I already signed into the new phone with the same account and confirmed that 17 saved logins appear, but several app logins are still missing. I read that restoring from the old phone’s backup should carry over all saved credentials automatically.
I’m doubtful about the “all” part, especially for apps that required a separate PIN or device approval. Does that claim hold up, or is there another transfer step I should complete before wiping the old phone?
“Everything transfers” is too broad. A backup may restore passwords and some app data, but device-bound credentials, passkeys, authenticator codes, banking apps, and apps protected by a separate PIN often need fresh approval or enrollment.
Before wiping the old phone, open every important app on the new one and verify that you can fully sign in. Check your authenticator app’s transfer or backup process, save recovery codes, and confirm that passkeys are synced or registered on the new device. Keep the old phone connected and usable until those checks are done.
For regular usernames and passwords, moving them into a free password manager like Bitwarden can make future phone changes less dependent on a device backup. It still won’t bypass an app’s device approval or separate PIN, but it makes missing saved passwords easier to spot and transfer.
Check whether the missing apps use “Sign in with Apple/Google” instead of a stored password, since those won’t show among the 17 saved logins. Reinstalling the app and choosing the same sign-in method may restore access without finding a password.
Don’t erase the old phone yet. If Bitwarden shows 17 items on both devices, then those are probably the only entries currently stored in that vault. Restoring a full phone backup may bring back some app data, but it will not magically add credentials that were saved in a browser, the phone’s built-in password manager, another Bitwarden account, or only inside the app.
@glitchbyte35 is right about social sign-ins, but I’d check the old phone’s browser passwords and system password settings too. Open each missing app there and see whether autofill identifies where the credential is coming from. If you find passwords outside Bitwarden, add them to your vault manually, sync it, and confirm they appear on the new phone before wiping anything. Some banking and authentication apps will still require a fresh login or device approval regardless of the backup.
An app that opens normally on the old phone and a password that appears in autofill are two different cases. The first may only be an existing session, meaning the app never stored a readable password anywhere. That session can keep working for months on the old phone while the new phone still asks you to sign in from scratch.
Before chasing another full restore, open each missing app on the old phone and write down the exact account identifier it uses. That might be an email address, phone number, membership number, or a username you rarely see. Check the app’s account settings rather than logging out. A surprisingly common problem is trying the correct password with the wrong email address, especially if you have personal, work, and older accounts.
Then use the app’s password-reset process on the new phone if no saved credential turns up. It is often quicker and safer than restoring the whole device again. Just confirm first that you still control the recovery email address or phone number. For apps with important data, check whether that data is attached to the online account or stored only on the old device before changing anything.
I would treat the 17 saved logins as a count of what is actually in that particular vault, not a count of every account you use. @sonicdaemon covered the other storage locations, but there can be a simpler explanation too: some apps never created a password entry because you stayed signed in after the first setup, used a temporary code, or registered through an email link.
A backup restore may recover an app icon and some settings without restoring its secure sign-in session. That can make the app look transferred even though its authentication data was intentionally excluded. Keep the old phone untouched until the new phone can access the accounts that matter, especially anything tied to payments, cloud files, or account recovery.
Search the vault by the service’s website, email address, and username instead of only the app name. A login may be filed under the company’s domain or an old name, so it can exist among those 17 entries without appearing when the app requests autofill.
If you find it, the issue is probably app matching rather than transfer. Manually select the login once, then add or approve the app association if your password manager offers that option.
I agree that restoring another backup is unlikely to fix this. Before resetting passwords, remove any vault or collection filters and confirm you are viewing all items, since a filtered list can make synced entries look missing.
The vault may be fine. The new phone may simply not be asking it.
Check that Bitwarden is selected as the phone’s default autofill service, then reopen a missing app and tap its username field. New-device setup often restores the vault but not every autofill permission. Some apps block automatic suggestions, so try opening Bitwarden and copying the username and password manually.
If manual entry works, nothing is missing and another backup restore would be wasted effort. If no matching vault item exists, then @looppro’s point applies: the old app probably has a live session, not a stored password.
If you switched between an iPhone and an Android in this move, most of the backup talk above stops mattering. Cross-platform restores don’t carry app sessions or system keychain entries at all, so the 17 that came over probably rode along inside Bitwarden, not the phone backup. That alone explains why some apps look ‘transferred’ and others don’t. Worth confirming before you keep hunting for a restore that was never going to work.
@looppro nailed the session-versus-password thing, and honestly that’s the part people burn the most time on. An app staying open on the old phone tells you nothing about whether a credential exists anywhere. Same with the point about wrong-email logins, that one bites people constantly when a service quietly merged accounts or you signed up twice years apart. I’d trust the password-reset route over another restore too, as long as you’ve checked the recovery email or number still reaches you.
Where I’d push back a little: the thread is treating a full vault sync as basically solved once items appear on both devices. Do a spot check on a couple of the important entries, open them and confirm the password field is actually populated and not blank. Sync can bring the item name across while the secret lags or fails silently, especially right after a fresh install. Bitwarden is fine for holding the regular logins, but for the banking and authenticator stuff nobody’s exporting cleanly, plan on re-enrolling those from scratch and keep the old phone alive until you have.