Picture messages "File does not exist" after smart switch transfer from S8 to Note 10

[Johnny52]

I recently bought a note 10 and note 10 plus. When I use smart switch to transfer data from my old S8 device to the note 10 and note 10 plus, everything is transferred except mms messages. It shows the picture is there, but it's blurred with an"! " in the center. When I tap it I get " file does not exist " I did the smart switch multiple times on both devices and it does it every time ... Has anyone experienced this problem? Any solutions? Please help 

[DannyT]

Hey there, @Johnny52.

Sorry to hear about this. Do you know where these messages are saved on the Note 8? Are these in the stock messaging app?

Just as a heads up multimedia data (such as pictures) saved in private storage cannot be backed up. So if this is in your secure folder, on an SD Card, or in a specific app, we can't back that up.

[Johnny52]

@DannyT the messages are saved to the phone. I use the message app that's already installed on the phone.

[Johnny52]

the messages are saved to the phone. I use the message app that's already installed on the phone.

[strawberry cake]

Hello

If SMS can only be backed up by Smart Switch,

Please head to Google Play Store and download "MMS Back up and Restore" app, install on both old and new phones.

Back up MMS on your old phone then restore in on your new phone (mostly Google account/drive access is needed), just select an app that is free, trusted and with most stars. Please don't forget to uninstall once done. 

If the app won't work, please try another similar. 

Thanks ☺

[Johnny52]

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@strawberry cake wrote:

Hello

If SMS can only be backed up by Smart Switch,

Please head to Google Play Store and download "MMS Back up and Restore" app, install on both old and new phones.

Back up MMS on your old phone then restore in on your new phone (mostly Google account/drive access is needed), just select an app that is free, trusted and with most stars. Please don't forget to uninstall once done. 

If the app won't work, please try another similar. 

Thanks ☺

---

@@strawberry cake @@@That's not the case. Smart switch always transfered sms and mms except for this time. 

[Cas91]

I have the same problem with transferring my messages from my Samsung so to my Samsung s10. Does anyone have a solution for this?

[Regiwhite]

I realize this is late but this was the first Google result when I has this issue so I thought I would share the solution I found after a few hours of messing around!

I had to go through and download the attachments to the gallary on my old phone first. You can do this by opening each message thread, clicking the 3 dots, going to shared content, selecting all, and clicking save. Unfortunately you have to do that for every message thread.

Then on the new phone make sure there are no messages on there. If there are messages transferred switch will think the MMS/pictures are duplicates and not correct the issue. So if you've transferred messages, delete them on your new phone.

Once you have all the attachments downloaded to the gallary on the old phone and are transferring to an empty messaging app on the new phone, go into switch and initiate a transfer of your messages and the "downloads" folder of your gallery. Once I did this all my pictures and videos showed up in my messages just like normal!

After you're done and have verified everything transferred you can delete the downloads from your gallary if you don't want them taking up space. I've done this and verified it doesn't mess up the texts once they're transferred, but it seemed to make a difference for the transfer itself.

Good luck! 

[Merlin1935]

Good info for one or two sms, but if you have 200 contacts with years of sms history then this is not practical. 

I have the same issue, my carrier Tmobile couldn't help and Samsung doesn't care.