Troubleshooting the Your Phone app

Data syncing and connectivity issues

To keep your devices synced, your Windows PC and Android device need to be on, connected to the Internet, and we recommend having Battery saver turned Off (it may interfere with important notifications for the app).

Yes, you can use your mobile data to sync with your PC. However, if you’re concerned about the effect on your data allowance, we recommend remaining on a Wi-Fi connection.

On your Android device:

Open the Your Phone Companion app.

Select Sync over mobile data.

Turn this option On.

To ensure the fastest, most reliable connection, your Android device and PC must be connected to the same trusted Wi-FI network. This optimization isn’t possible on a public connection—for example, in a coffee shop, hotel, or airport.

When you first connect to a Wi-Fi network through Windows 10, you’ll be prompted to set it as public or private (trusted). You can also change it at any time.

These changes might not always be possible—for example, if your workplace controls your network connection.

Before we begin to change settings, we recommend quickly running through the following checks:

Double-check you’re using the same Microsoft account to sign in to both the Your Phone app and the companion app on your Android device.

Ensure Battery saver isn’t running on your PC or Android device, as this might affect connectivity.

You have an active Wi-Fi connection. Can you open your browser and navigate to your favorite website?

For some Android devices, your Battery Optimization settings may interrupt your connection. We recommend turning it off for the companion app on your Android device (either Your Phone Companion or Link to Windows). Here’s how to turn it off based on which companion app you have:

If you have Your Phone Companion*:

Open Android Settings > Apps & notifications > App info > Your Phone Companion > Advanced > Battery > Manage Battery Usage > Battery optimization. Scroll down to Your Phone Companion and select Don’t optimize.

If you have Link to Windows*:

Open Android Settings > Apps > Link to Windows Service > Battery > Optimize battery usage. Select All from the drop-down list, scroll to find Link to Windows service, and turn the toggle Off.

*Note: These steps may vary based on your Android device model.

Still not working? Continue with the following troubleshooting advice.

Check if the Your Phone app can run in the background.

Select Start (or press the Windows logo key on your keyboard), then select Settings > Privacy > Background apps.

In the list Choose which apps can run in the background, ensure Your Phone is enabled.

Ensure nothing is stopping you from sharing across devices.

Select Start (or press the Windows logo key on your keyboard), then select Settings > System > Shared experiences.

If you see Fix now in Accounts, select it and follow the instructions.

On your Android device:

Make sure you can receive app notifications.

Go to your Android device Settings > Apps (or Apps & Notification on some devices) > Your Phone Companion and check that notifications are enabled.

Make sure Do not disturb is turned Off.

Go to your Android device Settings > Sounds (on some devices this may be Sounds & Vibration or Sounds & Notifications) and check that Do not disturb is turned Off.

If you’re still having trouble, follow the steps to unlink your Android device.

If both of your devices are using the same Wi-Fi network but you still see an error message, this could be caused by a setting on your router.

Many routers have a Wireless isolation feature that allows you to lock down the network. If this Wireless Isolation (or AP Isolation) is enabled, then all devices connected to the Wi-Fi network will be blocked from communicating with other.

To disable Wireless/AP Isolation:

On most routers look for the Wireless > Advanced Wireless Setting, and uncheck/toggle AP Isolation.

Updates

Updates will be installed automatically if this option is enabled on your Android device/PC. To ensure a smooth experience to we recommend updating to the latest version where available. Before doing this, ensure both your Android device and PC are connected to Wi-Fi.

On your Android device:

Open the Your Phone Companion app.

Tap Check for Updates.

Wait for the update to complete successfully, then close and reopen the Your Phone app.

Open the Microsoft Store.

Search for Your Phone.

If an update is available to you, you will see an Update button. Select Update and wait for the update to complete successfully, then select Launch.

You can also try this:

Open the Microsoft Store.

Select More … (located next to your Microsoft account picture).

Select Downloads and Updates.

If a Your Phone update is available, you will see an Update button. Select Update and wait for the update to complete successfully, then select Launch.

Note: It can take a few minutes for the updates to be recognized by the app. If the Your Phone app is still in an “update state,» wait a few minutes, then restart your Android device. On your PC, close and reopen the Your Phone app.

After updating to Android 10, if you are unable to launch permissions for features (notifications, messages, photos) please complete the following steps:

To get photos and messages working:

Go to Settings on your Android device.

Search for App Info and tap on it.

Tap on See all apps.

Find Your Phone Companion and tap on it.

Tap on Permissions and allow the following:

To get notifications working:

Go to Settings on your Android device.

Search for “ Notification access.”

Find Your Phone Companion in the list and tap to toggle off/on.

A pop-up will appear; select Allow when prompted.

Troubleshooting features in the Your Phone app

If you’re looking for troubleshooting for a specific feature in the Your Phone app, find it in the list below:

How do I check I’m using the same Microsoft account for all my devices?

In order to successfully link your PC and Android device, you should sign in to the same Microsoft account on both. You can check this by following these steps:

Open your browser and visit accounts.microsoft.com/devices/android-ios. Sign in with your Microsoft account.

Check if you Android device is listed under your account information.

On your Android device:

If you have the Your Phone Companion app:

Go to Settings > Accounts.

If you have the Link to Windows app (for select Samsung devices):

Go to Settings > Advanced features > Link to Windows.

Review the email address under Microsoft account.

I’m having issues with the Your Phone app when using Samsung DeX at the same time

Having both the Your Phone app and DeX open may cause issues with both apps. To ensure the best experience, only have one of these apps open at a time.

Why can’t I use the Your Phone app as a non-default user or two phone mode user (available in Korea only)?

You may encounter two phone mode if your mobile provider is in Korea. The Your Phone app does not currently support two phone mode or multiple profiles mode. Please contact your mobile provider to disable two phone mode so you can use the Your Phone app.

If you have multiple profiles on your mobile device, the Your Phone app will only work if your mobile device is set to the default profile.

Provide feedback

We’re still actively working on making the Your Phone experience the best we possibly can and we welcome your ideas and insights.

On your Android device:

Open the Your Phone Companion app or the Link to Windows app, depending on your device.

Select the Provide Feedback option.

Open Your Phone > Settings > Help & Feedback.

Fill out the form with as much detail as you can provide.

Messages sent from «Your Phone» app on Windows 10 pc not showing up on phone

I love the «Your phone» app, but there’s one problem I cannot seem to resolve: whatever message I send from the «Your Phone» app on my Windows 10 desktop (app version 1.19101.469.0; Windows version 1903, build 18362.418), it never shows up in the conversation list on my phone, whether it be in Android Messages or Whatsapp (Facebook Messenger does seem to work). I have tried another textin app (Textra), but to no avail.

I know the «Your phone» app doesn’t support RCS but that option is not available in Belgium yet, so I suppose there must be another cause. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app both on my desktop PC and phone (Huawei P30 Pro) but to no avail .

Replies (13) 

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I’m Charles, an Independent advisor trying to help.

Please, check the indications of this official community portal, I have carried out the tests from a MotoG5 Plus, and the SMS that I send from the PC is observed without problems on the phone, if it does not work, try to test from another PC if it is possible to rule out any restriction or configuration on the phone

I hope the steps work for you

Attentive to any comments

Have a happy day
Best Regards,
Charles.

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Thanks for your input, Charles. I checked with the app on my laptop, but I have the same problem there: messages sent from the app on my laptop don’t appear in the conversation on my phone .

Is there anything else I can check? (I have already unlinked my phone, reset the apps, . on both my desktop and laptop computer and my mobile phone . )

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I understand, maybe it is a malfunction of the application, if that is the case, let’s try to solve it as follows

These are the steps indicated by a Windows MVP through its article, apply from option 1 to 4, option 5 I add it directly here to make it easier to apply.

Step 5: Uninstall & Reinstall Your Phone app

Windows key + X >> PowerShell (Admin) >> Copy and paste the command, using the mouse click: Get-AppxPackage * Microsoft.YourPhone * -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage + Enter, restart the computer, and reinstall the application from the Windows store

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

How to Sync Your Phone With Windows 10

One of Microsoft’s big pushes with the Fall Creators Update is seamless phone and PC integration. Here’s how to set up Windows 10’s ‘Continue on PC’ feature.

At Build 2017, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, «The user experience is going to span all of your devices. That multi-device experience is what now needs platform capability.»

A big part of this is connecting your smartphone to your PC. Not only does this let you seamlessly move from web browsing on the phone to the Windows 10 PC, but it also enables the Cloud Clipboard, which will let you copy from one device and paste to another.

Since Windows 10 is considered a service rather than a set software products, more cross-device capabilities will be added on the fly. The first to appear is Continue On PC. How does it work? Simple. You’re browsing on your smartphone—on any browser and on either Android or iOS—and you just send the current page to your Windows 10 PC, where it opens automatically to that same page.

Continue on PC is just a taste of the multi-device cloud services promised by what Redmond terms the Microsoft Graph, which EVP for Windows and Devices Terry Myerson describes as “…an intelligent fabric that helps connect dots between people, conversations, projects, and content within the Microsoft Cloud–ensuring experiences flow seamlessly between Windows, iOS, and Android devices.”

Read through the slides to see how you get started with this new world of interconnection. The process is basically identical on Android phones, though I used an iPhone to test the process.

1. Start at Settings

Starting with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the Settings app gets a new Phone section. Begin by opening the Settings app and clicking on this icon.

How to switch from Windows Phone to Android Phone

Windows Phones were unarguably a breath of fresh air back in 2011. But, let’s just accept the fact that Windows Phones aren’t competing well as people would expect. Surely, there’s the app store which is better than it used to be but few big names are still missing, and people are done living without those essential apps. I mean, of course, the lack of apps was one of the deal-killer factors here.

There are a lot of factors we consider these days before buying a new phone. The build quality, camera, hardware, display and most importantly its ecosystem because that’s what decides your overall experience. If you are already familiar with one OS efficiently, moving to another seems pretty daunting, and why wouldn’t it be? After all, you’ve invested time understanding the entire ecosystem.

So, now when you’ve finally decided to enter the realm of Android OS, your mind would definitely be flooded with lots of queries such as how to switch from a Windows Mobile Phone to Android phone without losing your data, how to transfer contacts & data from a Windows phone to Android phone, etc. Don’t you worry! We have got you covered and tried to make this transition smooth with this step by step guide.

How to switch from a Windows Phone to Android Phone

Step 1: Move Contacts and Calendar from Windows Phone to Android Phone

Since you are a Windows phone user, chances are pretty high that you are using a Microsoft account. All you have to do use your Gmail and the Microsoft account to transfer calendar and contacts from Windows phone to Android phone. Here is how you can sync Outlook contacts and calendar later on Android device.

1. First and foremost, take the backup and sync everything with your Windows account. You simply need to go to the Settings and tap on it. You will see Email+accounts on the list, tap on Hotmail and enter your credentials. When the screen prompts you to sync up the data, tap on Contacts, email and calendar. The phone will take some time to sync all your data and you are done with the first step.

2. Now, here is how you can sync that data on your Android device. Just go to the settings, tap on the “Account” option and click on “Add account.” There, you are supposed to enter your Microsoft account email address and password. Once done logging in, you’ll be asked to set up your account. Click on the options of Sync email, calendar, and contacts. This way your Microsoft account will sync with the new device, and you will have your calendar and contact details on your new Android phone.

Step 2: Transfer your data from Windows Phone to Android Phone

1. You can painlessly transfer data from Windows phone to Android phone through your desktop in an old-fashioned way. Simply connect your Windows phone to your desktop using a Micro USB cable. Select the item you want to have on your new Android device and paste them into a folder. Then connect your Android device to your desktop in the similar fashion and get all the data on your phone from that folder be it photos, music, videos or documents.

2. If you don’t have PC, nevermind! We’ve got you covered anyway. There are plenty of third-party apps available, like Phone Copier, that help to transfer data between smartphones. SHAREit is another one that is available for both Windows and Android platforms. You just need to download SHAREit app on both the devices. And yes, don’t forget to connect to the Wi-Fi Hotspot created by SHAREit on the Windows device. You need to be connected with Hotspot to send the files.

Now open it up on Windows phone, tap on the send button and choose the photos, music, docs you want to have on Android device. Once selected, tap on the device name showing on the app’s radar and the files will be sent.

Step 3: Sync Old Data with Google Account

Unlike iOS ecosystem, the only Google necessity you need on an Android smartphone is a Google account. Now that you have your old data on your new Android device, we would suggest you sync it with your Gmail account. It makes things a lot easier to access, and it is always a good idea to do it in advance.

Pro Tip

As you’ve just been through the entire process of how to switch from a Windows phone to Android phone, let me tell you there is no way you can move app data. Hence, if your next question is “how to transfer WhatsApp messages from Windows phone to Android phone”, I am afraid there’s no such way. This is not just the case with Windows OS; even other ecosystems do not let users access the app data.

So, if you have been planning to move from Windows Mobile Phone to Android phone, these tips will come handy to make your transition as painless as possible. If you’ve done it using a different way, let us know your experience in the comment section, we would be more than happy to learn from you.

Planning to switch to iPhone? Read our post on how to switch from Windows Phone to iPhone.

Date: January 25, 2018 Tags: Android, Phones