Transferring game results from one Apple device to another

[Francis Crawford]

I play this game on an ancient iPad.
I am about to get a new iPhone.

This raises the question — actually for ABT and many other games — of how I might transfer accomplishments-to-date from one device to another.

I don’t think iTunes does that … but I haven’t used iTunes for years.
I’ve seen claims that Apple Game Center does that … but most of what I see about Game Center online suggests otherwise.
I’ve seen claims that purchased software from third parties does that … but those products don’t seem to be widely popular.

Does anybody have good experience which such a transfer? There must be a way, given how often some people change their phones and tablets!

Topic

[Nightcrawler]

@franciscrawford have you connected your game to Facebook?

[Francis Crawford]

Nope. I am a very infrequent Facebook user. How would connecting to Facebook help?

[Nightcrawler]

@franciscrawford connecting abt to Facebook saves your game and allows you to play on multiple devices

[Optimus_Pig]

In theory, connecting through the Game Center app in iOS should also enable cloud saves.

Although who the heck knows any more after all the problems with the “Updating Progress” bug last year ….

[Francis Crawford]

@sam-spargo,

Thanks!

@optimuspig,

Thanks! Was that bug specifically related to Game Center? And did it actually damage things, or just not work as intended?

[sheepybach]

My pennies worth is I’ve failed every time I tried to do this on Android. So said Sod it lol

[MillForce2k]

Transferring to a new device is what Facebook is supposed to be for, at least that is what Rovio told me. On Android, I wanted to swap between two devices to play the last comp. When it didn’t work, I contacted them and they told me that the Facebook backup is not really for playing on two devices, although others have been able to do it.

What they told me for transferring to a new device (after the old device is already connected to Facebook) is to sign out of Facebook on the old device and exit the game. On the new device, install the game and then connect it to Facebook and your current progress should be on the new device.

This did work for me, though I uninstalled it from the second device since I cannot swap between the two. I tried it a few times and found that I didn’t need to log out of Facebook on the first device, so it’s good to know that if my tablet takes a dump, I won’t loose everything.

[Nsu]

@franciscrawford. As long as you back up your device with apple before you change devices it should all be there, I have upgraded 3 devices with no issues.

[Optimus_Pig]

@franciscrawford

“Was that bug specifically related to Game Center?”

Not sure – I lost track of what was going on with it a long time ago. Although I haven’t personally experienced the “Update Progress” bug in quite a while, you still see the random report of it popping up on occasion.

But in theory, when cloud saves were first introduced over a year ago, the intention was for it to be enabled through Facebook or through Game Center for those who didn’t use Facebook.

“And did it actually damage things, or just not work as intended?”

The bug was that the game would wipe out all of your progress to the last cloud save, which sometimes could be as much as a day or more of gameplay. So instead of the cloud save being the backup of last resort in case of a crash, instead it overwrote your current progress.

[Bad piggies]

Just backup through iTunes and restore on your new device and you’ve got all your progress back.

[Alan]

@franciscrawford,
Linking ABF to your FB page is the surest method to save personal game progress indefinitely. You can then download ABF safely to play on any device pc/mobile without being dependant on platform/O.S at anytime. Also if you ever join FB “ABF Pro Strat Group” you’ll need a FB account to setup mass PUs collections (see nest ABF forum “unlimited PUs” post) I’m not FB savvy either, but it’s relatively easy to setup and use FB account for ABF gameplay only (and so worth the small effort in exchange for unlimited PUs lol :) good luck..

[Francis Crawford]

Thanks, everybody!

I was in the Apple store tonight, and the sales guy made it clear that no one method was reliable for all games. So I guess I’ll try several. ;)

[Bad piggies]

@franciscrawford If you backup and restore using iTunes EVERYTHING will be transferred over, as long as all apps you have on your device is also installed on iTunes.

[Francis Crawford]

@bad-piggies-2,

But that requires making iTunes actually work!! :) :) :)

[Francis Crawford]

Well, I just backed up my old iPad to iCloud and then restored my new iPhone from it.

Other games came along with their results-to-date.

ABT, however, repeatedly crashes upon attempted launch.

If that would stop, then I could see whether progress subsequent to the restore on one device could be carried over to the other device. But I haven’t gotten that far yet.

Another option, of course, is to uninstall the game and reinstall it. I presume that will lose saved progress. Then I could try Facebook/Game Center/whatever and see whether the progress reappears.