How to move contacts

Kali_Kalika

Sorry if this is the most stupid question ever posted here But I'm really not sure how to do this, I'm also sure its really obvious and I'll feel a complete eejit after wards - but ah well, gotta learn some how some time!

I had a Samsung Galaxy GT - S5830i which was on the O2 network and its being retired due to technical issues (cant read the sim, rest of the phone works perfectly) and I now have a Huawei Ascend Y300 which is on the Meteor network.

I'm trying to get my contacts from the Samsung/o2 phone over to the Huawei/Meteor. And I cannot find in either of them how to copy to sim or anything like that. I've also tried to bluetooth the contacts which isn't seeming to work either. I also placed the o2 sim into the meteor phone and no luck with that either- so I'm a bit lost! Any help appreciated!

gzoladz

Sync them with your google account from your current phone.

Once you get your new phone, sync them back.

Your google account is actually your back up. Not only for contacts but also for mail, calendar, etc

Kali_Kalika

gzoladz wrote: »

Sync them with your google account from your current phone.

Once you get your new phone, sync them back.

Your google account is actually your back up. Not only for contacts but also for mail, calendar, etc

:o Sounds so simple :o But how do I do that, I'm quite lost :o

Idleater

Kali_Kalika wrote: »

:o Sounds so simple :o But how do I do that, I'm quite lost :o

Step 1 get a Google account.
Step 2 log in to it on your phone
Step 3 go to contacts app and select your Google account for each contact

Kali_Kalika

Idleater wrote: »

Step 1 get a Google account.
Step 2 log in to it on your phone
Step 3 go to contacts app and select your Google account for each contact

I have a google account. I signed in on my old phone and selected "synch contacts" - it seemed to do something - then went to the new phone signed in there and its not finding any contacts or anything. Have done this a few times now? Not sure why this isn't working? Gah!

Idleater

Go to desktop view of Gmail and click on contacts (down arrow beside mail)
This is your actual Google contact address book.
If they are not there you need to sync them to there from wherever they currently are.
You can see where they currently are by going to your people app on the phone. The sources are displayed by selecting them - in my case I have multiple sources with numbers indicating how many names come from where Gmail, yahoo etc.

sentient_6

I *think* google will only sync contacts that are on the phone, not the sim, so if they are on the sim, transfer them to the phone first.

Kavrocks

sentient_6 wrote: »

I *think* google will only sync contacts that are on the phone, not the sim, so if they are on the sim, transfer them to the phone first.

Not entirely correct as you can save contacts to the phone without them being synced to Google (used to be the default on quite a few phones, not sure if it still is). Contacts will only be synced to Google if you have saved them to your Google account.

sentient_6

Kavrocks wrote: »

Not entirely correct as you can save contacts to the phone without them being synced to Google (used to be the default on quite a few phones, not sure if it still is). Contacts will only be synced to Google if you have saved them to your Google account.

I meant with the first initial merge. It exports the contacts from the phone not the sim.

Kali_Kalika

Lads lads lads! (ladies! what be you!) I'm even more lost now! Maybe I wasn't clear in what I'm trying to do. I don't have any emails or email contacts to deal with I'm trying to bring all my phone numbers and people saved on the sim and on the phone so it should be able to get them from either. So, nothing to do with emails or anything fancy - just basic sim to sim information passing - how do I do that?!

sentient_6

Kali_Kalika wrote: »

Lads lads lads! (ladies! what be you!) I'm even more lost now! Maybe I wasn't clear in what I'm trying to do. I don't have any emails or email contacts to deal with I'm trying to bring all my phone numbers and people saved on the sim and on the phone so it should be able to get them from either. So, nothing to do with emails or anything fancy - just basic sim to sim information passing - how do I do that?!

You can't without a little gadget that they use in the shops for transferring sim to sim. You should be able to get the contacts on your old phone to merge with your google account. The when you sign into the google account on the new phone they should be there. Is the old phone connected to wifi/3G? Can you access 3G/mobile data if the phone can't read the sim? Can you see the contacts listed if the sim is dodgy?

Kali_Kalika

sentient_6 wrote: »

You can't without a little gadget that they use in the shops for transferring sim to sim. You should be able to get the contacts on your old phone to merge with your google account. The when you sign into the google account on the new phone they should be there. Is the old phone connected to wifi/3G? Can you access 3G/mobile data if the phone can't read the sim? Can you see the contacts listed if the sim is dodgy?

I just cannot seem to make them merge with the google account. The old phone says it has synched to the google account - check over on the new one and it says nothing is there.

Yes - the old phone is connected to wifi.
Yes - I can access wifi (unsure about 3G as I never use it as I'm in the middle of no where) with the sim not being read. All the apps are there and working fine with no issues, its only a sim reading issue it seems.
Yes - I can see the contacts list on the phone even though the sim or its ability to read it (more likely) is wonky/dodgy. The sim worked last night in another borrowed o2 phone so I knew it was a phone issue via that.

sentient_6

See Idleaters post above and check the contacts list in your gmail on your computer/laptop. If they are not listed there then they are not synced.

If they are there then on the new phone check what contacts are set to be displayed(because it can be set to sim only, phone only etc) and also check in settings - accounts - google - <your email> and see if contacts are marked to be synced.

Moonbeam

Log in to gmail
Click on the top left where is says gmail ,click contacts and you can see them all there.
SO then you will know what is sync'd to your google account.

If you are moving your sim any contacts saved there will move too.

Kali_Kalika

Moonbeam wrote: »

Log in to gmail
Click on the top left where is says gmail ,click contacts and you can see them all there.
SO then you will know what is sync'd to your google account.

If you are moving your sim any contacts saved there will move too.

Thanks for that - I THINK I've figured it out now. Its now popping up a message saying "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly" - so seems there's been a problem but no warning of that now, which I'm only getting now. So doesn't seem much I can do till that's resolved. I'll just have to manually put some essentials in tonight until whatever issue its having gets fixed. Thanks for all the help people - seriously confused here tonight!

Kavrocks

Kali_Kalika wrote: »

Its now popping up a message saying "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly" - so seems there's been a problem but no warning of that now, which I'm only getting now. So doesn't seem much I can do till that's resolved.

Unticking and re ticking the checkbox usually solves it and queues up a sync.

You still should check whether your contacts are linked to your Google account via Gmail as pointed out already.

maki

You'll only be able to sync your contacts with Google if the contacts are set up in your phone as Google contacts. Regular phone contacts or SIM contacts won't sync.
To switch them all to Google contacts, go into the contacts app on your phone, find the import/export function, and import the contacts from both SIM and phone. It should ask you for a destination, so you want to choose Google.
After that force a sync again and they should be there.

If all else fails you can export the contacts as a vcf file to the SD card on your phone, transfer the file to your other phone, and import.

Kali_Kalika

There are no email contacts or anything like that. It is only names and numbers on the sim - that's all I want!

I've tried this over and over - when I go into the contacts icon on the old phone where the numbers are, it gives me literally NO options to do anything with the contacts other than give it a picture or edit the info (name,number whatever else) - no options about moving only those two options come up. I cannot find how to get to the sim via this phone either but I know when I was setting it up back when I got it that it gave me the option to have all the info on both the sim and phone and whenever a new contact was added that it would be added to both - as a back up or whatever.

I am still getting the same message last night when I try and sync things - that the service is having issues and that it will be back. I've turned it off and on and all sorts of things to refresh it and it keeps going back to that message when I tap "sync now" - so not sure if all this is even my issue or if there is issues elsewhere - but ultimately as great as all of this help has been - I'm getting no where.

I have also checked into the gmail account and one contact is in there - there are over 150 contacts on the phone/sim so not sure why this one made it and the rest didn't. And despite that one contact being there, when I try and retrieve this on the new phone it says there are no contacts.

maki

Can you take a screenshot perhaps?

There should definitely be a import/export function there somewhere. Don't go into an individual contact, just open the contacts app and find the settings icon (or press the menu button if your phone has one).
If it won't let you import from phone contacts to Google contacts, there should definitely be an option to export to the sd card (assuming there's an sd card inserted). Once exported you can import them on the same phone to your Google account.
That setting is there somewhere, since it's a fundamental part of Android and is on every phone, so you just need to find it.

BionicRasher

Try this - may not be exact as its been a while since I was running Android 2.1

From Contacts screen, Menu, then More, then Import/Export, then Export to SD card.
Connect the phone to the PC and mount the phone's SD card as a removable drive.
Open browser to Gmail, select Contacts then Import. Select the file on the phone's SD card, then Import.
Now all contacts should be in your Gmail on the PC in Google contacts.

or

Go to the contact list. (full list not in to an individual contact)
from the menu button choose Import/Export.
Choose Export to SD Card (remember the name file).
Go to "My files".
Find the file xxxx.vcf file and long push on it.
Choose Share.
Choose Google Mail/Gmail and send it to your own email address.
On your PC open your email in Gmail find the attachment and choose "import to contacts"
Google will now guide you trough the merging process.

Nolimits

tui0hcg wrote: »

Try this - may not be exact as its been a while since I was running Android 2.1

From Contacts screen, Menu, then More, then Import/Export, then Export to SD card.
Connect the phone to the PC and mount the phone's SD card as a removable drive.
Open browser to Gmail, select Contacts then Import. Select the file on the phone's SD card, then Import.
Now all contacts should be in your Gmail on the PC in Google contacts.

or

Go to the contact list. (full list not in to an individual contact)
from the menu button choose Import/Export.
Choose Export to SD Card (remember the name file).
Go to "My files".
Find the file xxxx.vcf file and long push on it.
Choose Share.
Choose Google Mail/Gmail and send it to your own email address.
On your PC open your email in Gmail find the attachment and choose "import to contacts"
Google will now guide you trough the merging process.

Or when you choose export, instead of the sd card export it to your Google account. I suspect you've never done this and that's why you can sync as often as you like and the contacts won't show up.

advertsfox

Lads no need to over complicate this. Just a few steps is needed:

* Export all Contacts to USB / SD Storage
* Delete all Contacts (Select All - Delete)
* Import all Contacts from USB / SD Storage
* Choose Google Account for "Create contact under account"
* If not already done automatically, untick / tick Contacts in Google Account settings to force Sync.

Done!

BionicRasher

advertsfox wrote: »

Lads no need to over complicate this. Just a few steps is needed:

* Export all Contacts to USB / SD Storage
* Delete all Contacts (Select All - Delete)
* Import all Contacts from USB / SD Storage
* Choose Google Account for "Create contact under account"
* If not already done automatically, untick / tick Contacts in Google Account settings to force Sync.

Done!

To me it looks like the sync part is not working so that's why I suggested export to SD and plug in to pc or email the contacts and use the pc to set up the details then log in to the New phone and voila

PrzemoF

Kali_Kalika wrote: »

[..]
I had a Samsung Galaxy GT - S5830i which was on the O2 network and its being retired due to technical issues (cant read the sim[..]

What phone you use to read the contacts/numbers from the sim card?
The old one doesn't work (as per your original post), the new one is probably locked to meteor, so it might not be albe to read the contacts.

Kali_Kalika

I now have some of my contacts - I'm having to do it manually - but slowly I will get all my contacts over. I'm sorry to say little has helped me here - not your fault and I appreciate all who have dropped in to leave some wise advise. But its just not working, I asked a friend who showed me how to do it on his phone, we tried it on mine and even he agreed its not working as it should be (and he used to work for carphone warehouse) - so I've set about sending a contact from the old phone (a samsung galaxy ace) to my laptop - then sending it from the laptop to the new phone. Yes its loads of hassle but its better than no contacts. No one can figure out why its not working - the message about the service having an issue has gone yet there is absolutely no sync happening at all.

Again, thanks to everyone who has dropped by with some help it was very much appreciated!

advertsfox

Kali_Kalika wrote: »

I now have some of my contacts - I'm having to do it manually - but slowly I will get all my contacts over. I'm sorry to say little has helped me here - not your fault and I appreciate all who have dropped in to leave some wise advise. But its just not working, I asked a friend who showed me how to do it on his phone, we tried it on mine and even he agreed its not working as it should be (and he used to work for carphone warehouse) - so I've set about sending a contact from the old phone (a samsung galaxy ace) to my laptop - then sending it from the laptop to the new phone. Yes its loads of hassle but its better than no contacts. No one can figure out why its not working - the message about the service having an issue has gone yet there is absolutely no sync happening at all.

Again, thanks to everyone who has dropped by with some help it was very much appreciated!

No need to do it one by one, when you go to Export All Contacts to SD / USB Storage, there will be one file called Contacts.vcf on the root of your SD storage when connected to your PC or browsing on your phone. Just copy that 1 file from old phone to new and then Import from SD / USB and select said Contacts.vcf file.

Kali_Kalika

advertsfox wrote: »

No need to do it one by one, when you go to Export All Contacts to SD / USB Storage, there will be one file called Contacts.vcf on the root of your SD storage when connected to your PC or browsing on your phone. Just copy that 1 file from old phone to new and then Import from SD / USB and select said Contacts.vcf file.

My friend tried that previously as well and only some of them moved over - that's why I had advised that some are over and the rest I'm doing manually.

I'd rather just get on with it at this point - its taken me 4 days to get this far and my head is beyond wrecked! Another 40 contacts and this will be over. I hate changing phones and the reason I had to was someone dropped my original phone, not enough to truely just break it (that I could have lived with!) but the screen was perfect, all the apps work it just wouldn't read the sim - Gah! So glad this is nearly over! I would have smashed the new one if it hadn't meant this nightmare would all start over again! haha:D

BionicRasher

Make sure you get all the contacts set up in your Google account and any New ones that you set up make sure you are saving them to Google then you won't have any more hassle in switching phones in future as none of the details are stored locally on the phone

Kali_Kalika

In fairness since I am sync-ing these and they are just disappearing I don't think I'll ever trust the google way. I guess sometimes you just can't beat the old fashioned way of doing something. At least doing this manually I know where they are all going - yes it was a pain but having them there is worth it - they are now also backed up onto my laptop so think I'll be relying on that instead of the google nonsense (no offense, I'm sure you all have had great experiences with it but I've had a nightmare!)

Idleater

No offence taken, but in reality you are doing it wrong.

The Internet is possibly not the best medium for you to understand the steps to get your contacts in order, perhaps ask a friend or relative to go through it with you.
Online backup is the most seamless way of transferring the data between devices, especially when you upgrade or get multiple.

Kali_Kalika

Idleater wrote: »

No offence taken, but in reality you are doing it wrong.

The Internet is possibly not the best medium for you to understand the steps to get your contacts in order, perhaps ask a friend or relative to go through it with you.
Online backup is the most seamless way of transferring the data between devices, especially when you upgrade or get multiple.

Some offense taken :P

If you bothered to look back through all that I've said I did say I had a friend, an former employee of carphone warehouse have a look for me - even he was coming up against the same issues. Getting the same error messages and also finding that the contacts are not where he sent them to be.

The internet was helpful to some degree - I read many articles on how to do it (no success) I watched youtube videos (with no success) and even created a thread here on boards (with no success and some abuse :P )

I cannot say that I find online back up to be "the most seamless way of transferring" - I have to say I found it the most headwrecking way of transferring. Yes to you fancy pants kids who can do all kinds of amazing **** I'm sure my caveman approach to this was horrifying - my appologies
And personally I don't trust the internet - I don't really like the idea of all of my contacts being stored online. I don't use my credit card to shop online because I don't like my personal information being out there (there are the likes of paypal and pre-paid credit cards so its unneccessary) so included in that I don't wish anyone on my contacts list to have their information out there either. Yes, roll your eyes :rolleyes: and call me a behind the times caveman savage if you will. But either way - the reason I came here with this question has been resolved - maybe not to your liking - but whatever - my contacts, my problem and I ended up fixing it - so thanks very much Boardsies you kept me inspired to keep trying - and I thank ye for that.