Hello WP!

[-Himanshu-]

Bought a Lumia 520 today, my first wandering to the WP world. Should be delivered today. Have just owned just one smartphone till now, a Symbian one, Nokia 5235.

So, any tips/tricks for the new user? I have kept up with the news and did some reading to familiarize myself. One question, I have a sd card in my current phone, with pictures, music, videos. I just put that in, and would it detect everything? What are my sync and backup options? I will be logging in using a MS account I already use on my windows 8 PC.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

it should just pick everything up and allow you to use those files

 

as far as sync options you can use skydrive for Contacts, Calendar, Photos and whatnot, you can also use Google for Contacts and Calendar. You can sync with facebook for contacts. that sort of thing.

 

if you want to Sync the device to put music and whatnot on it you can use the windows phone app for PC but you are better off just using the drag and drop to put your data on it.

[Steven P. Administrators]

I have it myself. It's a little slow on resuming apps but overall happy with it. I've dropped it a number of times already :P and the flexible plastic back seems to prevent damage pretty well. I can get a full day use out of it but needs charging on the second day.

[paulheu]

There's lot of information here, on sites like windowsphone.com and Nokia Support DIscussions..

[-Himanshu-]

Thanks for the replies, guys!

@littleneutrino

I am thinking this will be a good time to move things to MS ecosystem. I was able to get my name as email on the outlook domain, so I think I will be setting everything up in that.

Yes, I read they removed Zune support and that the new sync app is atrocious. Good that they added mass storage support, I will just use that.

@Neobond

Yeah, due to being low on ram, but I guess I can live with that. And be more careful. :P

@paulheu

Yes, I am reading up those, just wanted some tricks the power users here can suggest. ;) And some app suggestions.

[Growled Member]

Congratulations. Keep us posted on how things go with it. :)

[neo158]

Welcome to Windows Phone :D. If you use Windows 8 then the Metro Sync app, although cumbersome to use, is better than the desktop sync app. You're right though mass storage support is a godsend. If I were you then I would copy the data off the SD Card and reformat it as exFAT, which is designed for removable storage, and put you files back on it before putting it into your Windows Phone.

[beanboy89]

I'm in the same boat. Just bought a Lumia 520 last week because I was curious about Windows Phone. I've been an Android user for three years, and it's a totally different experience. I really like what I'm seeing thus far with WP8; it's just fun to use.

[Sandor]

Bought a Lumia 520 today, my first wandering to the WP world. Should be delivered today. Have just owned just one smartphone till now, a Symbian one, Nokia 5235.

So, any tips/tricks for the new user? I have kept up with the news and did some reading to familiarize myself. One question, I have a sd card in my current phone, with pictures, music, videos. I just put that in, and would it detect everything? What are my sync and backup options? I will be logging in using a MS account I already use on my windows 8 PC.

SD card should work fine.

 

Settings > Backup. Can easily skydrive everything. I believe you can backup apps, settings and all sorts so that if you ever need to reset your phone it can just download everything back to how it was bit like system restore on a PC I guess. Haven't tried it out myself though.

 

Tip would be to not fill the phone with junk or 100 different apps...the best experience comes when you actively make sure the phone is streamlined and has only what you require.

[beanboy89]

I have it myself. It's a little slow on resuming apps but overall happy with it. I've dropped it a number of times already :p and the flexible plastic back seems to prevent damage pretty well. I can get a full day use out of it but needs charging on the second day.

Speaking of the back cover, does yours creak on the right side if you apply any pressure to the back? Mine does, and it's a little disconcerting. I'm not too concerned about it, but it's a bit annoying. Also, I'm thinking about getting a case so the back doesn't get nicked up in my pocket. Anyone have any recommendations? Looking for something fairly thin.

[AsherGZ]

Actually your phone won't detect all the files on your SD card. Just music, videos, word, excel, powerpoint, pdf and text files, and of course images. Also apps can't access files on your SD card. If you are already using Windows 8 with a Microsoft account, your experience will be quite seamless. It'll automatically import all your contacts from People app and events from your Calendar. Your phone will just be like an extension to your PC or laptop. You can easily transfer data to and fro between devices using Skydrive and also use it to backup your files. You can effortlessly sync music and libraries using Windows Media Player.

 

And apps will only install on your internal phone memory and I think 520 comes with 8GB which is quite small for someone like me, so be careful and don't install every app and game or it will fill up pretty quickly. You won't find a lot of official apps in the Store but there are some third party ones that are better than the official ones on other platforms.

 

Also I've been using Windows Phone for quite some time and I just found out last week that you can close a notification popup by swiping it to the right. Anybody else knew that?

[Ian S.]

The new sync app is not bad, one thing I found is that while your photos are uploaded to skydrive, they are not full resolution unless you specify the phone to do so. I lost some good quality photos because I thought they were full resolution on skydrive.

[Stoffel]

I just ordered a 520 myself.

Should have it by mid next week. This will be my first real smartphone.

Don't know if it helps, but there is a free Windows Phone 8 book at www.windowsphonebook.com

 

I'll keep following this thread to see what other tips people have for us new Windows Phone users

[iDsoftware]

My GF has a thin plastic case on her phone we bought on ebay that fit like a glove while I chose a thicker Rubber\Plastic combo case to give the phone a bit more size in my hand. Only recommendation I can give you on a case, not knowing your taste, make sure you find a case that says for Lumia 520 only. A lot of people are selling cases as cases for the Lumia 520 and 521 but they do not work. The 520 and 521 may seem like the same phone but they do have differences in size\thickness so beware.

 

Meant to be directed at SirJimmyOfRussell

[-Himanshu-]

Sorry for abandoning my own thread, it's been a busy week.

 

The experience is great, especially for its price range. Things are smooth, I just added all the accounts and was good to go. I encountered two problems so far. First was that FB chat wouldn't connect in the Messaging app. After searching for teh issue, I found that it was because that the ID I used to sign in my MS account wasn't the primary alias in the account. Another problem is that my FB tile just sits there, I don't get any notifications. It's still unsolved.

 

Battery life is okayish but slightly disappointing. I charge at like 6 in the morning and it is empty by the time I return at 6:30 in evening, even when it sits idly most of the time I am in college.

 

I currently don't have a laptop with Windows, I was using my sister's which has Ubuntu, and it didn't recognize my phone. I read that it needs a better MTP support, so I will have to look into that too.

 

@SirJimmy

 

Yes, I set the backup up like that, will see how it works when I reset in future or buy a new one. Yes, initially I downloaded many to try, but afterwards kept only that I have use for.

 

@AsherGZ

 

Yes, it's really a great experience. I can make changes to the things linked with my MS account and everything gets updated. 8 GB should be enough fro me, I have 3.5 GB free now and I have all the apps I need. I can add and remove games as I like now. Thanks for that tip, didn't know that.

 

@ians

 

That was the first thing I set up in the backup settings, to upload full res images. Thanks for the info.

 

 

The "Other" storage seems to be filling up fast, it is already sitting at 1.9 GB. Can't wait for the update, Nokia status shows that it has been approved for 520, it's in "Coming Soon" status. Any day now, hopefully. BTW, for OTA update, I need not back up anything, right? The data will remain as it is?