I'm upgrading to a new Android phone — how do I keep my photos?

The rule that matters most

Never uninstall or reinstall the app as part of an upgrade, and never clear its data — your photos live on the device. And never wipe, trade in or sell the old phone until you have personally seen your photos in the app on the new one.

Device transfer carries photos; cloud backup does not

This is the crucial Android-specific fact:

• Device-to-device transfer (the "Copy apps & data from your old phone" step during new-phone setup, over cable or wi-fi) carries everything when the old phone runs Android 12 or later: all captured photos, appendix PDFs and generated reports come across with the app. On Android 11 or older, the transfer leaves the app's photo store behind, just as the cloud backup does. To check, open Settings → About phone on the old phone.
• Google's cloud backup does not carry the photos. Android caps each app's cloud backup at 25 MB, and a backup over the cap fails outright. A photo evidence store is far larger than that, so Buildsnapper deliberately excludes photos from cloud backup — otherwise the entire backup would silently fail and carry nothing at all. The cloud backup still protects the app's small critical state (sync journals, settings), just not the images.

So: if you set the new phone up purely from a Google account cloud restore, Buildsnapper will reappear with your cloud project lists but without the photo files. Use the direct transfer.

The safe sequence

1. If the old phone runs Android 11 or older, stop here: send every plot you can, keep the old phone untouched, and contact support before you set up the new one. We will help you bring the photos across.
2. Keep the old phone charged and to hand — you need both phones together.
3. During the new phone's setup, choose the option to copy apps and data from your old device and connect the phones by cable (or wi-fi if offered). Follow the manufacturer's transfer flow to completion. (Samsung's Smart Switch and Google's built-in transfer both move app data for apps that allow it — Buildsnapper allows full device transfer from Android 12.)
4. Open Buildsnapper on the new phone and sign in.
5. Verify. Open your projects and each plot with unsent photos; check thumbnails render and open a few full-screen. Do not skip this.
6. Only after verifying: wipe or dispose of the old phone.

Extra safety nets

• If Google Photos backup is on, the full-resolution, location-tagged gallery copies of photos captured with Buildsnapper are backed up to your Google account independently — a genuine cloud safety net for the images (the app writes its gallery backups with the location embedded, so they remain usable as evidence).
• Reports already sent are safe regardless: the PDF and photo archive were stored at send time, and nothing on the phone affects them.

If the transfer did not carry the photos

If plots show missing images on the new phone: stop, change nothing, and keep the old phone unwiped. With the old phone intact everything is recoverable — repeat the transfer or contact support (choose "Evidence at risk on site" if a deadline is at risk). The dangerous act is wiping the old phone on the assumption the transfer worked.