Transferring SIM card

[amb389]

Hello everyone, I am new to this forum! I am not very phone smart, so I have a question that may seem pretty basic. My Thunderbolt (verizon) has gone down the crapper pretty quickly in the last couple of months, and I need a new phone to hold me over until I switch plans next year (getting married yay!) I have been looking on Swappa and would like to buy a Samsung Galaxy S3. From what I have read, I understand that my SIM card is too big for the S3, but if I cut down the card, will it work in the new S3 for me? Or, should I look at another phone to hold me over for a year? I appreciate your responses!

 

[SpookDroid]

You should be able to cut it down, no problem. Some carriers will do it for you or you can download a PDF guide and do it yourself (I did!). A word of caution, though: When you print out the PDF MAKE SURE it's printed 1:1. This is crucial. What I did to verify this was to place my SIM card in the printed 'shadow'. If it doesn't match the printed figure EXACTLY, don't use that. It has to be EXACT. In some SIMs you'll have to cut through the metal contacts, but it's still OK, just file down any rough edges and you should be OK.

 

[GSDer]

Or you could simply ask Verizon to send you a micro-SIM card, or go into a local company store and pick one up.

If you're sticking with Verizon be sure you're getting an SCH-i535 - that's the only model guaranteed to work on Verizon.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4

 

[SpookDroid]

Don't know about US carriers, but at least here that means paying for the new SIM card And to save a few bucks, I just cut it myself. Never had an issue. I ended up replacing because my 'old' SIM was not compatible with my carrier's LTE network, so when I upgraded to the S4 through them, the new SIM card was replaced for free

 

[amb389]

Thanks for the replies! So, if I decide to get a new sim from the store, will all of my data, pictures, contacts, etc. transfer?

 

[GSDer]

Are you saving all of that information on your current SIM card?
Do you have an SD card in the Thunderbolt?
If you're syncing all of your stuff with Google then your contacts will be safe.
You should use something like Helium: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.koushikdutta.backup to backup your SMS, (call logs?), and app data.
You can also use something like Cloud Drive: http://market.android.com/details?id=com.amazon.clouddrive.photos to keep your pictures/videos safe.
You could also try My Backup: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...d=com.rerware.android.MyBackup&token=A2XUOSX4 as an alternative to Helium. (Supposedly it even allows you to transfer data between two phones on the same Wi-Fi network - I haven't tried that myself. YMMV.)

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4

 

[SpookDroid]

Yeah, at this point in time and with smartphones being, well, smarter, it's really NOT a good idea to store anything on the SIM Card... Contacts don't get properly parsed and if you have unusually long-named contacts, the text will get cut off. Usually contacts with multiple phones and e-mails will transfer onto separate contacts. You're much better off syncing that data to a Cloud service, and if you're on Android, Google's is the most transparent choice.