Moving phone numbers between SIM and Phone

[EWY]

I like to keep my phone numbers on the SIM cards as I swap SIM cards when I travel but I could not figure out how to move my contacts to my SIM card.

I got a new Micro SIM from AT&T so the SIM is more of less blank. I copied my phone numbers on my SIM card from my old phone and emailed to myself in a vcf file. Open the vcf file in the new N4 and all my contacts are transferred.

The issue is that I do not know how to copy the phone numbers on my N4 to the SIM card. I look everywhere and still could not figure how to copy phone numbers back and forth between phone and SIM card. I have ordered a Micro SIM card converter so I could pop my Micro SIM into my old phone and transfer the numbers to the new SIM but this would only be a work around.

There got to be an easy way to move phone numbers between phone and SIM. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[N4Newbie]

I searched the play store for "export to sim" and found numerous free apps. At the top of the list was SIM Manger by Robotobia which specifically lists "Copy Phone Contacts to SIM Card." as one of its functions.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Is there any reason you haven't put your contacts into Google/Gmail?

I never have to worry about transferring contacts from SIM to SIM or device to device. I can access my contacts from my phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. All I have to do is sign in to my Gmail account.

Copying contacts to SIM cards is obsolete and don't hold near as much contact info as the cloud. The only use case I can see for it is if you temporarily use a "dumb" phone that doesn't run Android.

Nonetheless, there are apps that will transfer contacts. Stock Android even has the feature built-in to import and export contacts.

Good luck.

 

[N4Newbie]

Is there any reason you haven't put your contacts into Google/Gmail?

I never have to worry about transferring contacts from SIM to SIM or device to device. I can access my contacts from my phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop. All I have to do is sign in to my Gmail account.

Copying contacts to SIM cards is obsolete and don't hold near as much contact info as the cloud. The only use case I can see for it is if you temporarily use a "dumb" phone that doesn't run Android.

Nonetheless, there are apps that will transfer contacts. Stock Android even has the feature built-in to import and export contacts.

Good luck.

I agree with your comments concerning moving contacts to GMail although I can see there may be times when this may not work.

As to "Stock Android even has the feature built-in to import and export contacts." I have to say, I don't think so. Import from SIM, yes. But export to SIM? If it exists, it is very well hidden.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

I agree with your comments concerning moving contacts to GMail although I can see there may be times when this may not work.

As to "Stock Android even has the feature built-in to import and export contacts." I have to say, I don't think so. Import from SIM, yes. But export to SIM? If it exists, it is very well hidden.

You're right. There's no way to export TO a SIM card with the stock People app. You can export to, and import from storage (.vcf vCard), but then you'll need a 3rd-party app to import the vCard info into a new SIM.

I guess Google figured that getting the contacts off of a SIM card and into the cloud was more important than getting the contacts from the cloud onto a SIM card.

 

[N4Newbie]

I actually thought I was onto something when I dialed *#*#4636#*#* selected "Phone information" -> Menu -> View SIM address book.

Once there, you might be led to believe that you can "Select contacts to import" or even Menu -> Import All. But you would be wrong as the reference is to import contacts FROM the SIM card TO the phone, not the other way around.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

I actually thought I was onto something when I dialed *#*#4636#*#* selected "Phone information" -> Menu -> View SIM address book.

Once there, you might be led to believe that you can "Select contacts to import" or even Menu -> Import All. But you would be wrong as the reference is to import contacts FROM the SIM card TO the phone, not the other way around.

Yeah, SIM cards are great for carrier account management, but not so much for contact management, in my opinion.

Hopefully, the OP got what he needed.

 

[EWY]

Thanks for all the replies. I was frustrated that I could not move the phone numbers back and forth between phone and SIM. I thought the problem was with me.

I need to move phone numbers and not so much contact information. I am aware of that the SIM only store limited information.

I travel more than one country at a time and I carry 2 phones at a minimum. I also have a few local SIM cards so I do not have to pay international roaming charges. I store the phone numbers on the SIM cards because I need to call the same persons in different countries. The access code or IDD calling might be different for the same phone numbers. Storing all this different numbers for the same persons on the contact list makes the contact list huge and difficult to manage.

Normally, I would place the local SIM into my latest phone and only show the numbers on that SIM on the phone. My home SIM would be moved to another phone that is why I like to have the phone numbers on the SIM. I do this to ensure I would not miss any important calls from home. While I avoid calling from this home SIM, I would like to have this option if I needed it.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Sounds like you need something like this:

IntlPrefix: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...s?id=com.boogersoft.intlprefix&token=nZhXmOIu

You can still swap SIMs so that you get the benefits of local rates, but instead of worrying about which contacts are on a given SIM card, put the contacts in the cloud and store their numbers with the + code.

This app will then automatically replace the code with the appropriate prefix for dialing from whatever country you happen to be calling from. This way, you can centrally manage your contacts, have FULL contact information, and still take advantage of SIM-swapping. You may even be able to get down to one phone.

I'm sure there are other solutions available as well, if you're open to a little change in the way you do things.

 

[EWY]

Thanks for the tip. I?ll download this and try it out.

I wish I could just carry one phone. I need both the local and home SIM active.

One way is to get one of those dual SIM card adaptors and cut down the SIM cards to Nano size and place both on a Standard SIM sized holder. Since the N4 uses Micro SIM, this would not work. I could get a dual SIM phone but most of these if not all are low end phones which I do not like.

 

[treebark1267]

I know I'm late to this forum what I wanted to let you know I was in T Mobile T other day and they cut my card in such a way from an old 3G phone to a 4G phone for micro sim and the way they did it you can use a micro sim 4 G and it 3G full size card in the same phone when they cut the card from the 3G it slips inside of the old paper housing so you can actually use a micro sim and a full size 3G sim in the same dual SIM phone umm the same way you use a micro SD card for memory inside of a little adapter that makes it larger for your computer slot I hope this helps

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

I 100% concur with Insp_Gadget. There is no reason that putting your contact data into Gmail would not be a ridiculously superior option to keeping everything on a SIM card.

 

[Alan Coles1]

I agree with your comments concerning moving contacts to GMail although I can see there may be times when this may not work.

As to "Stock Android even has the feature built-in to import and export contacts." I have to say, I don't think so. Import from SIM, yes. But export to SIM? If it exists, it is very well hidden.