Help Transferring contacts from old phone

[tsynr]

T-Mobile recently sent me a free Samsung Galaxy Light because they were switching to lte in my area, and my 4G LG MyTouch was going to be obsolete. So I follow the instructions, put in the new tiny SIM card, charge it up, boot it, and proceed to log in to my Google accounts. Everything runs pretty quickly, and before I know it my new phone is downloading all of my apps (awesome!)

Only one problem, I can't transfer my contacts. The sim cards are different sizes so I can't transfer them that way. I've tried syncing contacts, but for some reason Google decides to put all of my G+ circled people in my contacts (which is less than useless, b/c I'll have to delete them now), but doesn't sync any of the contacts that I've added to my LG phone. I could manually re-enter all of my contacts...but ugh.

Another snag is that I have to have Wifi calling active to send or receive calls or texts, and T-Mobile's solutions involve texting me information. Wifi calling no longer works on my LG phone. Oddly enough, my data and internet works fine without Wifi calling.

Do I need to download some Samsung software, and use a USB to store my info on a friend's computer or something? Is there a way to do it without involving another computer? The nearest T-Mobile store is 3 hours away, so that's hopefully not the only other solution.

Thanks in advance!

 

[girolez]

Hi and welcome to the android forums

Google can't sync contacts which are stored on a sim card or phone, only those which are stored as "google contacts". These days its not normal to keep contacts on sim cards - that was the way before smart phones.

If you open contacts on your old phone. You should in the contacts app have a menu>settings>merge with google command or something similar. Do this to copy the contacts from your old sim to your google account and then re sync the phone with your google account over wifi. The contacts should then be synced with your new phone (which I assume has the same google account on it). It may take a few minutes.

I assume you needed to use wifi calling because you are too far away from a cell tower. If it now doesn't work on your old phone its probably that your carrier has disabled the account for the old sim. That should not stop you doing what I suggested above.

You dont need to delete the circle contacts (as they will just appear again!) but you should have a setting in contacts allowing you to choose which contacts show in the app. Just untick the g+ contacts.

Hope this helps

Roger

 

[tsynr]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I see how to disable the G+ contacts from showing up now, thank you for that.

My LG phone only has export to SIM or USIM, or sync with MobileLife Contacts. My Samsung does have a 'merge with Google' option, but the Samsung phone doesn't have MobileLife Contacts and there doesn't seem to be anything in the app store, either. There's some sort of MobileLife widget but it is just a news feed.

I've also noticed that my new phone has no phone number, how do I register the new SIM to my phone number?

Sorry to be all over the place, this is frustrating me.

 

[tsynr]

I finally got someone from T Mobile and I used the SD card to transfer the contacts, and apparently the SIM card wasn't activated which explains my other problem.

Thanks again for you help!

 

[Planterz]

Cool of them to just send you a free phone out of the blue. And it's great that you're getting LTE. T-Mobile has really been turning things around the past year or so, and not just with their plans and services. Speeds and coverage go from suck to amazing everywhere they reframe for LTE.

I'm a bit late with advice, but you can actually trim down the larger SIM into a micro SIM, then use an adapter ($2 for a pack off eBay) to fit your older phone. That way you can simply swap SIM cards from phone to phone.

 

[tsynr]

I saw online while searching for solutions that the SIM cards could be trimmed, but I didn't feel comfortable trying it. Maybe it's easier than it seems to make it the right size.

I had a choice of two phones. The Samsung Galaxy Light, or an Alcatel. The Alcatel was going to be $50/phone, and they were pushing hard for me to get that one, but I insisted on the Samsung, which was on backorder, and took a few weeks. I had to pay shipping and tax which came to about $8.00 for both phones. I agree, it's a pretty good deal, and softened me up a bit towards T-Mobile. I had been just about ready to tell them where to go.

 

[Planterz]

I saw online while searching for solutions that the SIM cards could be trimmed, but I didn't feel comfortable trying it. Maybe it's easier than it seems to make it the right size.

It's a bit of a pain if you don't have the punch tool. When I switched to T-Mobile, I was borrowing someone's old phone, so I had a full sized SIM, then I got my Galaxy Light, which needed the micro SIM. I used my old Verizon micro SIM as a template, scored the outline with a sharp blade, then trimmed it with scissors, and fine fit it with a nail file. Of course, I could have just gone to the T-Mo store and had them do it (10 minutes by bike, not 3 hours by car), but I just did it myself.

I had a choice of two phones. The Samsung Galaxy Light, or an Alcatel. The Alcatel was going to be $50/phone, and they were pushing hard for me to get that one, but I insisted on the Samsung, which was on backorder, and took a few weeks.

You definitely made the better choice. I'm guessing it was the One Touch Fierce, and that phone is pretty lousy. In fact, it's not even an LTE phone (not even 42.2Mb/s HSPA), so that's a bit of a headscratcher that they'd offer that.

 

[km2002]

Your GL downloaded all of your apps? Lucky dog. Mine hasn't begun to do so; and I've had it since Thursday.