Can I temporarily place my SIM card in someone else's active phone in order to export my contacts?

[DaSAABer]

My Galaxy S4 has a broken screen. I was able to export photos, etc by hooking it up to my PC and unlocking it via keyboard inputs with a USB OTG adapter.

However, I cannot get my contacts off. The version of KIES (3) compatible with my phone can export the contacts as an .spd file...but the older versions of KIES that would allow me to export that .spd file to .vcf or .csv doesn't like the .spd format that KIES 3 generated.

So, all of that out of the way. If my contacts are stored on my SIM card, can I simply plug that SIM card from my busted phone into, say, my father's current phone temporarily, and transfer the contacts off of it? He is a current verizon customer. I no longer am, just switched to Google Fi. My old SIM of course is verizon, just not actve now...but contacts should still be on it I assume. Will I mess his phone up by temporarily putting my SIM in his? If I can do that, it's very easy to transfer the contacts to the new Google phone. I can hook my new Google phone up to his phone that has my old SIM in it, transfer my contacts, and then put his SIM back into his phone and give it back to him. I just want to make sure this won't mess up his phone or his service with Verizon.

Thanks!!
Al

 

[ManiacJoe]

The problem here is that modern smart phones do not store contact info on the SIM card.
The contacts are stored in a database file hidden in a system folder on the internal storage of the phone.

 

[DaSAABer]

Thanks. Am I able to get at this file via my PC when I have the phone connected USB? I am able to browse the phone, get my photos, etc.

Also...what if these are mainly contacts that I did not create on this phone? The majority were transferred from my previous non smartphone at the verizon store back when I purchased the S4. Any chance those would be on the SIM?

I guess my last option would be to hook the phone up to the TV via some methods I have read about. The transfer process to the new google phone requires one to acknowledge the connection on the old phone, and of course I can't respond to that prompt on the phone with the broken screen.

 

[anon(238680)]

Am I able to get at this file via my PC when I have the phone connected USB?

No, they aren't visible to you.

 

[chanchan05]

Next time sync the contacts to Google. That way when you get a new phone, just log into your account and the contacts download immediately.

Also if you are getting another Samsung, apart from the usual, set up SideSync immediately. That way if your screen is broken, you can access your phone still via a PC and cable.

 

[DaSAABer]

Say on the off chance that my contacts actually are on the SIM card...

...is there any harm if I temporarily insert it into my father's phone to check? His is Verizon, and active. Mine was Verizon, but literally transferred to Google Fi yesterday. I can try that, and then put his SIM card back in his phone and not mess it up? Just trying to see if it's worth a shot.

 

[chanchan05]

Normally modern phones aren't even set to display contacts from the SIM.

However once you insert your SIM in another phone, it would be interspersed among the contacts saved into the phone.

 

[L0n3N1nja]

I worked at Verizon for 4 years, I can tell you as fact that there is no contact information on the SIM, it's only used to provide service to your phone.

 

[chanchan05]

I worked at Verizon for 4 years, I can tell you as fact that there is no contact information on the SIM, it's only used to provide service to your phone.

Actually you still can put contacts into SIM and display them if you want to. I still got that option. But obviously the only fields are name and number. If the contact has a picture, then it's not in the SIM because SIM isn't capable of storing a picture.

 

[DaSAABer]

Thanks for all the help guys.

2 more questions:

1) I have the .spd file I generated in KIES 3. I tried to open it in KIES 2 so I can export the contacts as .vcf or .csv...but KIES 2 does not seem to like the .spd format generated by KIES 3. Is there any way I can open this file? Is there some magic combination of 2 different KIES versions I can use? One to generate the .spd from the phone, and the other to open and export contacts from the .spd file? I am still able to connect the phone to KIES and backup contacts off of it...but phone is only compatible with KIES 3.


2)Any chance the verizon store could help me? Again, the phone works, just the screen is totally dead. (But as of the other day, I switched providers)

Thanks!

 

[Rukbat]

There are .spd file readers and converters, but they're for S Notes .spd files. (You can do a Google search for spd file.) I doubt that any of them would do much with that file, and you can't use them to convert the file to a .vcf or .csv file.

If you put your SIM card into your father's phone, first put the phone into airplane mode, so it doesn't sync anything, just in case. (It shouldn't sync anything to or from the SIM card.) Then you should be able to export a .csv file, so you can open it in a text editor (it's just plain text) and delete the lines with your father's contacts, if any show up.

In the future, enter all your contacts as Google account contacts (the dropdown at the top of the new contact screen which, for some reason I've never figured out, defaults to "Device". That way, they're at Google Contacts and any phone with your Google account will sync them up.