OnePlus Switch app update lets you backup data locally and fixes crashing on non-OnePlus phones.

Most phones manufacturers, if not all, offer a way to quickly and easily migrate your current phone data to a new one and OnePlus is one of them with the recently released OnePlus Switch app.

OnePlus Switch app was designed to flawlessly migrate your contacts, text messages, photos from your old phone to a OnePlus phone. Unfortunately, this app was not available when I bought my OnePlus 5T last year, so the migration from my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge was tedious. But that does not mean that the app is useless to me, now that I have a OnePlus device. OnePlus has updated the OnePlus Switch app that adds a local backup feature to it.

Let's dive in to see how the new backup and restore feature works. OnePlus added a new 'Backup and Restore' button at the bottom of the app main screen.

The 'New Backup' will back up the following: Contacts, Call Logs, Messages, Pictures, Audio, Video, System info, and Applications. Users have to make sure they have enough storage left on their device before hitting the 'Backup Now' button. OnePlus Switch quickly did the backup on my phone, but the Applications backup took longer. Duration will vary depending on the number of apps you have installed. I have 162 apps installed and the backup took less than 3 minutes to complete. I did not test the 'Restore' feature, but once you have a backup, it will be listed on the 'Restore' screen and will show the date the backup was done along with the size of the file. Tapping on it will display the list of restorable data, giving you the choice to restore the piece data you want.

Having a backup is important and safe. Backing up the backup is safer. OnePlus Switch saves your backup to the phone's internal storage, meaning you lose it if an unexpected crash strikes or you have to perform a factory reset. So, I strongly recommend saving the backup file somewhere else. I moved mine to my cloud storage. The backup files are stored in the internal storage > Backup folder by default and there’s no way to change that.

So much for the new local backup/restore feature. This update also includes some fixes and improvements:

·       Fixed the issue of crashing on some non-OnePlus phones.

·       Improved the speed of QR code scanning when connecting two devices.

The OnePlus Switch app is not restricted to OnePlus devices only. It works on other Android phones too, albeit not as flawlessly as on the OnePlus. If you're giving it a try on a non-OnePlus device and run into issues, give your feedback on OnePlus forums. OnePlus Switch can be downloaded in Google Play Store.