Moving from Android to iOS

How to make the move from an Android to an iOS device

If you’re an Android user thinking about switching to iPhone, you may be concerned about the transfer process. The good news is that it couldn’t be more simple. The basic principle is to back up to either the cloud or a desktop machine, and then sync to iPhone. So let’s get into it.

Transfer contacts: use Google the simple way

There are two ways of transferring contacts from Android to iOS. We’ll outline them both below, but if you have been using your Android phone for any length of time we strongly suggest you try them in the order we have written them.

If you have been using your Android phone and Google account (Gmail, Google Play, and so on) for any length of time the chances are that all of your contacts will be associated with your Google account. At the very least the ones you use most often should be.

So make sure you have backed up your Android phone. Go to Settings on your Android phone and choose Accounts and Sync or similar. Enter your Gmail account details and enable synchronisation. Your phone contacts and Google Contacts should now synchronise.

Next, go to your new iPhone. Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars and add your Gmail account. Make sure Contacts are enabled for the account. You should now find that all of your Google contacts are in your iPhone.

Transfer contacts: go deep with Google

To make sure this process always works in future, consider doing the following, either on your iPhone after you have followed the steps above, or on your Android before you make the move:

Open the Settings application on your iPhone Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars Select Add Account... Select Other Select Add CardDAV Account Fill out your account information as below:

Server: Enter ‘google.com’ User Name: Enter your full Google Account or Google Apps email address. Password: Your Google Account or Google Apps password. (If you’ve enabled two-step verification, you’ll need to generate and enter an application specific password.) Description: Enter a description of the account (such as Personal Contacts). Select Next at the top of your screen. Make sure the ‘Contacts’ option is turned to ON.

After you’ve completed setup, open the Contacts app on your device, and syncing will automatically begin your iPhone and Google. Any time you set up any smartphone Google should hold the key to all of your contacts. Visit our iPhone spotlight for more iPhone tips.

Transfer contacts: just swap SIMS

This works only if your Android phone takes a similar-sized SIM to your iPhone, either a micro- or nano-SIM for later iPhone models. (You can, of course, cut down any SIM to fit, but do this only as a last resort – if you get it wrong the SIM and your contacts are gone for good.)

First, save all contacts on the Android phone to its SIM. Next, insert the SIM into your iPhone, taking care not to mislay the iPhone’s SIM. Finally, go to Settings and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tap Import SIM Contacts. When the operation has finished, you can replace iPhone’s SIM card with the original card.

Transfer apps

There’s no easy way around this. If you have to pay for an app on Google Play, you’ll likely have to pay to buy again on iTunes. That’s the bad news, the good news is that in almost every case the app you like using on Android is available on iTunes, and the login details you use on the one will work on the other. This means that any content or service you purchased through your Android app will likely be accessible on your iPhone. So once you have started using your iPhone, simply sign up for the iTunes App store, and start searching for those apps you love.

Transfer photos and videos

The simplest method is to use a computer with iTunes. You need only to find the photos and videos on your Android phone, move them to your computer, sync them to iTunes, and then sync

your new iPhone with iTunes. Simply connect your Android phone to your PC or Mac. Choose the photos and videos you want to move, and drag them to a folder on your computer. For simplicity I would create a new folder on the Desktop called... ‘Photos for transfer’. Now plug in your iPhone to your PC or Mac, open iTunes, and click your iPhone. Click Photos, select the ‘Sync Photos from’ checkbox, and choose the folder into which you saved your photos. Click Apply and the photos will sync to your iPhone.

Transfer music

The principle here is similar to that of transferring photos from Android to iPhone. You need to get music files from your Android and on to your PC or Mac, then get those files into iTunes and sync up your iPhone. It should be very simple to transfer your music. The critical stage here is to back up your Android to a PC or Mac. Because most Android devices can be mounted and used as external storage, this can be as simple as dragging all of your music files from the mounted Android phone’s folder structure, and moving them into the music folder on your PC or Mac.

Now install and open iTunes on your computer. Go to Library, and click Music. Open the folder into which you put your music files, and drag them to the Music view in iTunes.

Now hook up your iPhone, click iPhone, and then click Music. You can choose to sync your entire library, or select only the songs or artists you just added. Then click Sync and the songs will be added to your iPhone.