With Welcome Home, moving to Lumia has never been easier

Published by Jason Harris on August 31, 2012

Welcome Home

You got your brand new Nokia Lumia smartphone! You rush home, open the box, charge up the phone and it hits you… The feeling that you have to move all your contacts, calendars and apps over from your old phone to your new brand new Lumia. That looks like a tedious job!

But, that was yesterday. Today, we have Welcome Home for Windows Phone: a truly innovative app from Markspace to help new Lumia owners migrate to their new phone. With Welcome Home, you just plug in your Lumia to your computer (Mac or PC, your choice) and the application handles moving your contacts and personal data – quickly and easily.

Welcome Home works for new Lumia customers coming from iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones and will move your contacts, calendars, pictures, songs and videos from your old phone to Microsoft Live. But what about all those apps you have on your old phone? No worries there, either.

The Welcome Home application will scan your apps on your old phone and will produce a list of recommended apps with scannable QR codes for easy download.

So, if you’re an Evernote user on your Android phone, for example, you’ll get the QR code for Evernote. However, if there’s an app that doesn’t have an exact match in the Windows Marketplace, Welcome Home will provide an alternative. For example, if you’re a Pandora user – you’ll get a suggestion such as Radio Controlled from Windows Marketplace.

To get started with the Welcome Home application, download the application and simply plug in your phone via USB to your computer.

Step 1: Let it scan your data

Step 2: See your results

Step 3: See your apps recommendations and install the apps using the QR code.  To do this on your Lumia, from the homescreen, hit the magnifying glass in the lower right of the screen and touch the icon that looks like an eyeball. The code will scan and you can touch the link to be taken to the apps’ page in Marketplace.

Step 4: enter in your Live account credentials and hit Next.

Step 5: The data extracted from your old phone will be copied to your computer.

Step 6: Finally, using Zune or Windows Phone Connector for Mac, move your data onto your new phone.

Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820

Our first Windows Phone 8 smartphones.

Be a part of it.

Note: only DRM-free songs and videos will be copied from your old phone.

As you can see, Welcome Home for Windows Phone will make it possible for you to move your contacts, files and apps over to your new Lumia. Have you tried the application? What other tips would you have for new Lumia owners?

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and check us out on Facebook as well!

Photo credit: josemanuelerre

Comments

  • Michael

    If Sep 5th event is worth the hype, there’s a good chance I’ll bring this app to a test by the end of the year, I guess.
    You have the app, I have an Android phone – now bring on a WP8 Lumia that’s worth a move. ;)

    • Nakulk

       Michael: You can test it without the need of a WindowsPhone. :). Just connect your current (iPhone, Blackberry, Android) device and see how many of your  apps are available on WP.

      • Michael

        Good idea, I’ll try that. I’m not that app centric (I was still on Symbian a few month ago ;)), but I’m really curious to see how easy it would be to move to WP in terms of apps I’m using. Can’t wait for Sep 5th.

      • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hdnimavat

        haha nice take on “welcome home” Nakulk!

  • Kaacz

    wow, nice appearance. Look as Northon Commander on MSDOS. Good old blue. :)

  • x y

    what about copying contacts from symbian or s40 based NOKIA? This application don’t support YOUR phones

  • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

    I’d love to see this help move from my WP7.5 Lumia 900 to my WP8 Lumia 9??, especially if it would mean that I don’t have to manually install each app.  

    • http://twitter.com/em_003 Mr. EM

      There’s an app call reinstaller, that will help you re-installing all your windows phone apps.

  • pjn123

    Really going to miss Nokia Suite when I’m going to WP8 from Symbian. Nokia why don’t you update Nokia Suite???

    • rikkit

      WP8 will have something much better than Zune. I mean, it has to…

  • http://twitter.com/alessandrouk Alessandro Moraes

    Nokia Belle and old Symbians ?
    Torn Off this update 

    Only IOs, Android, Blackberry

    Why Symbian dont have to Stay Welcome Home too!

    • http://www.facebook.com/eolorvida Enrique Olorvida

      because you’re still with nokia ^_^

  • http://www.facebook.com/marcin.dziduch.1 Marcin Dziduch

    Very well timed Jason :) When Samsung is losing with Apple, easy switch from Android to Windows. You should publish this as widely as you can :). Next move easy transfer from Apple to Windows :) Congrats!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000105373704 Samba Sidibe

    No support for Nokia Belle ??? Is it a joke ?

  • MistelMistel

    Welcome “Home” for all but previous Nokia customers. :-(

    And where have WE to get?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=522046444 Gina Middleton

    Whilst that is really great for the people that currently have smart phones, but what about those of us that still have an old Nokia huh??

  • http://twitter.com/Via_otso Olivia

    what about viber, can we download it in Nokia Lumia 900?

    • http://www.facebook.com/eolorvida Enrique Olorvida

      Viber is available on any Windows Phone…

  • http://twitter.com/d1rosland Rosland Mohd Jannes

    For Nokia users, since you already home, use the free Nokia suite, I used many times from older model nokia to new ones and bluetooth 3G tethering from PC

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/P2XSFCWFI2ZFOLUJWCXYDKBUYU pasko

    what about moving from nokia N900 to lumia?

  • http://www.facebook.com/zwgmcgregor Khristoffer Nilo A. Corpin

    How about switching my Nokia 5320 XpressMusic to your Windows Phone like Nokia Lumia 610. My Nokia 5320 XpressMusic has been 5 years to me and still working. I really love to try the Nokia Lumia 610.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1335611733 Cristian Holban

    Nokia N9 is the best, you ‘Nokia’ sold your soul to Microsoft when you drop Hartman OS 

    • http://www.facebook.com/criticalthoughtFB Critical Thought

      *harmattan

  • http://www.studiobrahma.in/ VINIT PRATAP SINGH

    its good.. but i think it can not be replace by iPhone, anroid

  • http://www.facebook.com/qazeeassad Assad Ali Shah Syed

    NOKIA is way behind SAMSUNG and HTC,,, unless you try hard for 5 years, you guyz don’t have any future…

    • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

      Behind how?  Not in Windows Phone sales. Not in differentiating apps and support.  Nokia is doing it right.

    • http://twitter.com/em_003 Mr. EM

      This post was probably before the Lumia 920 was revealed. Because the Lumia 920 is up to par or better than most offerings from Samsung and HTC

      • http://www.facebook.com/qazeeassad Assad Ali Shah Syed

        This post is for all the phones,,, as you guyz are way behind, in providing good and high speed processors, Chipsets, Graphics, RAM and built-in memory in the phone and all other options as well, like battery duration. I am just sick of NOKIA….

  • Jan Tomko

    looking forward to test it .. especially migration from BB to Lumia … if that works ok, and VPN and Outlook synch works well, my next phone is Nokia :)

    • Smity Smiter

      Not yet sure about VPN, but Windows Phone 7.5 itself can handle Outlook pretty well. So, I suppose WP8 will be all the more better.

  • Liese De Vos

    Thanks but no thanks. I’ll stick to Symbian for as long as possible. 
    And when that’s no longer possible, i’ll have no more need to stick with Nokia. Too bad..  

  • alexben

    I am using my Navigator since last 4 years and will continue till it works, I like symbian. Then will switch to Samsung galaxy. Android is better than Windows. Nokia is no longer a stable company, and Microsoft’s intentions were not good from the beginning. Even for Windows 8 handset, Samsung released it before Nokia….

    • http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

      1st of all, it’s Windows Phone 8.  Have you tried one? Nope, because NO ONE has.  How do you know Android is “better”.  I have a feeling that the Windows Phone 8 devices from Nokia are going to be amazing.

      • alexben

        With so many limitation on windows 7, the only positive feature was voice navigation from Nokia on widows phones, now as google is providing voice navigation..!!!! External Memory: not supported, Limited Applications, Win7 app will not run as is on Win 8…. If still you like Nokia and Win 8, wish you good luck.. but my personal view is Android is better till date……

        • Smity Smiter

          Just wanted to give a heads-up that, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 are very different. Different kernel/core. WP8 shares the same kernel/core as the Desktop Windows 8.

        • http://www.facebook.com/bkt.adfreeapps Bkt Adfreeapps

          Alexben:”Win7 app will not run as is on Win 8″
          Nonsense! Windows 7 and Windows 8 have the same kernel and so all Windows 8 apps will run as is on Windows 8.
          If what you meant to say was that Windows Phone 7 apps won’t run on Windows (Phone) 8 then again you are wrong.
          I write WP7 apps in my spare time. I’ve just submitted a WP7 app to the App Store and have been told that it will also appear in the Windows 8 App store. Unfortunately it will not be alone. It will be joined by the over 100,000 WP7 apps already out there which MS migrated to Windows 8 in early August.
          Understand that WP7 apps are compiled into IL (intermediate language) which is interpreted on the phone in the same way that Java is on the wide variety of devices which support Java (including Android for phones). Running these apps on Windows 8 devices (or Windows 7 for that matter) merely requires an interpreter which, surprise! surprise! has existed for as long as .Net has existed on Windows (i.e. since 2002).
          For WP8 I believe (and sincerely hope, since machine code is more secure than IL) that MS will additionally put these through a proper compilation process to produce native code.

          • alexben

            HA HA HA, Just get your information updated… Windows 8 is very different from 7 (For Mobile Version), software developed for 7 will have to be coded and compiled again for 8 (This discussion is for Mobile version not PC) !!

        • http://twitter.com/em_003 Mr. EM

          External memory will be supported, Samsung ATIV, Lumia 820 and HTC 8S all support micro sd. It is up to the hardware manufacturer to include the micro sd slot, but the support from the OS is there in WP8. You just sound like a microsoft hater.

          • alexben

            I dont hate any OS, its a fact that windows is in its primary stage, there are many issues and as usual, there is lesser support or upgrades to the older (less than 1 yr) version users. Nokia is just a hardware provider for microsoft now. The only distinction is its mapping service which is still very good and its from Nokia (acquired from Navteq).

      • alexben

        With so many limitation on windows 7, the only positive feature was voice navigation from Nokia on widows phones, now as google is providing voice navigation..!!!! External Memory: not supported, Limited Applications, Win7 app will not run as is on Win 8…. If still you like Nokia and Win 8, wish you good luck.. but my personal view is Android is better till date……

      • alexben

        With so many limitation on windows 7, the only positive feature was voice navigation from Nokia on widows phones, now as google is providing voice navigation..!!!! External Memory: not supported, Limited Applications, Win7 app will not run as is on Win 8…. If still you like Nokia and Win 8, wish you good luck.. but my personal view is Android is better till date……

  • eduardo bocog jr.

    Yeah, all my mobile phones are Nokia. I started from 3310, 1100 to Nseries, but did not try any of Eseries! And now I’m excited to have the Lumia Smart phones! When do this available in the market? Can’t wait!

  • http://www.facebook.com/mattme020202 Matt Viel

    Now if only switching carriers and getting not having to pay full price was so easy!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1060446688 Eric Yu

    can it backup sms??

  • Mark Tan

    What is the entire nation of nokia owners complaining about?! You all are nuts for thinking the world all revolves (or SHOULD revolve) around Nokia. This app is for those jumping off the over played, over complicated, Android, iOS, BB, Badu, etc systems and trying the easiest UI navigation system in the mobile market. It’s not for current Nokia owners, it’s to sell us to the “others” because Nokia Suite will do this automatically because OUR symbian based phones will most likely have a “nokia” STAMP of approval to transfer info even easier! Jeez, ever since the advent of the Comments section, humans have become very proficient at bitching!

  • Chelsey

    so i put everything from my old phone on the welcome home application on my computer but now how do i get it onto my lumia?