Old phone is a Samsung Galaxy S, ostensibly running Froyo. New phone is a Samsung Galaxy 3, ostensibly running Jelly Bean. Carrier is T-Mobile (non-contract).
The new phone’s contact list is populated. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I noticed it wasn’t completely full—several contacts on the old phone did not transfer to the new phone.
I don’t recall exactly how the original transfer was made (it was done in the store and my eyes were all starry with the new phone), so I can’t even begin to tell how things went wrong. The only thing I can think of is when I try and create a new contact I’m asked if I want to store it on the phone, SIM, T-Mobile contacts, or with Google—that it transferred from one of those but not all. The new phone’s SIM is from the old phone, so perhaps those are the only way things got transferred.
Why why why is it so hard to transfer all contacts? I’m sitting in front of thousands of dollars worth of equipment (including my desktop PC) and a tangled knot of cables, but no easy solution. Google is filled with advice that includes using a SIM card (not an option) or trying to sell me an app. Can anyone help? Even a link with an explanation of how to do it would be helpful.
Ah, thanks–that’s why AaronX’s (and lots of things I found on the web) didn’t make sense to me. I’d synched and re-synched but to no avail.
So if they’re stored on the phone, now what? I have both phones here. Can I browze the old phone and copy a folder? Any way to export them/transfer them to Google?
Well I’d search for <phone OS> sync contacts gmail, but there’s a risk of the wrong one overwriting the other one, so I’d back up everything first. I bet there are apps to export contacts to files too, but depending on the file type you may not be able to save all information (especially contact pictures).
I upgraded my phone from a S1 to an S3 this week.
the S1 uses a standard sim card and the S3 has a micro sim card so I had to transfer the phone number over to the new sim. ( this was with Vodafone)
i transfered the contacts and pictures etc over by using Samsung Kies which worked ok for me.
You should be able to transfer the contacts on the old phone to the removable SD card, and then transfer them to the SD card for the new phone.
How memory and files work on Android is shit. It just isn’t as intuitive as it could be. I can back up my contacts to Verizon, or I can back them up to Google, but fuck if I know what the difference is, and the phone isn’t telling me.
Probably easiest to use an app. Contacts Importer says it can back up to the cloud. Theoretically, you should be able to install it on both phones, back up on the old, restore on the new. Never used it myself, but there are others like it if that one doesn’t work.
And from now on, only save things to your Google account, never your phone or SIM. Makes life a lot easier.
If your phone refuses to give you that option, download another dialer/contact app or root your phone and use a custom ROM that lets you.
Also, I don’t know if T-Mobile does this, but IME Verizon will transfer contacts for you if you just walk into a store and ask them for help.
Yup, and Samsung is one of the worst offenders for this. Part of the problem is every manufacturer puts their own “skin” on Android, which includes their own apps for what should be system apps, like the phone dialer, contact list, calendar, clock, etc…
So sometimes, these shitty, non-Google, apps save things locally rather than to your Google account. This is especially true with the calendar app for Samsung. It always wants to default to “My Calendar,” which sounds like it should be right, but that is local only. When making appointments/events/etc…, always make sure it saves to your Google/Gmail account.