Usually, there are three scenarios when you would want to reinstall all your android apps -

  1. You change your phone to a new one.
  2. Do a factory reset of the phone.
  3. Install a custom ROM in the phone.

With each of these actions, you get a phone without your previous contacts, messages, apps and data. And the first thing you would want to do is to reinstall all android apps and data you were using previously.

You can easily take a backup of your Contacts, Messages, Photos, Calendar etc using using an android manager to restore later. But what about apps?

There are two easy ways to restore all your apps.

1. Reinstalling by pushing apps from Google play store.

First make sure your android phone is connected to the Internet, market app is open on your phone and is configured with the same Gmail id.

Now visit the "My android apps" section Google play store from your computer browser.  The Play Store keeps a record of each and every app you have downloaded and installed from the store. You will find two sections here.

  • The list of apps installed in your phone right now.
  • Other apps in my library (apps you have used one time or the other).

For instance, here is a snippet of apps I have installed-

Now besides each app, you can find an "INSTALLED" button and an uninstall icon. First click on the uninstall icon of the app you want to re-install. This will remove it from the installed list. Just refresh the page(F5) so the lists get populated once more. Now locate the app it in the "Other apps in my library" and click on the "INSTALL" button. This will bring up a popup confirmation box as below.

Just click on the "INSTALL" button and you will get a message saying "This app will be downloaded to your device shortly". That's it, the app will get pushed and installed in your phone automatically within a few seconds.

Now you need to do this for all the apps you need to reinstall on your android phone. The advantage of this method is there is no need to wait for an installation to finish before pushing another one. All items you push will be added to the queue and installed one by one. So just push all your apps, go for a coffee break and when you return back your phone will have all the apps ready to go.

2. Backup and restore apps using Titanium Backup.

Titanium Backup is an easy-to-use app using which you can take up a backup of all your apps including data and restore them whenever needed. Here's how to use it -

Important: Your phone should be rooted for Titanium backup to work.

  1. Install Titanium Backup from android market on your original phone having all the apps.
  2. Open Titanium app, select "Schedules" and press "Run" under "Backup all new apps & newer versions". This will start the backup process which could take a few seconds.
  3. Take a backup copy of the "TitatniumBackup" folder from your Internal storage or SD card to your PC. This folder contains all the backup data.
  4. After resetting or on a new phone, copy this folder back to the phone or storage device and install Titanium Backup again. To restore all apps back, open Titanium Backup and select menu button, "Batch" and scroll down to the "Restore" section.

Here's an informative video with a live demonstration of backing up and restoring apps using Titanium backup. The video is around 20 mins, but the first 8 minutes is sufficient for a simple backup and restore process.

Now both these methods have their pros and cons.

Using the android market will restore apps, but not the app settings you had. For instance, if you reinstall a game, the game will be restored but all the game progress you had on your phone earlier would be lost and you would have to start over. The advantage here is that it is very simple and there is no chance of things not working.

Using titanium backup can restore not only your apps, but the app settings as well. But there is always a possibility of the backup not working or the settings causing things not to work especially if you restore apps on a phone that is different from your earlier one. Also you can't use Titanium Backup if your phone is not rooted.

Conclusion

Overall, the best way is to select a method you feel comfortable with. If you want an easy restore, use the android market. If you are comfortable playing around and experimenting with the phone, go for Titanium Backup.

You may also find these interesting:
Add a Redial Button in your android phone.
How to Use Your Android Phone As a Webcam.