How do I move from iPhone to Android?

Moving from iPhone to Android is a brave step: you’re leaving behind the tight-knit Apple ecosystem for more uncertain (but much freer) pastures. As you might expect, the process is a lengthy one, but we’re here to help. Here’s how to move from iPhone to Android.

iPhone to Android: Contacts

You will need to ferry your contacts across the operating system divide. The first step is winkling them out via iCloud. 

1. Sign into iCloud on your computer and click Contacts.
2. Select “All Contacts” in the top-left corner of the screen and then select all of them by pressing Cmd+A/Ctrl+A.
3. While they’re still highlighted, click on the settings cog at the bottom of the window and select “Export vCard”.
4. Name the file (“iPhone contacts”, say) and save it to the desktop. 

Once that’s done, you need to handle the Google side of things.

1. If you don’t have a Google account, create one (if you have Gmail, you already have a Google account).
2. Log into Google Contacts via your desktop browser.
3. On the left-hand side of the page, you’ll see a dropdown menu labelled “More”. Select it and click Import.
4.  In the “Import contact from other accounts” menu that appears, choose the last option (“CSV or vCard file”).
5. Choose the vCard you created earlier. 

And you’re done! Just bear in mind that, if you had contacts in your Google store before the process, they might appear twice. It might sound tedious, but the best solution is to go through and delete the ones you don’t need. 

Once you get your new Android phone, you’ll be given the option to sync with a Google account and the transfer will happen automatically. If you have started using your phone without syncing, it’s just a matter of adding an account via the Accounts section in Settings.

iPhone to Android: Photos

The “old-school” way of moving photos from an iPhone to an Android handset would be to connect the former to a Windows PC and import them, before dragging the files across to your new device.

However, this is 2018 and that is very labour intensive indeed. We would wholeheartedly recommend installing Google Photos on your iPhone and uploading your snaps. It means that, when your Android phone is up and running, you can simply choose to automatically add any new photos to your existing Google archive.

iPhone to Android: Calendar

Moving your calendars across is similarly easy. On your iPhone, head to Settings and tap on “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”. Choose your Google account (add it if it’s not there) and then toggle the switch next to Calendars to “on”. Hey presto, your calendar will be synced across the platforms.

iPhone to Android: Music

Somewhat surprisingly, you can transfer your iTunes music to Google Play Music via Music Manager. Even more surprisingly, it only takes a couple of minutes.

In a desktop browser, go to the Google Play Store and click on Music | My Music in the left-hand menu. You’ll be asked for your Google username and password, if you’re not already logged in.

If you’ve never used Google Play Music before, you’ll be asked to activate it by entering card details. This is normal and you won’t be charged if you’re using the standard plan. 

Once you’re in your library, click on the menu “burger” button in the top-right of the screen and select “Upload music”. You can then either select any songs from your iTunes library that you want to transfer to your Android phone (note that you will need to install the Google Play Music app to do so) or get Google Play Music to automatically sync music that’s on your computer. 

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