Monday, October 21, 2013

How to Back Up Your iPhone Contacts



For many of us, our contacts list are the most important part of our iPhones and what we care most about backing up. It’s easy to re-download apps and adjust settings, but it can be very difficult to rebuild a large contact list of names, email addresses, and phone numbers if you lose it. For that reason you may want to be sure the address book is being backed up so that all of your contacts are preserved in case you need to restore them, here is how to do this.

Back Up iPhone Contacts With iTunes
iTunes will backup the contacts from an iPhone by default unless you have disabled it, you can make sure this happens by doing the following:
  1. Connect the iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes
  2. Select the device from the left-side list, and click on the “Info” tab
  3. Verify that “Sync Contacts” is checked
  4. Adjust any specific settings as necessary
  5. Right-click on the iPhone name in the device list and choose “Back Up”
The final step performs a manual backup with iTunes and stores that backup on the local computer. 

Backing Up Contacts with iCloud
If you use iCloud as your backup solution, and you really should, contacts will be synced and backed up to iCloud automatically. This is turned on when using iCloud by default, but you can verify it is configured and then force a backup by doing the following:
  1. Launch “Settings” and tap on “iCloud”
  2. Verify the iCloud account is set up and that “Contacts” is turned ON
  1. Scroll down and tap on “Storage & Backup”
  2. Tap “Back Up Now”
This initiates a manual backup to iCloud which contains contacts and all other data you have configured. This is often considered preferable to using iTunes backups alone because anything stored within iCloud can be backed up from virtually anywhere that has internet access and without using a computer.
Remember that if you just want to share a contact with someone else, you can send contacts from iPhone to other devices in the form of a vCard very easily. 

Article Credit: www.osxdaily.com

Backup Contacts Using Itunes

Backup iphone Contacts To Gmail

Transferring iPhone Contacts To Android



The iPhone line of smartphones designed and distributed by Apple has become one of the most widely purchased smartphones in the World. But with the introduction of Google’s free mobile operating system named ‘Android’, smartphone manufacturers started coming up with Android smartphones which adversely affected iPhone sales. The user interface and simplicity are the specialty of iPhone. However, the android User interface gained more prominence.

iPhone users may find it difficult to transfer the contacts in their iPhone to a Android phone. To transfer contacts, mails and messages from iPhone to Android, you need to convert these files to format which Android OS is capable of understanding. There is another alternative. This tutorial will be useful in helping you learn how to transfer iPhone contacts to Android using Google Contacts feature.

Syncing contacts to Google Contacts

Syncing iPhone contacts to Google Contacts can be done in two ways, either by using iTunes or via iCloud. But you require a Google account for both, which is free.

Using iTunes to sync to Google Contacts
  • Step 1: Manually backup your iPhone to the PC using iTunes
  • Step 2: Open iTunes
  • Step 3: Plug in the iPhone to the computer using a USB cable
  • Step 4: Select iPhone in iTunes
  • Step 5: Choose to Sync Contacts with Google Contacts under the Info tab. You can select Google Contacts from the dropdown box under Info tab. Now you will be prompted to provide your Gmail ID and password.
  • Step 6: Enter Gmail ID and Password.
  • Step 7: Wait for it to synchronize
  • Step 8: After synchronization, go to Gmail and log in to your account.
  • Step 9: Then select Contacts in Gmail. You will find the iPhone contacts here.
Using iCloud to sync to Google Contacts
You require an iCloud account for this. You should also have a backup in iCloud.
  • Step 1: Go to iCloud.com and log in to your iCloud account
  • Step 2: Go to Contacts. You will see all your iPhone contacts here.
  • Step 3: Press Ctrl + A to select all contacts
  • Step 4: Click on Settings
  • Step 5: Now select Export vCard
  • Step 6: Go to Gmail.com and log in to your account
  • Step 7: Select Import Contacts from the dropdown box beside ‘More’. An alert will appear now prompting you to choose the vCard file.
  • Step 8: Choose the Exported vCard file you exported from iCloud
  • Step 9: Click Import. Now all contacts will appear in Google Contacts
To get rid of duplicate Google Contacts
  • Step 1: In Gmail Contacts, click on ‘More’
  • Step 2: Now click ‘Find and Merge duplicates’. Go through the names in the page that pops up in the screen.
  • Step 3: Select the duplicate contacts
  • Step 4: Click Merge button at the bottom
Syncing Contacts to Android
  • Step 1: Go to Menu and tap Settings in your Android phone
  • Step 2: Now tap Accounts and Sync
  • Step 3: Tap on Add Account and select Google
  • Step 4: Tap Sign In
  • Step 5: Login to the Gmail account you synced your iPhone contacts to. Wait for some time for the Sync options.
  • Step 6: Tap Sync Contacts to check the checkbox
  • Step 7: Tap on Finish. This will Sync your iPhone contacts to your Android phone. Verify this in your Contacts list in the phone.
Conclusion
If you don’t merge duplicate contacts in Google Contacts, you will find a lot of repeated entries after syncing the contacts to your Android phone. You will never lose Contacts even if you lose your android phone or format it because it will be always available in Google Contacts.

  • Step 6: Tap Sync Contacts to check the checkbox
  • Step 7: Tap on Finish. This will Sync your iPhone contacts to your Android phone. Verify this in your Contacts list in the phone.
Conclusion
If you don’t merge duplicate contacts in Google Contacts, you will find a lot of repeated entries after syncing the contacts to your Android phone. You will never lose Contacts even if you lose your android phone or format it because it will be always available in Google Contacts.

Article Credit: www.tutorialspoint.com

How To Transfer And Sync Your iPhone Contacts With Android



When switching from an iPhone to an Android phone, it’s not only a change of brand but also a change of its entire operating system. Switching operating systems may result in file and format incompatibility.

This makes the transfer of private data such as Contacts, Mail and Messages a tricky process as you need to convert the files to a format that the Android operating system can read… or you can use Google Contacts.
There are two ways to sync your contacts with Google Contacts, one with iTunes and the other with the iCloud.

1.1 Using iTunes
If you have a Google account and manually backup your iPhone to your computer using iTunes, here’s an easy way to export your iPhone contacts to your Google account.

First, open iTunes and plug in your iPhone to your computer via USB cable. Select your iPhone in iTunes. Under the ‘Info’ tab, choose to Sync Contacts with Google Contacts.

It will prompt you to enter your Gmail username and password. Wait for it to sync. Once it is done, head to Gmail and log in to your account. Then go to Gmail > Contacts.

You’ll find that your contacts will have been imported to your Google Contacts.

1.2 Using iCloud.com
If you back up your important data on your iPhone to iCloud, go to iCloud.com and login to your iCloud account.

After that, click on Contacts and you will see all of your iPhone contacts which have been backed up in iCloud.

Login to your Gmail and go to Gmail > Contacts.

After that, click on ‘Import Contacts…’ and an alert will be prompted. Choose your exported vCard… file and click Import to import all iPhone contacts to Google Contacts.

2. Merge Duplicate Google Contacts
Once you’ve imported iPhone contacts to Google Contacts, you can get rid of duplicate contacts before restoring your contacts on your phone. It is easier to do this on on your computer than on your smartphone.
A page with the names of duplicated contacts will pop up. After going through the names, select those that have duplicate contacts and click Merge.

3. Restore Contacts on Android
Now that you have succesfully exported and merged duplicates of your iPhone contacts to Google Contacts, you can begin to restore it to your Android phone. On your Android phone go to Menu > Settings > Accounts and Sync. Tap on Add Account and choose Google.

Then, tap on Sign in and key in the Gmail account you used to sync your contacts to.

Wait for a while. When communications to the Google Servers are complete, you will arrive at a page to a page where you’re given options on what you want to sync into your phone. Tick ‘Sync Contacts’ and tap on Finish.

With that, you’re done! To verify that you have successfully transferred all of your contacts into your phone, check your contacts book.

Article Credit: www.hongkiat.com

HOW TO: Backup your contacts from an iPhone to Google



Have you ever wanted to back up your iPhone contacts outside of iTunes?  Popular belief was once you adopted iOS as your platform, your data was forever locked away in the Apple ecosystem.

Since GSM replaced AMPS, and SIM cards were introduced, I have always saved my contacts to the SIM rather than the phone. Even when the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets had the phone as the default, I always used the SIM card as the primary location. That was until I got my first iPhone. iTunes became the new SIM card. However, I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked: “How do I back up my contacts outside of iTunes”.

Full credit to the folk at Apple. iTunes now gives you the option to save your contacts to other places (as well as iTunes of course!)

Following is my simple guide on how to move your contacts from your iPhone, save them to your Google account.

What you need:
  • The current version of iTunes
  • A Google account (I use Google Contacts for the transfer)
  • An empty Google Contacts list (I suggest you create a new Google account if you already have contacts in your Gmail account)
then;
  1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac. iTunes will start and you will see your iPhone on the list.
  2. Select your iPhone
  3. Back up your iPhone (Synchronise). THIS STEP SHOULD BE DONE BEFORE ANY CHANGES ARE MADE TO YOUR iPHONE
  4. Click on the Info tab in iTunes
  5. Sync Address Book Contacts appears – select All Contacts and select Sync Google Contacts
  6. Click Configure – you will be asked to enter your Google / Gmail user name and password.
Your iPhone contacts are now in your Google Contacts .

If you’re moving to an Android device you can also use this process to transfer your contacts.
How to move your contacts onto an Android phone.

  1. On your Android phone, select Menu / Settings/Accounts and Sync
  2. Select Add Account
  3. Select Google, then enter your Gmail account details
  4. This will sync your Gmail account with your Android phone.
  5. Your phone will display a range of options for you to sync.
  6. Select Google Contacts and your phone will sync with your Gmail Contacts (previously loaded from iTunes)
Once your contacts are in Gmail, you can add and delete via your computer, and next time you sync your phone, the contacts on the Android handset will reflect these changes.

Article Credit: www.exchange.telstra.com.au