Posted on by SwitchedOn Insurance Peeps

How to transfer your contacts to an iPhone or Android smartphone

The time has come to transfer your contacts to an even better phone. Here at Switched On Insurance, we’re relaxed about phone contact syncing, and we want you to be.

How to transfer your contacts from Android to iPhone with Apple’s ‘Move to iOS’ app:

The Apple ‘Move to iOS’ app wirelessly transfers your contacts, message history, photos, videos and everything else from your old Android smartphone to your new iPhone.

‘Move to iOS’ app is available at the Google Play store. It makes transferring from Android to iPhone easy, but you can also transfer your contacts from Android to iPhone the following ways.

Transfer your contacts from Android to iPhone without buying the Apple ‘Move to iOS’ app:

Without an Apple Move to iOS Android app, there are two ways of transferring your contacts from an Android smartphone to a new iPhone.

Transfer your contacts using your Google Account:

If you’ve had an Android smartphone and a Google Account for a fairly long time, your contacts will be associated with your Google Account. First, back up your Android phone, then:

  1. Go to your Android phone’s Settings and then choose Accounts & Sync or a similar option
  2. Enter your Gmail and Google Account details to start syncing
  3. Your phone contacts and Google Contacts should now sync together
  4. Unlock your new iPhone
  5. Open Settings
  6. Scroll down and tap Accounts & Passwords
  7. Making sure Contacts are enabled, fill in the Gmail and Google Account fields

All your Google Contacts are in your new iPhone.

Transfer your contacts using your Google Account this alternative way:

  1. Unlock your new iPhone
  2. Open Settings
  3. Scroll down and tap Accounts & Passwords
  4. Making sure Contacts are enabled, select Add Account
  5. Select Other
  6. Select Add CardDAV Account and enter your account info in the 3 fields:
      • Server — enter google.com
      • User-Name — enter your Google Account or Google Apps email address
      • Password — enter your Google Account or Google Apps password
    If you’ve enabled 2-step verification:
    • Password — generate and enter an app-specific password
    • Description — enter a description, for example, ‘contacts’
  7. Select Next
  8. Ensure Contacts is on
  9. Open Contacts, it will be syncing your iPhone with Google Contacts

All your Google Contacts are in your new iPhone.

How to transfer your contacts from iPhone to Android:

If you use Google’s Gmail, Photos and/or Music, switching from an iPhone to a new Android smartphone is easy. If you aren’t linked to any of these, there are only a few more things to do.

If you’re going to switch from contact-filled iPhone to a new Android smartphone, you’ll need a fuss-free way to retain your contacts. Here are a handful of ways to transfer your contacts from one phone to another. Some involve vCards (.vcf or VCF — virtual contact file), the files of e-business cards that are regularly attached to emails and message apps.

Using iCloud to transfer your contacts

If you want to transfer more than ten contacts from iPhone to Android, Apple iCloud is there for you.

  1. Using your computer, go to iCloud.com
  2. Select the Contacts that you want to extract from your iPhone, either:
    • One by one, or
    • Click on the gear button (lower left) and Select All
  3. Click on the gear button again then select Export vCard. Your computer will download a VC file full of your selected contacts
  4. Connect your new Android phone to your computer, copy the VC file to its Storage and retrieve your contacts from Contacts or People

Using ‘My Contacts Backup’ app to transfer your contacts

  1. Using your iPhone, download and launch the app ‘My Contacts Backup’
  2. The app will want to access your contacts, tap OK
  3. Tap Backup
  4. Tap email, attach the VC file to an email and send it to your Gmail
  5. Open the email on your new Android phone, download the VC file and import your contacts

The VC file allows you to select specific contacts to import, or to add your address book by tabbing Add All X Contacts.

Use Gmail to transfer your contacts

Using Google, you can transfer your contacts via Gmail by following these steps:

  1. Go to iCloud.com on your computer
  2. Select the Contacts that you want to extract from your iPhone
  3. Click on the gear button (lower left) and Select All
  4. Click on the gear button again then select Export vCard. Your computer will download a VC file full of your selected contacts
  5. Connect your new Android phone to your computer
  6. Log in to your Google Account on your computer
  7. Click on the Gmail button to the top left of your dashboard
  8. Select Contacts
  9. Click on the More dropdown menu in Contacts
  10. Select Import
  11. Click on Import again, and your contacts will sync to your new Android phone

Use iTunes to transfer your contacts

If you want to extract your contacts from an old iPhone iOS 4.x or an even older version, then:

  1. Download and launch iTunes on it
  2. Connect your old iPhone to your computer
  3. Open its Summary Page
  4. Click on the Info tab
  5. Click on Sync Contacts With
  6. Select Google Contacts
  7. Type your Google Account’s username and password
  8. Click on Apply
  9. Connect your new Android phone to your computer
  10. Google Contacts will sync your contacts to your new Android phone

Hopefully, this guide helped make the whole process a little easier.  We regularly share tips, tricks and guides on all things tech on our blog. If we’ve missed anything, you can always drop us an email and we’ll look into it for you.