How to transfer contacts to a new Android phone

Congratulations on your new phone purchase! Doesn’t matter if you bought a top Android phone or something in the mid-range, you need to know how to migrate all your data from your old phone to the new phone. If you’re wondering how to do that, here’s how to transfer contacts from an old Android phone to a new Android phone.

How to transfer contacts to a new Android phone

Most Android phones ship with Google apps and services pre-installed, and that makes it very easy and seamless to transfer contacts. All you have to do is ensure that your Google account is set to sync contacts on the old phone and then use the same Google account on the new phone.

The same steps are applicable to practically all Android phones, irrespective of the manufacturer, the Android version, or the contacts app on the phone. There may be some variations in the option names (like “Accounts” could be called “Accounts and backup”), but the idea remains the same.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

• On your old phone, go to Settings > Accounts > Manage accounts.
• Select your Google account here. If you have only one Google account set up, it will be selected by default. If you have multiple Google accounts on your phone, select the primary account that you want the contacts to be saved in. Note that you will need to use the same primary Google account on your new phone.
• Select Sync account.
• Here, ensure that the Contacts option is enabled and that it was recently synced.
• If the sync is over a day old, click the three-dot menu button on the top right corner and select Sync now. This will ensure that your contacts are backed up online to your Google account.

• Optional but recommended: Verify your contacts at contacts.google.com. You will find that all your contacts have been uploaded.
• On your new phone, you need to sign into the same primary Google account.
  • Most phones will prompt you to sign into a Google account during setup.
  • If not, you can add a Google account post-setup by going to Settings > Accounts > Add account > Google.
• Once your Google account is signed in on your new phone, it will automatically sync your contacts to your new phone in a few minutes.
  • You can check if contact sync is enabled by going to Settings > Accounts > Manage accounts, selecting your primary Google account, and enabling the Contacts option. The sync date should be very recent.

And that’s it. You can now open the Contacts app to verify that your contacts have been carried over.

The steps may look complicated, but the process is very straightforward. Once you have the settings in place, you don’t have to worry about losing any contacts anymore, even if your phone gets stolen or misplaced.

How to manually transfer contacts to a new Android phone

While the method above is very seamless and effective, you can never be too careful. You can take a manual backup of your contacts to be doubly sure that nothing is lost and that all your contacts are transferred to your new Android phone. This method is also helpful for historical archival purposes and also helps if you want to transfer the contacts to other services.

Follow these steps to generate a vCard file (vcf) of your contacts on your old phone:

Exporting contacts from a Samsung phone:

• Open the Contacts app on your old phone.
• Click on the three-dot menu button in the top right corner.
• Click Manage contacts > Export contacts.
• Now, you can select which contacts to export (you can select the All contacts option) and where you’d like to export the contacts to (you can choose Internal storage).
• Click Export.
• Your contacts have now been successfully exported to a Contacts.vcf file on your internal storage.

Exporting contacts from a Google Pixel phone or a OnePlus phone:

• Open the Contacts app on your old phone.
• Click on Fix & Manage > Export to file.
• Here you can choose where you want to save the file and what you want to name it.
• Click Save.
• Your contacts have been successfully exported.

Once you have a vCard file (vcf) generated, you need to transfer it to your new Android phone. You can save the file online on services like Google Drive, use Nearby Share, or any other method like emailing the file to yourself.

Once you have the file on your new phone, you need to import it.

Importing contacts to a Samsung phone:

• Open the Contacts app on your new phone.
• Click on the three-dot menu button in the top right corner.
• Click Manage contacts > Import contacts.
• Locate and select the vCard file.
• Select where you want to import the contacts to. We recommend importing them to your primary Google/Gmail account as it will then automatically sync your contacts, and you wouldn’t have to worry about them the next time you move from an Android phone to an Android phone.
• Select Import.

Importing contacts to a Google Pixel phone or a OnePlus phone:

• Open the Contacts app on your new phone.
• Click on Fix & Manage > Import from file.
• Choose where to save your imported contacts. We recommend importing them to your primary Google/Gmail account as it will then automatically sync your contacts, and you wouldn’t have to worry about them the next time you move from an Android phone to an Android phone.
• Locate and select the vCard file.
• The phone will begin importing contacts, and the process will be complete within a few seconds.

Can you transfer contacts between Android and iPhone?

Yes, you can. Here’s how you can move contacts from iPhone to Android, and here’s how you can move contacts from Android to iPhone.

FAQs