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Wondershare Dr.Fone is a popular application which consists of a wide range of phone utilities that can be used to manage your phone or carry out essential maintenance. It can be a useful tool that can avoid you having to go to a phone specialist or, alternatively, provide backup solutions prior to you sending it off to these sorts of companies.

Features

Wondershare Dr.Fone is a range of utilities for both iOS and Android devices. This includes:

  • Screen Unlock
    • Remove the lock screen from your Android / iOS, no matter you remember the password or not.
  • Data Recovery
    • Recover deleted data from iOS/Android devices, iTunes/iCloud backup, and broken Android devices.
  • WhatsApp Transfer
    • Back up your WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Kik, Viber chat history and attachment. Transfer WhatsApp messages between iOS & iOS, Android & Android, and iOS & Android.
  • Phone Transfer
    • One-click to transfer data between any two devices that run iOS or Android, including contacts, messages, photos, etc.
  • Phone Backup
    • Back up data on your iOS or Android devices easily and restore backup files selectively to any device.
  • Data Eraser
    • Permanently erase what you want from your iPhone, iPad, or Android devices, whole devices, or part of data, keeping your privacy secure.
  • Phone Manager
    • Transfer contacts, SMS, photos, music, video, and more between your iOS / Android and PC / iTunes.
  • System Repair
    • Fix various iOS/Android issues by yourself within five minutes, such as being stuck in a boot loop, black screen of death, etc.
  • iTunes Repair
    • Fix various iTunes errors, iTunes connection issues, and issues syncing iTunes with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

USB Debugging

It is worth noting that the majority of the utilities within Dr.Fone will require you to have USB debugging enabled. This is quite easy to do, and the app guides you through the process.

Phone Unlocking

Wondershare Dr.Fone has a phone unlocking feature that will no doubt be very appealing for a variety of scenarios. If you have bought a second-hand phone and, for some reason, it has not been factory wiped, you will need a way to remove the passwords. Similarly, after resetting some phones, you still require login details, and these can be easily forgotten.

Wondershare Dr.Fone has a function to remove the Google FRP lock which exists on Samsung phones and tablets. It also has a tool to remove the screen lock without any data loss on a handful of older devices.

For all other devices, the Dr.Fone tool doesn’t appear to offer any functionality that you can’t do free of charge.

When selecting the 100% remove screen lock function, you will be asked which brand of phone you want to unlock and then be guided through the factory reset process, which is completed from the recovery mode.

It should be quite easy to Google the instructions for your phone’s brand. In my test, I used one of my Realme phones, and it advised me to power down the phone, then press and hold the power and volume up key until the logo shows. You then select your language (using volume keys and power for enter) and follow the step-by-step instructions.

I know when I have used Xiaomi phones in the past, if you are logged into the Mi account, it will require you to know the login details following a reset. I am unsure if Dr.Fone will be any help here.

For iOS, you have a much wider range of phone unlocking tools

WhatsApp Backup and Restore

I like to keep all my instant messages as I inevitably need to refer back to what people say (either to pettily prove a point or just remember what has been said about something).

WhatsApp has an automatic backup and restore function using Google Drive, but I have found that this can be temperamental. Backups sometimes fail, and more recently, I found it impossible to restore a backup when I switched back to my Pixel 6.

Dr.Fone has a handy tool that can do a backup and restore for you. You will need to disable automatic updates before you use the application. It is a bit of a faff as it doesn’t just download the messages immediately, the app uninstalls the existing WhatsApp app and installs an older version which seems to give it access to the messages.

However, I got it to work, and it is a good alternative if you are struggling to eithe backup or restore using the Google Drive method.

System Repair

The system repair tool claims to be able to help you resolve issues with boot loops, failed updates, a brick phone and more.

However, I was unable to test this as it seems to be limited to just Sasmung devices.

Phone Backup / Transfer Data to Computer / Phone Transfer

It feels like these three tools all do the same sort of thing, just slightly differently. During my testing, I didn’t need to transfer my data to a new phone, but I did use the phone manager features.

The apps section was quite useful, it allowed me to install, delete and export apps from my phone. You can also manually backup and manage your photos, videos, music and more.

Phone transfer works the same as many device-specific phone clone app, but it is useful if the specific brand of phone has a poor quality app, or you just generally have issues with the built-in process.

I’d say the phone backup functionality is the most useful. You can periodically take a full backup without relying on cloud storage providers. This will backup your music, video, photos, contacts, call history, messages, calendar and applications. It’s basically the same as the phone transfer functionality, just without transferring the data to a new phone.

Data Recovery & Data Eraser

I am not entirely sure why there needs to be a data eraser tool. This basically provides a full system wipe, but you need to have access to the unlocked phone with USB debugging and you can perform the same action within the phone. Or, via the recovery mode, similar to how you remove the password protection.

Data recovery works in a similar manner to the Wondershare Recoverit tool, but for your phone storage.

Phone Screen Mirror

The MirrorGo tool ended up being my favourite feature of Wondershare Dr.Fone. I occasionally use the Microsoft Phone Link, but it doesn’t do exactly what I need, only providing access to some data.

With the MirrorGo tool, I can control everything on my phone from the PC without having to pick up the phone. More often than not, this is just getting information from my phone to my PC.

Price

Dr.Fone works on a subscription model. You can buy each individual module separately with prices ranging from $15 to $40, or you can buy the full Toolkit. The Toolkit then comes in either Android, iOS or both operating systems.

  • The Android Toolkit is $79.95 annually
  • The iOS Toolkit is $99.95 annually
  • The Toolkit for both is $139.95

The toolkits work for up to 5 devices, if you are a business providing support, then you can get an unlimited business license for $799. That’s a lot of money but if you are charging for support you should get an easy return on investment.

Overall

Wondershare Dr.Fone has a useful range of tools for both Android and Apple iOS devices.

How useful this is to you depends on what you want to achieve. I found some tools, such as the screen unlock, are not quite as useful as I expected. This is not really the fault of Wondershare, the security features of Android prevent easily screen unlocking, which is almost always a good thing.

As I review a lot of phones, I am constantly having to switch all my apps and data between phones. The built-in systems many phones have can be hit or miss, and having all these functions through Wondershare Dr.Fone is quite useful for me.

If you ever need to send your phone off for a screen repair or some other similar damage, then making backups of your phone is advisable. Whenever I have used my phone insurance, I need to wipe the data and they rarely actually fix the phone, just replace it.  

Wondershare Dr.Fone Review Rating

Summary

Wondershare Dr.Fone has a useful range of tools for both Android and Apple iOS devices.

Overall
75%
75%
  • Overall - 75%
    75%

Pros

  • A wide range of tools that will be useful to anyone with an Android or Apple phone

Cons

  • Some of the utilities are only useful for certain phones (mainly Samsung and Apple)

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2 Comments

  1. Well I bought the unlo ck program and it isn’t said you might have to get another program too help you with that one. And I bought MobileGo with a lifetime subscription it said and I find out they don’t maintain it any more but gave it to me again but very little help. I was given a free license for another program in exchange for that program. Now they said let them look into it and get back to me so just be careful about this subscription thing. Overall Dr Phone is worth it to a point

  2. Recovering a data file isn’t impossible as we speak anymore. There are certain unorthodox methods to retrieve data from mobile or Pc . What matters most is to hand it over to experts and not complicate further issues.

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