Moving AB2 to a new device

I’d like to exchange few harsh words with the idiot at Rovio who decided F***book is a good idea for backup or using account on different devices! All other problems of AB2 pale in comparison with that fuxup. I wish everyone would contact them and demand a better way to handle these kind of basic functionalities.

I almost got bitten by this when my tablet was at service. Luckily, no factory reset was required. I did get bitten by this when I thought I could use my phone to play with same account, while my tablet being at home.

I have Pie update for my phone, but I’m hesitant to install it. While it’s “stable” version already, it still has noticeable bugs in it. I could install it with “Home CSC” and hope that it would not mess up AB2, but if anything goes wrong, it’s bye bye AB2 account. If I would be forced to return to Oreo, the risk is there again. Without a good backup solution I just have to wait or just not update to Pie.

I’ve never had F***book account and never will. Feeding FB with my information is not an option, because it’s too invasive with information collection and prone to leaks. For saving any personal information FB is absolutely the worst option. Why Rovio does not offer any other options, I have no idea whatsoever.

I hate FB and don’t trust it but it’s hard to avoid, even if you just want to look at a FB page for a friend, restaurant or other small business. What I did was set up a FB page that links to a gmail account that doesn’t use my real name and that’s not synced to anything else. I use that login for things like, well, this. All the spam gets sent to my bogus gmail account where it just sits there.

@bswins, I had that link saved, but I don’t know if that method still works. I’m not going to risk losing game account/progress by testing it, because it was made for really old Android version and much has changed with Android after that.

@knuklehead I think you’re better off trying the @doulgas method for now.  I presume he hasn’t had any problems using FB, but the one time I tried it a couple of years back, I lost three entire episodes of scores of Seasons.  Luckily, I had an old device with those scores, but it was an eye opener.  Best of luck!

@doulgas, I did the exact same thing. Makes everything so much easier. :)

I know this might be late of a response but there is a way to transfer your progress without FB.  You just need to copy the saved files from one device to another.  The saved files are usually located in

Android/data/com.rovio.baba/files/save folder.

Just copy the entire folder from your old device to your new one.

What I usually do is to install the game in new device, run the game once, exit, copy files over, and restart the game.

I usually back the files up before installing updates just in case things get screwed up.  That way at least you dont have to start from the beginning if something goes wrong.

@rawdatasystems

This is how I remember how things work (could be totally wrong of course).

If you don’t connect to FB, you’re just playing the game (arena works too) like a single player version so to speak.  You can’t participate in clans, ME, use snatchlings etc…  If something in the game goes wrong and you want to be compensated not sure if Rovio can help.  But with that said, your progress is saved locally in your “Save” folder and not in Rovio’s server.  Therefore, moving from one device to another, just transfer the files and you get to start on your new device, where you left off from your old device.  It’s like any game on a pc, you just take your saved files and move to a new computer.  You start where you left off.  I’ve now transferred to three new devices and have yet to be flagged by Rovio (not bragging, just merely stating my experience).  I always back up the save folder before installing any AB2 updates  because you never know with Rovio what might happen.  This is just insurance since I’ve been playing a while and I do not want to lose my progress.  I honestly don’t think Rovio can do anything about it (like banning you).  I say this as I don’t think Rovio can identify your account (because you technically don’t have one).

This works when you need to reinstall the game for whatever the reason as well.

Now if you do connect to FB, your progress is saved locally as well as to their server.  So on your new device, you connect AB2 to your FB account, then you start where you left off.  With FB connected, you can participate in the multiplayer aspect of the game.  And Rovio can easily keep tabs on your progress and detect when you’re supposedly cheating like if you all of a sudden gain 80 million BPs.  This method will not require you do to any file transfers.

And if you want to start where you left on a new device and you don’t want to connect to FB anymore?  Again you just copy the files from your save folder over onto your new device and you should be good to go.  If you do play for a while and decide to connect to FB later after you’ve made some progress, then I believe your account gets sync’d.  This could potentially lead to your account being banned.  Can’t confirm that part tho as I don’t use FB for AB2.

If Rovio bans me because I’ve used my save files to start where I left off on a new device, I’ll come back and let you all know so you don’t land in the same boat I did if you decide to go this route.  At that point, I’d probably stop playing AB2 anyway…

Hope this helps.

Missing something here. I’ve never had an interest in playing AB2 on more than one device but if I were to, say, get a new phone (which is what I use for this game), I would certainly want to pick up where I left off rather than start from scratch. Why in the world would Rovio have an interest in punishing you for doing that?

I gather from this forum that some people play on multiple devices simultaneously. Again, I’m just a part-time gamer, but I assume some people would use this tactic to send “gifts” to”friends” (e.g., to themselves). But while that may be sneaky, it doesn’t seem to rise to the level of cheating to the degree where someone would, or should, be banned.

Looking at Rovio’s TOS, there is no mention of using save files.  They have wording regarding using hacks or modifying the use of the game etc…  But if you’re starting where you left off with all your stats the same, I’d argue that you haven’t altered the game in any sort of way?  This of course is using the files that Rovio has created for you and not something you hacked to create.  I’m not trying to justify what I’m doing is correct but just merely using the tools provided by the content creator.

And giving the OP an option whether he/she chooses to do so is up to them.

Well, if one replaces game files with others, that could be understood as modifying.

Thanks for the sacrifice test. So… looking from Rovio’s point, new player appeared and suddenly had impossibly huge in-game progress. No wonder they could be suspicious of cheating. Yet another example of details they’ve managed poorly.