Guide: Switching from iPhone to Android

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Make The Switch

Are you an iPhone user, ready to take the plunge into Android, but don't know where to begin? Well, folks, put your minds at ease… we're here to help. Let's take a look at some steps that you will want to know during your transition.

First suggestion: if you're not using Gmail as your default email client… start. This, of course, doesn't go for things like Exchange, but your webmail client should be Gmail. Android phones, by default, require you to either sign in with a Gmail address or set one up on the spot during the initial phone setup. So, as long as you're using their email services, you may as well be familiar with it and plan on utilizing all the dynamic features it offers. The Android OS is made by Google, so it should come as no surprise that they want you to use their email client. Remember, though, your Gmail account will also be synced with other Google services, such as contacts and calendars.

This tutorial will assume a couple of things:

  • You have iTunes installed and synced with your iPhone
  • You're using the computer you sync your iPhone with
  • The computer you are using is running Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7
  • You have your Android phone with a MicroSD card and know how to access the files on it

If these parameters are met, then let's get started.

CONTACTS

Contacts


We'll begin by syncing your iPhone contacts over to Gmail. First off, it will be good for you to know that only the following information will move over:

  • People's names and job titles
  • Company names
  • Email and postal addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • IM names, including the type of service
  • Notes

That being said, the instructions are quite simple. According to Google:

  1. Connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to your computer using the USB cable.
  2. Open the iTunes application.
  3. Select your iPhone and click the Info tab.
  4. Check the Sync Contacts with option and select Google Contacts from the drop-down menu.
  5. Click Configure and enter your Google username and password.
  6. iTunes Contact Migration

This will move all of your iPhone contacts over to your Google account, which will be synced to your new Android device during it's initial setup.

SMS

sms


This is where it gets a little tricky, and also begins to cost a little bit of money. Since Apple isn't big on allowing access to the file structure of the iPhone, we're going to have to rely on some third-party software. First off, download this software (free) and install it onto your PC. Then, click here to open up iTunes and download SMS Export to your iPhone ($4.99) and get it rolling. Make sure to export it in text format.

Once you have the exported text file and your new Android device in hand (already setup), move the file onto the root of the MicroSD card. Now you'll need to download an app from the Android Market, called “SMS Migrator”. it costs about $2.20. Make sure that USB Storage is turned off on the phone (this option will be in the slide down menu from the top of your screen when the phone is plugged into your PC), run SMS Migrator and choose the text file you put on the MicroSD, and let the app do the rest.

EMAIL, EXCHANGE AND CALENDARS

Guide: Switching from iPhone to Android 4


You may have heard it around the rumor mill that Android and Exchange don't get along. While Android may not handle Exchange as well as the iPhone does, it still does a good job. This step is as simple as opening up your email app on your Android phone and setting up your Exchange account. This will sync up your Exchange email, but not your calendar. In order to get that running, you'll need to sync up your Exchange calendar with your Google calendar. Unless you're running HTC Sense, which integrates your Exchange calendar into the phone's calendar, you'll need to install some software on the computer that has your outlook client connected to Exchange. Instructions can be found here (free) or here ($14.99, more features), and make sure you utilize the 2-way sync option.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Because things like photos, music, movies, etc are all stored locally, they're quite simple to move over to your new device. It's as simple as locating them on your computer and moving them over to your Android phone's MicroSD.

THINGS TO GET USED TO

Things To Get Used To


Remember, guys… these types of transition have a learning curve associated. It took me about a week to get used to the fact that my homescreen was more than just shortcuts to apps, and that all that stuff was in the pull up menu. It took me awhile to find widgets I liked and would use to put onto my homescreens. It took me a long time to get used to the slide down notifications menu at the top. The interface is way different, but in my opinion, more intuitive.

Buttons. Oh lord, did I ever have to get used to buttons. The iPhone has two buttons, one of which you only really ever use for lock and power. My Hero has 6, plus a trackball with a clicker. This also took me a long time to get used to, and I honestly never thought I would use them… but I do now, all the time. Your first instinct, when finished with something, will be to hit that all powerful home button… it's a habit you'll have to break. And remember, with Android, apps run in the background, so even when you press the home button, that app you were just in is more than likely still running in the background, taking up memory. You should also look into a task killer, so that you can fully close apps that you know are safe.

Another large difference is manually handling your music. It's really just as simple as moving all of the music you want on your Android device over to a folder on your MicroSD card, and whatever music app (yes, you have choices!) you have will likely just search through your card and display the metadata (Artist, album, song name, etc.), so there's usually not a need to rename that music you may or may not have gotten from a legitimate source. Of course, if you would like auto-sync features for your music, pictures and movies, give doubleTwist a try. For those of you coming from the iPhone, the interface will look very familiar. It looks and functions a lot like iTunes.

Also, all your “app” purchases will now be handled through the Android Market. It comes preinstalled, and is basically the App Store for Android. The checkout process is a little different, in so much as it uses Google's checkout service instead of iTunes account integration.

I hope these guidelines will help any of you heading from Apple's platform to Google's, and make sure that you read this article over carefully before venturing into the world of mobile data migration. Take some time, get to know your phone. Read the manual, check out the settings in the menu, become familiar with what you're jumping into. While it can seem overwhelming at first, just keep in mind that, like most other things, it's not as hard as you think it is once you dive in.

An original article by Dustin Karnes

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  1. This is such a great site keep up the good work.please check out our Free Classifieds site:Real estate, apartments, condo, house rental, room rental, roommates, short term rentals, commercial, office space, storage, parking, houses for sale, condos for sale, land for sale, Cars, Trucks, Vans, Rvs, Parts, Jobs Pets, Livestock, Farmers market, news all at https://topdollarclassifieds.ca/

  2. Try this Android Data Recovery app– iPubsoft Android SMS+Contacts Recovery , it not only can help you restore deleted contacts from android phone, but also to recover
    deleted text messages from android phone, etc.., so powerful, you can have a try.

  3. There are also some third-party tools that allows you move everything (music, videos, texts, contacts, etc.) from an iPhone to an Android and vice versa: https://youtu.be/6xioGjcM0go

    :)

  4. being a total dummy over 50 – i managed to transfer all my contacts & photos – Simples –
    1)download bump on both phones
    2) Ensure your wifi signal is ok
    3)Run bump on both phones
    4) select – all contacts
    5) bump the phones together

    the contacts – like “witchcraft” – jump accross from my iphone which is going in the bin onto my samsung galaxy

    Magic

  5. I just want to have a music app that I don’t have to but music and have no computer so this probably want work for me will it?

  6. My iphone died and i cant restore it at all! my data is backup into my itunes. How can i sync the data in my itunes to gmail without having to connect my iphone? please help!

  7. Easiest way:

    Export your contacts from ur computer/phone as Vcard.

    Email the file to yourself.

    Open it on your new phone.

    There u go.

  8. well guys if you wanna just to transfer your contacts then its really easy .
    just install an application with the name idrive lite in your iphone . you will find it in apple store for free .open the app and then backup your contacts .the app will backup your contact to them server online .
    now install same program in your android phone , you will find the app in android markt . open the program and then click restore contacts from other device .. done ..you have all your contacts

  9. Well I read all of the comments top to bottom, and after trying numerous options suggested without success I used Copytrans and it worked a treat. Reason is I had no sim in my old iPhone as I was up and running on my new Samsung Galaxy SIII. Couldn’t Bluetooth it, couldn’t use bump (however yes this is an awesome program for sure) couldn’t sync with iTunes or iCloud or contacts because I had Windows 2003 version (iCloud is awesome too of course). So thank you to the writer that suggested Copytrans, it was the only options that would work for me, you have saved me tonnes of time. Thank you to all of those that post their ideas in these discussion boards, you really do help everyday people. And well done to those that also manage to do it constructively with a pleasant and helpful intention – good on you!

  10. Another easy solution to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android: CopyTrans Contacts
    I dragged and dropped all my contacts from the iPhone to PC and imported them to my android. :)

    1. This was useful indeed. I don’t think people know exactly what to do when transferring their iphone contacts to android. I first transferred my iphone contacts in vcard form to my computer and then dragged/dropped them to my android as described here:

      https://www.copytrans.net/support/how-to-transfer-contacts-from-iphone-to-android/

      It worked for me as I do not store my address book in my Gmail account.

  11. EASIEST WAY: Sync your contacts with iCloud.
    Visit the cloud, right click in your contact list and ‘select all’.
    Save contacts to vCard. (you can save all of your contacts into 1 vCard… I did 185 contacts on 1 vcard)
    Go to google contacts, upload the vcard file.
    Done.

  12. Very helpful thankyou-

    Itunes free, ipod free, iphone free, ipad free everybody sing with me, omg its an s3.

    1. Is it stupid to switch to an os that let’s you do want you want, when you want, how you want? Oh you’re happy to stick with an os that let’s you do what apple wants you to do, when they want you to do it, and how they want it.

      Switching from iPhone to android gives you options. It’s stupid not to see that reality.

    2. You are shackled by the Apple love machine fool. I have been with Apple since the first Iphone and took the plunge with Android via Samsung G S3, never made a better decision, freedom not chained like a bitch to Apples rules!

    3. coz stupid people like u stick to a shit for ur life and resist to change according to time.
      i know apple is a great phone but its in number 3 in the market 1st is samsung which is android and 2nd is android too. so i dont really know that the fuck u think u r. and its all people choice what they want. if someone ask u then u need to answer other wise shut the **** up

  13. New method : Download iDrive Online on your ios and android device(free app available on both platforms!). With this app, you can backup/restore your contacts, photos and videos from multiple devices.

  14. Awesome…i accidentally.formatted my phone thinking everything had been backed up to my sd card…I was wrong. Cried for a few minutes then googled how to transfer from itunes to android and this helped sooo much! Thank you so much!

  15. Switching to ice cream sandwhich on a MAC was extremely easy. I gave up the iphone 4 for the google nexus and the transition was a dream. The newest version of android makes the transition even easier no more physical buttons is also pretty nice.

  16. What if you already got rid of the IPhone will these methods get all the data from your computer?
    Is there any way to do this from your iTunes backup?

  17. Don’t even bother with this. Easiest way guaranteed is using the bump app. Make sure both devices are connect to wifi or their respected networks in either case both have to be on the same page so either wifi or data and select the contacts you wish to transfer then cheers!

    1.  Totally agree with you John. I am really not sure why people have the need to complicate things when Bump does the job :)
      I just used it to migrate contacts and photos from my iPhone4 to my newly acquired Samsung Galaxy S3 last night and migrating over 500 contacts took about 8 seconds total using Bump. Could not get any easier people

      1. Bump is a good for contact and photos sharing. For SMS messages
        switching, I recommend Backuptrans iPhone SMS to Android Transfer. Works
        really great for my new Galaxy S3.

  18. I have tried this method numerous times (gmail, yahoo, and windows contact) and failed.  Nothing shows up after allowing iTunes to merge info and syncing.   I’ve tried on both PC and Mac platforms too!  I even tried making new email accounts.  No joy.  Here’s how I finally solved my issue.

    On my MAC, I logged into my iCloud account and went into my contacts folder.  There, I selected the setting button (it looks like a gear icon), chose “select all”, then “export vCard”.  I downloaded this to my MAC desktop and then uploaded it back to my Gmail account.  My android phone downloaded the gmail info within seconds!!!

    HTH someone else.

  19. In my IPhone if one contact have multiple phones only two phone numbers sync with gmail contacts.  How can sync all contacts

  20. This is a scam. Just sync contacts with gmail in itunes, then your contacts should show up in gmail. Then on your android phone, sync your gmail account.

      1. It is; however, I had mine not work… I had to login to iCloud and export them as a vCard then login to Google contacts and import the vcard

  21. im switching from an ipod touch 2g with a shatload of videos, tv shows, and apps and want them for android. could you transfer app licenses from ios to android?

  22. Why in the hell would you ever want to do that?  The iphone is superior to the android in every way, plus it’s a lot cooler.

      1. This guide is NOT good Benda, its a complete scam to make people apps they dont need !!! Take your Iphone, plug into itunes, sync contacts to google, take your android device and allow it to sync with your google account and job done !   No cost involved, no apps required

    1. ur worried about looking cool posting under the handle ‘Bilbo Baggins’ lol? My new htc one x craps all over your iPhone, you don’t even have widgets!

  23. I can not get my Gmail account to log off on the aol that comes on the galaxy!help this is my moms phone for work

  24. good article, that saved me a lot of time. I transferred my contacts from the iphone to Outlook first and then to Google Contacts. It worked brilliantly, no need for any outside apps or payment. my phone is a Samusng Galaxy 2 and I searched their site for this info, to no avail. 
    Thanks 

  25. HELP!!
    I am so dead.
    I want to transfer my iPhone contact to google gmail account and transfer back to my new Samsung phone.
    After changing the setting “sync address book contact” ->”sync google contact”, no new contact appear in my new google account and ALL my iPhone contact be ERASED!
    How come?
    Please HELP

    1. Best and easiest way to transfer contacts is idrive app. It’s a free app load to iPhone and android, create an account on iPhone in idrive, backup contacts (took 2 mins). Open app on android restore contacts and hey presto 300 contacts transferred, really simple even for non tech like myself. However, app says it can backup photos and videos but I couldn’t get it to work :-((.

  26. thanks for the guide, it was helpful to back up my contacts to my gmail account independently of switching phones. however, i would love to transfer my sms/texts to my new android phone, or at least save them to my mac computer, but this guide only tells how to do that on a PC. nonetheless, helpful information, thanks!

  27. Switching from iPhone to Android was the best thing i did. So sick and tired of being tied in to Apple. The phones in themselves are pretty crap in comparison to what you can do with the Samsung Galaxy S2. Everything on this phone comes as standard, no need to keep jailbreaking to get any kind of personal things ie live wallpaper, decent sat nav, bluetooth. sorry apple, but you can shove your crappy iphones right up your hole.

    1. im making the switch too i love the galaxy i’m tired of apples bullshit! How did you transfer your notes personal info data over to the droid thought i’d ask 

    1. To bs honest. I found the easiest, cheapest and fasted way to migrate all of my
      contacts for free was to make sure they were all synced up with my Exchange contacts on my laptop… easy to do with your iPhone. You then simply go to
      your Exchange contacts -> export -> export as .csv (Windows)… then login to your gmail account and import the same .csv file. The whole process took me about three minutes. Once your contacts are in gmail they automatically sync up with your phone… as you would expect. You don’t need to ponce around with any software or anything.

      Also… I love the Android because it doesn’t try to autocorrect my messages! That’s a really annoying Apple feature!

      Cheers.

  28. The app listed “SMS Export” does NOT work don’t waste your money. Read the app reviews I’m not the only one with that problem.

  29. Wow, worst advice ever. If I wanted everyone who ever emailed me transitioned over, great. If I wanted actual phone numbers…outta luck. I’d have been better off looking for a quick way to chew my own c*ck off with dentures.

  30. Even with all IT’S ads, Google does do one Hell of a job providing us with some excellent tools such as GOOD sync ( up till google we had only outlook(ms0 and we’d end up with double or even triple contacts ) excellent maps with voice guidance , flashlight, GOOD cameras like 8 me 9 true not pro grade but excellent everyday cameras) PDA, and many other useful everyday needs. I’ve used them for years and was talked into iphone ( i know very weak Bill) and was disgusted at it’s lack of everything . Anyone want to buy an iphone 4 ?? Really , I’m going back to Android and loving it Hope I can hold pout for the Nexus..
    So that said, it used to be a long drawn out process that now is ‘scary’ at being so easy even for the novice !! Enjoy Android stay away form wormy Apples

    1. I agree bf i bought a htc desire 2 years ago and its fantastic, i used an iphone for the first time from a friend of mine recently and i cant believe most iphone users have been puting up with a phone like this. To go into menus for everything,  email a joke no notifaction bar no back button no widgets. Geee talk about life in the slow boreing lane. Yet i see the iphone shops full of mindless idiots who think there iphone is the holy grail. Get out more i say.

  31. I have anroid tablet and an ipod and i want to sync the ipod with the anroid I’ve tried some apps but after spending money on apps and not working I’ve kind of given up. Is there really no way synchronizing them? Would really appreciate any help

  32. wow….just downloaded bump to my iPhone 4 and to my HTC….a few clicks and buttons, not really nowing hiow it all works as I had never used bump before, and all my contacts and notes were copied over….shazam !!!!!

  33. i got to admit I went the wrong way- Android to iphone.What a sucky interface and itunes is the real sucky last straw. BUT in defense of my actions , I am tired of all the advertising shoved down your throat and made UN REMOVABLE by people like Motorola and veriaon.they are pigs and responsible for rendering the android a mere shadow of what it is truly and fully capable of. After all when you place 5 gb of advertising on a device NO AMOUNT OF LIES CAN CONVINCE ANY HALFWIT THAT IT DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY.
    When google takes the action to STOP the verizons of the world from destroying their OS then I will take another look at android but as for now, $130/mo is far too much to pay for an advertising device THAT IS OWNED BY THE CARRIER !! So all you people moving TO android ? Good luck , fools !!
    PS..As soon as you get your device all prettied up and ready to go..UPDATE AND FACTORY RESET TO FIX ALL TEH PROBLEMS..AGAIN, just like windows YOU will spend hours and hours of time working on verizons crapware ads!!) not removable and rooted means NO WARRANTY ???!??!?!??!??!) on an OPEN SOURCE OS ???

  34. Another point, how many add-on apps do we need to buy just to get Android up to what we already expect of iPhone? It won’t sync with exchange properly, we need to get an app killer to reduce memory uasage. Seems a little bit annoying because only then do we have to consider re-buying the apps we had on our iphone before.

  35. Cody makes a good point about apps too. I’ve spent quite a fair whack on dictionaries and games and will have to repurchase if I get Android.

    Ach, the decision is killing me :(

  36. My main concern migrating to Android is Google’s “curiosity!”

    I know why google want me to use their gmail account, because that is then associated with everything I do. It’s taken me long enough to eventually allow apps to know where I am but google will have made very sure that everything I do is tracked through me gmail address. For instance, have you ever stayed signed in and then done a google search? why don’t you do a search for “My google history” and through your sign-in you’ll see that google has aggregated all your search data, down to every image you googled (yeah, scary).

    So, although Apple is controlling and to an extent has visibility of my all important data, it is nowhere as integrated as google and for that sole reason, I’m out. I wish it weren’t so as Android is storming past Apple’s iphone.

  37. Extraordinarily revealing thanks, I reckon your trusty readers would possibly want a whole lot more reviews like this keep up the great work.

  38. Exceedingly educative cheers, It is my opinion your current visitors would probably want a whole lot more writing such as this carry on the great effort.

  39. Outstandingly educational cheers, I believe your followers would probably want a good deal more posts similar to this keep up the excellent effort.

  40. Hello,

    thanks for this excellent guide.

    I would just like to point out a software for mobile phones management called MOBILedit!, which is among other things able to browse, edit, copy, backup and migrate data within connected mobile phones. It is no problem for MOBILedit!, for example, to copy messages, contacts and other data from iPhone to Android or backwards, which basically covers most of the steps described in this guide.

    It is not free, but it is totally worth it.

    I hope you will give it a try – there is a lite version available to see how it works.
    Thanks and good luck!

  41. Hey there! I just got an LG 2x and i’m switching from an iPhone 3G .. Do you have any idea on how i can sync my apps content to the android market apps? (e.g. I know Angry Birds is already in the Android Market, i have completed all the levels and i dont want to re-do them again :( )

  42. Hey, my iPhone was stolen so I can’t sync my itunes anymore or transfer my contacts to GMail. I just bought an HTC Panache. Any suggestions?

  43. For SMS importing, I got SMS Migrator, and when I import the text file that SMS Export game me… it says 0 imported. But when I go to the settings of SMS Migrator, “SMS Export” is NOT listed.

    SMS IMPORTS DO NOT WORK.

  44. Thanks for the info mate. I’m buying an Atrix and my main concern was my contacts. Didn’t know it would be so easy. Thanks again.

  45. Can you provide how to from Mac computer, please? I’m spending enormous amounts of time transitioning from iphone. Samsung Infuse is definitely better than iPhone at this point, but this changeover is forcing me to rethink staying captive to Apple only. Always have been but…

  46. Hey man, thanks for the post

    Just wondering if there is a way to do this (mainly contacts) when you don’t have the iphone anymore (aka the iphone met the toilet and no longer works haha) but i do have the backup still on the computer

  47. How do I transfer my music from iPhone to my google android? Anyway I can save my itune music files outsite of iTune application? I lost the files I had and now have a new computer.

  48. how do you move iphone apps to an acer liquid android when the iphone is fried and inly have itunes to sync with

  49. Thanks heaps for writing this guide. I’m all ready for the big migration to Android now!

  50. Hay. You shouldn’t talk shit about the iPhone. Absolutely EVERYTHING the android has, had came from the iPhone. The whole android idea came from iPhone. The real reason that everybody loves the android os is that because its the new biggest thing and everybody has it. You shouldn’t discredit the iPhone. Its still a great phone an is still competing with android and the apple corporation came out with the iPod in 2009 wich is 2 years before the android came out and I could do everything on my 2g iPod touch. Including call and text without a plan. You can make iPhone open source by jailbreaking. It only takes 45 seconds with greenp0ison and redsn0w. In all. Don’t discredit the iPhone. Please. Ooh and I’m not saying that android is bad either. Please don’t think that.

  51. Great advice on contact synch through Gmail, my contacts ha e z photo attached how would that transfer? How do you transfer txt? How do you transfer notes?

  52. Contacts works great! But the sms transfer is a no go. The windows app dosen
    t find any sms database? Any solution?

  53. i Worked for me like anything,thanks a tn for ur help,i have moved my over 1000 contacts in less then few mins with the help of you and gmail..
    thanks a ton onces again

  54. Hi

    i wanna just say thank you for the help i have just flipped to android too ;) from Mr iphone well its was good but i want try android too

  55. I was able to upload from iTunes to Google, but because I had already done the original set up I can get them out of Google to my Android phone. Some of the phone is not as easy as iPhone :(

  56. You don’t need a task killer. Applications in the background might still be in memory but they won’t use up any extra battery (unless they use a background service like playing music, in other words they were designed specifically to do something in the background).

    When you first turn your phone on a lot of your memory is not being used but it is still using battery to power it, its the same deal here. Recently used applications occupy memory to allow them to return to focus more quickly. If another application needs that memory instead, it gets it. No micromanaging on your part is necessary.

  57. when i setup itunes to sync contacts with gmail i lost all my contacts att my iphone cuz they were replaced with gmail contacts :S what to do?

  58. I went to iTunes, synced my iPhone with my Google account (the same one I set my HTC Thunderbolt up with) and all my contacts were easily brought over to the Thunderbolt. It updated itself automatically. No need to purchase any apps.

  59. I used gmail to sync my contacts to, then my GALAXY phone was able to sync to the gmail contacts. All I had to do was go “accts and sync” and check gmail -sync contacts.

  60. When I picked out the phone at best buy, the guy told me he would transfer all of my contacts from my iphone to my android for free. When I came back to set up the phone I got a different sales person and he never did it. The process took 2 hours so I didn’t even bother to ask. I called and the original sales person said I could come back and bring both phones and he will transfer all of my contacts for free.

  61. I synced iTunes/iPhone with my gmail but only my email addresses appear on gmail account, not my phone numbers.
    The apps I paid for on the advice of the link above only give me the option of moving sms from my phone to PC which serves little to no purpose.
    So I still face the problem of how am I going to move my iPhone contacts to my Android???

  62. I had issues with iTunes sync-ing to any of the available options. Ended up using an app called Bump available on both market places – managed to copy all contacts across at once! :)

  63. I also have Mac OSX. I would really like to find out more about the SMS integration on a Mac…Thanks!

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