How to transfer contacts and photos from an Android phone to Apple iPhone

While switching over from one mobile platform to another, one thing that concerns user is transferring the important files from the old phone to the new device. Porting files from Android to iPhone thankfully is not that hard and with Apple’s ‘Move to iOS’ app it has become all the more easier.

Move to iOS is the first Android app from Apple that allows users to transfer files from their Android phone to the new iPhone over a Wi-Fi connection. With the app, you can wirelessly transfer contacts, photos, videos, web-bookmarks etc. Understandably, the Move to iOS app doesn’t transfer apps from Android to iOS as most of them may not be compatible. Also, transferring the files using the app may not seem like a walk in the park for everybody.

Besides sharing files through this app, there are a few other methods available that can help you get the job done. In case you are trying to transfer your important contacts from the old Android phone to the new iPhone you can follow these two simple methods –

Save a local copy of your contact list

First up, export all the contacts to your phone’s internal memory or microSD card and save it in a CSV (command separated values) or VCF (vCard files) format. Following this, you can transfer the contact list to a laptop via the phone cable or mail as well. Your contacts can then be imported to iCloud or Google.

You can export the contact files to .vcf file by selecting the Settings button in the ‘Contacts’ option

Syncing contacts with Gmail

If you have long been using an Android phone you must be aware of syncing contacts with Google account. But in case you haven’t tapped on the sync button, do it before the contact list vanishes in the wind.

For syncing contact, make sure that you have signed in to the primary Gmail account that you often use to avoid confusion later. After signing to your Google account, follow these steps:

1. Tap on the Android phone settings and select ‘Users & accounts’ option
2. Following this select ‘Automatically sync data’
3. The contact list will then be synced

Once the contacts are synced, open your new iPhone, open the Settings app, scroll down and tap Accounts and Passwords, and add your Gmail account. Ensure your contacts are enabled for the account.

In case you want to export the contact files to your other Gmail account and then transfer it to the iPhone, here is how you can do it. First, open your Google account on your Android phone and then follow these simple steps:

1. Tap on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) on the left side
2. Scroll down and select ‘Contacts’ option
3. Under the ‘Contacts’ option, you will see ‘Settings’
4. Click the Settings button and it will show you the export option
5. Tap the Gmail account (the other account added in your Google list) in which you want to export the files, tick the box
6. Then tap on the ‘Export to .VCF file’ and it will export the files to the respective account

If this doesn’t help, upload your local copy of contact list into contacts.google.com, search for the import button and follow the instructions.

You can simply migrate your contacts list by syncing contacts with Google account

Photos are other most precious files that we never want to lose, and similar to transferring contacts, sharing image files from Android to iOS platform is simple as well. In case you are looking to transfer photos, here are a few methods you can try-

Traditional method (Drag and Drop)

The easiest way to transfer your image files is to drag and drop photos from Android image folder to iPhone’s default image directory. For this, connect your iPhone and Android phone to a Windows PC and check if the individual device drivers are installed for the PC to detect. After this, follow the steps to drag and drop the files:

1. Open Computer on your PC
2. You will see two new drives under Portable devices
3. Open the iPhone storage and Android storage in two separate window
4. On the window with Android phone’s storage search for DCIM folder.
5. You will see photos inside the folder, select the ones you want to transfer and copy them
6. Open the iPhone storage window and paste it in the required folder

Alternately you can use third-party apps that are compatible with both Android and iOS platform to transfer images and videos.