my phone but not from my email account inbox. This declutters my phone inbox and makes it easy to quickly scroll through all of my really important emails.

Tier 3.
Emails that I know won't have any future value whatsoever, I delete from both my device and my email inbox.

Did anyone else have this problem? Can anyone offer a solution?

For additional context:

I initially used Google Drive to transfer my content from my Keyone to my S22. However, it, unexpectedly, only transferred my apps. But my call history and text messages were NOT transferred to my new phone.
Moreover, I was logged out of every app on my new phone and had to waste time logging into each and every singular app one and by one, all the while struggling to remember the passwords for each. The emails that I had in my Blackberry Hub were also not transferred. By right, this is data stored on the phone, so it should have been transferred in the same way my text messages should have been transferred from my google messages app, no?

The built-in Samsung content transfer didn’t work to transfer the missing call history and texts.

Blackberry Content Transfer didn’t work to transfer the missing call history and texts.

Finally, the Verizon Transfer app worked to transfer this material.

HOWEVER, the emails that I had in my Blackberry Hub were still not transferred. By right, any one of those 4 data transfer apps should have transferred the emails, no?

To summarize, I basically want to get the emails I stored on my Keyone (i.e. didnt delete) to transfer to my S22 and then, once transfered, upload all of my various email accounts and choose the option NOT to download any emails in my inboxes.
Josh, I don't want to assume anything so let me know if I've misinterpreted any of the above.

1. It's always best to set up a new phone manually, without using so called "automatic" "hassle-free" transfer tools. They don't work 100% and could introduce misconfiguration depending on the quality of the app.

2. I assume you've set up all your accounts on the Hub on the new phone (with successful authentication to the service)? You don't mention it above. If you didn't, nothing will transfer, the Hub itself is a local app, it's not a cloud app like say Outlook or Gmail.

3. I assume you've downloaded Hub+ Services app, not just Hub+ Inbox?

6,914
Jun 12 2022 | 5:44 pm EDT Troy Tiscareno

Let's back up a bit. The ONLY time you're going to get choices like "delete only on device" is if you are using an email system that doesn't support IMAP (or does, but you set it up as POP instead). For the vast majority of the world, all that went away at least a decade and a half ago, and emails are simply kept on the cloud server, and your device merely accesses them. You can create folders (or "labels") to organize archived emails, but there's never an intended separation between what's on the server and what's on your device, except possibly for a few changes made when you are offline and haven't yet synced.

The reason the world went to IMAP is because it makes the device you access your emails on completely independent of your email account. Right now, I could smash my phone to bits with a sledgehammer, go to the store and buy a new phone, log in, and my emails are exactly as I left them.

By continuing to use the long-obsolete POP connection, where you can literally download emails off of the server, so that they ONLY live on your device, you then have to be able to manage those downloaded emails on your own, which means you are dependent on the email software you are using to do this. And the reality is that most email apps have put zero effort into managing these offline emails because almost no one needs those features.

Those saved emails are currently stored inside a database file that is proprietary to the email app you've been using, which means there's no universal way to read them, and also means that you are completely at the mercy of that software vendor to make and maintain a utility that would allow you to access or transfer those emails to another device or put it into some format that could be imported into another app - which is always fraught with danger.

In this case, your email app is apparently the BB Hub for Android. I have no idea if it supports exporting stored emails, or what formats it might support, but that's literally the only possible option that you have to be able to achieve anything like what you're asking for. I don't have a BB Android phone, so I don't know the answers as far as what's possible, but there's a very real chance that it isn't, and you may well be stuck with manually forwarding each email to yourself.

In any case, I would implore you that, if you are moving to a new device, to NOT set up any mails with a POP connection, and use IMAP instead, which keeps all emails on the server (yes, it will cache a certain number on your device, but the server remains the "authority"). You'll likely have to do a bit of work to adjust your workflow, but it also means never facing this kind of terrible choice again. The longer you put off switching, the worse position you're likely to find yourself in, so don't put it off any longer.

12,879
Jun 12 2022 | 7:49 pm EDT spARTacus

Originally Posted by Troy Tiscareno
Let's back up a bit. The ONLY time you're going to get choices like "delete only on device" is if you are using an email system that doesn't support IMAP (or does, but you set it up as POP instead)...
I thought hub normally used to ask to confirm "delete on device only", or "delete also on server". That is what I remember, and when using IMAP (but it's been a few months for me since not regularly using hub on Android). That would align with what he said he does, in terms of only continuing to show the ones on the device that he might later want/need to come back to (eg: delete only on device).

My suggestion is to create a special temp folder or label, and move all emails still currently on the old device (presumably those are in the inbox and sentbox of the old device) into the temp folder/label. Then, on the new device chose to view the temp folder/label. Then, if desired later, move those all to inbox/sentbox on the new device after "deleting only on device" all the other ones in the new device inbox/sentbox.

Not 100% sure if that would work, but maybe worth a try first with only a select few emails. Probably a good idea to slowly step through this, given the opportunity for error or unexpectedly disastrous consequences.

55
Jun 12 2022 | 9:18 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by Troy Tiscareno
Let's back up a bit. The ONLY time you're going to get choices like "delete only on device" is if you are using an email system that doesn't support IMAP (or does, but you set it up as POP instead). For the vast majority of the world, all that went away at least a decade and a half ago, and emails are simply kept on the cloud server, and your device merely accesses them. You can create folders (or "labels") to organize archived emails, but there's never an intended separation between what's on the server and what's on your device, except possibly for a few changes made when you are offline and haven't yet synced.

The reason the world went to IMAP is because it makes the device you access your emails on completely independent of your email account. Right now, I could smash my phone to bits with a sledgehammer, go to the store and buy a new phone, log in, and my emails are exactly as I left them.

By continuing to use the long-obsolete POP connection, where you can literally download emails off of the server, so that they ONLY live on your device, you then have to be able to manage those downloaded emails on your own, which means you are dependent on the email software you are using to do this. And the reality is that most email apps have put zero effort into managing these offline emails because almost no one needs those features.

Those saved emails are currently stored inside a database file that is proprietary to the email app you've been using, which means there's no universal way to read them, and also means that you are completely at the mercy of that software vendor to make and maintain a utility that would allow you to access or transfer those emails to another device or put it into some format that could be imported into another app - which is always fraught with danger.

In this case, your email app is apparently the BB Hub for Android. I have no idea if it supports exporting stored emails, or what formats it might support, but that's literally the only possible option that you have to be able to achieve anything like what you're asking for. I don't have a BB Android phone, so I don't know the answers as far as what's possible, but there's a very real chance that it isn't, and you may well be stuck with manually forwarding each email to yourself.

In any case, I would implore you that, if you are moving to a new device, to NOT set up any mails with a POP connection, and use IMAP instead, which keeps all emails on the server (yes, it will cache a certain number on your device, but the server remains the "authority"). You'll likely have to do a bit of work to adjust your workflow, but it also means never facing this kind of terrible choice again. The longer you put off switching, the worse position you're likely to find yourself in, so don't put it off any longer.
The Hub does indeed prompt to:

"Delete email from Inbox App"

or

"Delete email from Inbox app and server"

My emails are IMAP.

Im really not sure what youre talking about bc "Delete email from Inbox App" is indeed a veritable option.

55
Jun 12 2022 | 9:23 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by Paul Reichert
I wonder if Ultimate Backup would work for that. It's a paid app, $15 or so, but it's supposed to be pretty good. Others here on this site would probably know one way or the other.
The paid transfer app is an interesting option. I wonder why anyone would pay 15 bucks for an app when there are so many free ones. Im curious- what is an example of something that the someone might need to transfer that could only be accomplished via a paid app like Ultimate Backup (other than possibly my emails lol)?

55
Jun 12 2022 | 9:23 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by spARTacus
I thought hub normally used to ask to confirm "delete on device only", or "delete also on server". That is what I remember, and when using IMAP (but it's been a few months for me since not regularly using hub on Android). That would align with what he said he does, in terms of only continuing to show the ones on the device that he might later want/need to come back to (eg: delete only on device).

My suggestion is to create a special temp folder or label, and move all emails still currently on the old device (presumably those are in the inbox and sentbox of the old device) into the temp folder/label. Then, on the new device chose to view the temp folder/label. Then, if desired later, move those all to inbox/sentbox on the new device after "deleting only on device" all the other ones in the new device inbox/sentbox.

Not 100% sure if that would work, but maybe worth a try first with only a select few emails. Probably a good idea to slowly step through this, given the opportunity for error or unexpectedly disastrous consequences.
Creative problem solving. Impressive work around. I didnt try it yet, but I might try this unless someone else has an easier idea, i.e. a transfer app that will do this for me.

43,521
Jun 13 2022 | 7:09 am EDT Dunt Dunt Dunt

Originally Posted by Josh3
The paid transfer app is an interesting option. I wonder why anyone would pay 15 bucks for an app when there are so many free ones. Im curious- what is an example of something that the someone might need to transfer that could only be accomplished via a paid app like Ultimate Backup (other than possibly my emails lol)?
Does Ultimate Backup have an Android solution? I know that was the go to option for BB10.... which had based all it's backup options on LINK and a user doing manual backups on a PC all the time.

BlackBerry did have the content transfer app that for a bit some were using for Android to Android backups... but not sure if there are versions of it out there anymore. Or if it picks up HUB+ settings and data.

I do know that when I used it... little of the BlackBerry suite had much interaction with Google's own backup solution. Launcher and HUB all had to manually be rebuilt... but then my email accounts didn't have any device specific deletions. Usually if I delete something it's deleted everywhere...

55
Jun 19 2022 | 10:56 pm EDT Josh3

Originally Posted by Ph1llip
Josh, I don't want to assume anything so let me know if I've misinterpreted any of the above.

1. It's always best to set up a new phone manually, without using so called "automatic" "hassle-free" transfer tools. They don't work 100% and could introduce misconfiguration depending on the quality of the app.

2. I assume you've set up all your accounts on the Hub on the new phone (with successful authentication to the service)? You don't mention it above. If you didn't, nothing will transfer, the Hub itself is a local app, it's not a cloud app like say Outlook or Gmail.

3. I assume you've downloaded Hub+ Services app, not just Hub+ Inbox?
Yes, I set up my accounts on the Hub.

Yes, I downloaded Hub+ Services and not just Inbox, but why does that matter? My understanding is that the difference between the former and latter is that the former includes Blackberry contacts, tasks and notes. How would that have any impact on emails?

63,706
Jun 19 2022 | 10:58 pm EDT conite

Originally Posted by Josh3
Yes, I set up my accounts on the Hub.

Yes, I downloaded Hub+ Services and not just Inbox, but why does that matter? My understanding is that the difference between the former and latter is that the former includes Blackberry contacts, tasks and notes. How would that have any impact on emails?
All of the BlackBerry Suite apps depend on the HUB+ Services app.

12,879
Jun 21 2022 | 8:13 pm EDT spARTacus

Pretty sure even the BlackBerry Password Manager at least partially relies on it, since it stopped working once for me when I disabled the other.