How do you move a comic library to a new phone without losing anything?

Why a new phone loses comics

Google's own help for moving to a new Android phone says the transfer copies "Apps and certain app data", alongside photos, contacts, text messages and most phone settings. The same page lists what it will not copy: "Downloads, like PDF files", "Apps that aren't from the Google Play Store", and "Data from apps that don't use Android backup" (Google's transfer help, read 2026-10-01).

The cloud-backup half works the same way. Android's Auto Backup "automatically backs up a user's data from apps that target and run on Android 6.0 (API level 23) or higher" to the user's Google Drive, and Google's developer documentation sets the limit: "Every app can allocate up to 25 MB of backup data per app user." An app "can customize the backup process or opt out by disabling backups" (Android's Auto Backup documentation, read 2026-10-01). A comic library is gigabytes of images; 25 MB holds a few dozen pages, so downloaded comics do not fit in it.

So after the transfer the app is back, but its downloads are not. If the app restored its list of comics, opening one you had downloaded means downloading it again, because the files never moved; if the source has since removed it, it is gone.

What app backups carry

Mihon, the manga reader, documents its backups honestly, and it is a good example of the general rule. A Mihon backup holds library entries, "Chapters - Chapter data for saved entries", "Tracking - Trackers added to individual saved entries", "History - Read history for saved entries", categories and the app's settings, among others. Its documentation then says plainly what a backup does not include: "Extensions", "Downloaded chapter files including local source chapters" and "Custom covers applied to entries" (Mihon's backup guide, read 2026-10-01).

Mihon's own fix is the one worth copying: "Transfer or move your previously downloaded chapters into the 'downloads' folder of your set Storage location", then in Settings → Advanced tap "Reindex downloads" to rescan them. The backup carries the library and the progress; your files carry the comics.

That split, the library on one side and the files on the other, is the pattern to expect from comic apps that keep downloads on the phone. Where an app does not document what its backup or export contains, assume the downloads are not in it until you have checked.

The two ways that keep everything

1. Keep the library in storage you own. If the comics already live in cloud storage you control, a new phone is not a move at all. Connect the new phone to the same storage and the library is there: every comic in it, every cover. What is WebDAV, and which drives support it? and What is S3 storage, and do you need AWS for it? cover the two main kinds of storage this works with.

2. Export from the app and carry the file yourself. If the app can produce a real export of everything it holds, you move that one file to the new phone (a cable, a memory card, or any file-copying app) and restore from it. This is the only route that does not need an account anywhere.

Phone-clone tools and Google backups are neither of these. They are a shortcut for the apps themselves, not a way to move what is inside them.

Moving an Easemic library

Easemic is a free Android app, in invite-only testing, that keeps your library in storage you own. It has both of the routes above.

With a cloud library

Connect the new phone to the same storage and everything you collected is there: every comic, every cover. Libraries on a drive or WebDAV are encrypted on the phone, so the new phone needs the same password; on S3 the user chose whether to encrypt. Your storage holds a full copy of each comic you collected, so none of them depends on the old phone. Comics you only downloaded, without collecting them, are on the old phone alone: the "Everything, including downloaded comics" export below carries them.

Without cloud storage: export and restore

1. On the old phone, open More → Backup & restore → Export.
2. Pick what to export. Both sizes are shown before anything is written: "Collection and progress" (bookmarks, browse history, reading progress and settings; a few KB) or "Everything, including downloaded comics" (adds every downloaded comic, with the count and size shown first).
3. Choose a password. The export is one file, encrypted with that password, saved wherever you choose.
4. Move the file to the new phone however you like.
5. On the new phone, open Backup & restore → Restore, pick the file, and enter the password. A preview shows what will come back and checks free space first.

Restore adds and never replaces or deletes. A comic already on the phone is skipped, so you can restore onto a phone you have already started using without duplicating anything.

What you sign in to again

The export does not carry sign-ins, by design: source logins, cloud or S3 keys and OPDS passwords stay behind, and the new phone signs in again. Comics you imported from your own phone folders are not in the export either; they are your files, so copy the folder and import it again (What is a CBZ file, and how do you read one? covers the formats Easemic imports). An OPDS catalog whose address contains a key is not carried; the restore names it so you can add it again.

A simple rule for any comic app

Before you switch phones, open the app you actually read in and find where its downloads live. Then ask one question: does this app have an export, a backup, or a sync that I have verified includes the downloaded files? If the answer is yes, use it and you are done. If it is no, or if the app's documentation does not say, copy the downloads folder yourself to a computer or another phone, and put it back in the same place on the new one.

That one check is the difference between opening your library on the new phone and starting it over.

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