How to transfer contacts and other data from an iPhone to an Android smartphone?

Update 07/09/2021 – In order to make the transition from iPhone to Android smartphone easier, here are six steps to transfer your contacts, calendars, memos, photos, videos, music and SMS.

Step 1: the Google account

On your Android smartphone, go to the Settings> Google> Add account> Google. If you don’t have a Google Account yet, you can create one at this step.

Then all you have to do is follow the on-screen instructions to link your Google account with your new smartphone.

Step 2: contacts

Connect your iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes. Click on the name of your iPhone, then go to the “Info“. Check” Synchronize contacts from address book “and then” synchronize contacts with Google contacts “. Click” Configure “and enter the same information that you had entered a few minutes before on your Android terminal. Apply “for the iPhone to sync.

It is also possible to use a browser for this operation. Go to iCloud.com then export your contacts in Vcard format. You can then import them into your Google contacts through your browser on the Gmail site, “contacts” section.

Step 3: schedule and notes

On your iPhone go to Settings> Mail, Contacts, Calendar. If the Google account you use with Android does not appear, add it (“Add an account”> Gmail). Return to the email settings, select the Gmail account and activate calendar and notes synchronization. After a few minutes your calendar will be transferred to your Android smartphone. The notes will be sent to your Gmail account and available under the “Notes” label.

Again it is also possible to export an iCloud calendar in ics format. The trick is to share the calendar and replace webcal with http in the share link to trigger the download. The import can then be done via the browser on the Google account in the Calendar section in the settings.

Step 4: photos and videos

– Windows 7, 8 or 10: connect your iPhone to your computer. Click on “my computer” or open the explorer to reach “This PC”, right click on your iPhone, then click on “explore”. Now drag & drop all photos and videos to a new folder on your desktop.

– Mac: Connect your iPhone to your Mac and open the application named “Image transfer”. Create a new folder on your desktop and drop all your photos and videos there.

Now, whether on Mac or Windows, connect your Android smartphone to your computer in “disk drive” mode, and find the folder dedicated to the images. There is one called “DCIM”, but you can create your own if you want. Then drag and drop the photos from the desktop to the Android pictures folder.

Step 5: the music

Keep your smartphone connected. Simply drag and drop your music files from your computer to your Android smartphone (the “disc player” mode should always be enabled). The logic is the same as for transferring photos and videos. If you are a streaming fan, things will be easier since your playlists will usually be saved in the cloud of your favorite platform. On the other hand, if you have downloaded albums so that they are available offline, you will have to re-download them one by one.

Step 6: SMS and Voicemail

Here we come to the bad news since there is no easy way to transfer your SMS and voicemail messages from your computer to your Android smartphone. The easiest and fastest way is to send the most important messages to your email address. To do this, go to your messages on your iPhone, select the conversation, do “Edit”, select the messages you want to send and do “Forward” specifying the email address.

If the number of SMS to transfer is too large and / or you want to save all the messages and restore them to your new device, you will need to retrieve the list of SMS in the iTunes backup folder (see the tutorial) . Once recovered, copy the file to the memory of your Android smartphone. Two applications to use together will then allow you to convert and import these files: iSMS2droid and SMS Backup & Restore (free on Google Play).

Step 7: Third Party Apps and Services

So there are only third-party services left. It is impossible to give an answer that will apply in all situations, however there are some general tips depending on the type of third-party service. So, for social networks, you won’t have to do anything other than log into your account and the same goes for just about any service.

For third-party email services, it varies. Note that on WhatsApp, the transfer is not done automatically. You will have to remember to activate the archiving of messages to retrieve them on your new phone. It happens in “Settings> Discussions> Save discussions”. The first time you connect to the service on your new phone, you will be prompted to download them.

For games, this will be done on a case-by-case basis, depending on the services offered by the game publisher. If the game does not require an internet connection or that it does not connect to a third party platform (such as Candy Crush with Facebook for example), you will probably lose your high scores or your advance.

Note that if you have purchased applications on the App Store, you would have to buy them back on Android to benefit from them, because these are different stores.

Bonus: native apps

If this guide is still current, and works with all Android phones on the market, more and more smartphone manufacturers now offer turnkey solutions directly integrated into the smartphone (but not found on the Play Store) to operate data transfer. This is particularly the case of Samsung, Google or Asus, which allow a transfer from iCloud and thus easily recover most of the content from the first start of the device.