My contacts were on the iPhone only and not iTunes. We tried transferring contacts to iTunes to then transferring them to Android and it’s not happening! Any easy ways around this?
Hi Kim! Yep, you’re right. Getting contacts and music from your old iPhone to sync with your new Android phone is no easy task.
I’ve already covered how to transfer music on your iPhone to an Android phone right here, but what about your contacts?
The key is to transfer all your iPhone contacts to the Google account you used to set up your Android phone.
Once your contacts are all loaded into your Google account, they’ll sync automatically with your Android handset, and presto! You’re all set.
But when it comes to actually transferring all your iPhone contacts to Google, well … easier said than done.
While you can add a Google account to your iPhone, there’s no option on the iPhone for syncing your iPhone contacts with Google.
And while there is a tool called Google Sync that’ll let you access your Google contacts on your iPhone, it won’t take the contacts that were already on your iPhone and “import” them into your Google account.
Confused yet? I don’t blame you, but stay with me.
An alternative is to export your iPhone contacts to a single file that you can upload to your Google account.
But how, you ask? Let’s get started!
Step 1: Create a backup file of all your iPhone contacts
So, what’s the best way to cram all your iPhone contacts into a single file? Well, there are a couple different ways, starting with…
Use iCloud to sync your iPhone contacts with your Mac or PC
If you’re using Apple’s free iCloud service on your iPhone, you can sync your iPhone contacts with the Mac’s Address Book program or with Microsoft Outlook on a PC. (If you’re not already using iCloud, Apple has a step-by-step setup guide right here.)
To export your iPhone contacts onto an Mac:
- Open the Address Book application, then take a quick look to make sure your contacts are syncing properly with your iPhone.
- Click “All Contacts” under the iCloud heading, then select all your contacts by pressing COMMAND + A on your keyboard.
- At the top of your Mac’s screen, click the File menu, select Export, then select “Export VCard.” Choose a destination on your hard drive (like the Desktop), then click the Save button.
On a PC (the steps may vary depending on the version of Outlook you’re using):
- Open Outlook, click the File menu, then select Open, Import to launch the “Import and Export Wizard.”
- Click the “Export to a file” option, click the Next button, select CSV (short for “comma separated values”), then click the Next button again.
- Select Contacts from the long list of folders that appears, click Next, choose a destination on your hard drive and click Finish.
You can create a backup file for your iPhone contacts using a third-party app, such as My Contacts Backup.
Using a third-party iPhone app
There are a variety of iPhone app store that promise to create a Google-friendly backup file of all your contacts directly on your iPhone.
After doing a little research, I settled on My Contacts Backup, a speedy and free iPhone app that works with up to 500 contacts; after that, you’ll have to pony up $2 for the “pro” version.
Here’s how it works…
- Install the app on your iPhone, tap the big “Backup” button, and the app will create a backup file of each and every contact on your iPhone, including all profile photos, phone numbers, street and e-mail addresses, birthdays, and notes.
- Once the backup is finished, tap the “Email” button to e-mail the backup file (which will arrive in a format called VCF, short for “VCard”) to yourself.
- Next, go to your PC or Mac, open the e-mail mesage you just received, and download that VCF backup file to your desktop.
Step 2: Upload the backup file to Google
Now that you’ve got a backup file of all your iPhone contacts sitting on your desktop, it’s time to import the file into your Google account.
Here’s how:
- Log into your Google account, go to Gmail, click the red “Mail” pull-down menu just below the Google logo, then select Contacts.
- Click the “Import Contacts” link in the left column. A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to choose a contact file to import to your Google account.
- Click the “Choose File” button, select the backup file on your desktop, then click the blue Import button.
- Within a minute or so (depending on how many contacts were on your iPhone), you should see all your iPhone contacts appear in your Google account.
Now, check your new Android phone. You should see all your iPhone contacts pop up in your Android contact list. Whew!
Hope that helps, Kim. Still have questions? Let me know!
Note: In case you’re wondering, no—I didn’t receive any compensation for recommending the My Contacts Backup for iPhone app.