Move Lectern to a new phone

What the backup holds — and what it doesn't

Back up the old phone

1. Open Settings. Tap Settings in the bottom bar and open the Data & sync section.
2. Find “Reading progress backup”. It sits under the sync settings, with an Export and an Import button.
3. Tap Export. Android asks where to save. Pick somewhere that is not only on this phone — Drive, a memory card, or a folder you will copy off later.
4. Check the confirmation. Lectern reports what it wrote, something like “Exported 214 positions, 1320 sessions and 96 highlights”.
5. Copy your books off too. The backup does not contain them. Copy your ebook folder to your computer, or upload it — whichever you would do anyway.

Restore on the new phone

1. Put your books in place first. Copy the files to the new phone and add the folder under Settings → Library, or send them across with Wi-Fi transfer. Restoring first works too; you will simply watch your progress attach itself book by book as the scan finds them.
2. Open Settings → Data & sync. The same place as on the old phone.
3. Tap Import and pick your file. The file picker shows JSON files; choose the backup you exported.
4. Choose what to bring over. If the file holds more than reading data, Lectern asks first. Reading progress always comes back — that is what a backup is for. Settings, voice choice and catalogs are tick boxes, so pointing at the wrong file cannot quietly overwrite your setup.
5. Let the library settle. Lectern reports what it restored. Progress lands on each book the moment the scanner recognises it.

How your progress finds the right book

Lectern identifies a book by its file name and its size, not by a hidden id buried in the app. Copy the same files across and every position, highlight and bookmark lands where it belongs, on any phone, on any Android version.

So keep the files as they are while you move. Rename a file, or re-download the same title from a different source, and Lectern sees a new book with a fresh start. Nothing is lost — your old entry is still in the backup — but the two will not meet.

Voices and catalogs need one more tap

The backup carries which voice you had chosen, not the voice itself. Those models are 65 to 350 MB, and what a phone can comfortably run depends on its chip. On the new device Lectern knows what you wanted and offers to download it over Wi-Fi — a deliberate tap, not a surprise download.

Catalog passwords are never in the file. They are encrypted on the old phone with a key that never leaves it. An imported catalog keeps its name and address and asks you to sign in again, and the dialog says so before you import.

Or skip the file and use sync

If both phones are in your hands at once and you already sync through a folder — Drive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, anything the file picker can reach — point the new phone at the same folder and it catches up on its own. The backup file is for the other cases: the old phone is already gone, or you want a copy that does not depend on anything else still working.

Fix the common problems

My books are there, but every one says 0%

They are not the same files. A different edition, a renamed file or a re-download from another source is a different book to Lectern. Copy the originals across and the progress reappears — the backup can be imported again as often as you like.

The import did not ask me anything

Then the file held only reading data: an older backup, or one exported before version 1.28. It restores straight away, because there is nothing to choose.

I picked the wrong file

A sync file and a backup file look alike in the picker. That is exactly why the dialog exists: leave the tick boxes empty and only reading data is merged, never your settings or catalogs.

Can I restore onto a phone that already has books?

Yes. A restore merges rather than replaces: for each book the newer position wins, and highlights are added rather than overwritten. Importing the same file twice changes nothing the second time.

Backup questions