As Android games become more complex, the need to save game progress across devices is becoming more and more essential. No one wants to start from the beginning every time they get a new phone or tablet. Fortunately, Google has developed a cloud-based system to help make the process seamless and easy.
Google Play Games offers its own cloud save method, which is utilized by most games but not all. To use this method, you must sign in to the same Google account on both devices. While you don’t necessarily need the Google Play Games app installed, it does give you more control over your cloud syncing. To ensure that your Play Games cloud save is switched on, go to Settings > Accounts and Sync > Google and make sure the Play Games cloud save slider is switched on.
When you’re looking at a game storage page, look out for the green gamepad icon, which signifies that the game is set up to work with Google Play Games. However, some games have their own cloud save methods, so you won’t know whether a game cloud saves to Google Play Games until you play it. For example, the Angry Bird series uses Google Play Games for achievements but cloud saves via Facebook.
If the game you want to save progress for doesn’t support cloud saves, you’ll need to use an app that manually backs up your Android data. The best app for unrooted devices is Helium. To use Helium, download the app and the PC app that accompanies it. Then, connect your phone to your PC via a USB cable and run both the Android version of Helium and the PC app for it to work.
Once Helium is open, select all the games you want to backup, then tap backup. Selecting internal storage as a backup destination will backup the data to your SD card. If you pay for the premium version of Helium, you can backup your data to cloud storage instead. Once the backup is complete, insert your SD card into your new device, install and open Helium, and go to the restore and sync tab. Select internal storage to bring up the list of your backed up games, select all the games you want to restore, tap restore, then restore my data and wait for the progress to complete.
While it’s frustrating that not all games utilize Google’s cloud save services, Helium makes for a handy backup app until more developers catch on. With these methods, you can save your game progress across devices with ease.