Best (cloudless) way to transfer contacts/Texts/etc. to new phone...

[glasswave]

Hello, sorry for the newbie questions, but could I get your advice on the best way to transfer contacts and SMS to my new(ish) phone.

I had a Razr Maxx HD that suffered a crushed screen. I ended replacing the RAZR with a new condition Galaxy s7 that I found for sale for $220.

When I switched phones at the Verizon store, somehow they lost all my contacts and replaced them with someone else's contacts even though I had been using backup Assistant Plus. After many rounds w/Verizon tech support and not being able to see the phone storage of my Razr Maxx on my PC, I finally ended up buying another used Razr Maxx and having the mobos switched. The old phone now works fine and I have access to my recent contacts and text messages.

The last time I moved my contacts and SMS's forward to a new phone (2013, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean), I believe I used the contact manager to export a .vcf file to the SD card, then I used app called "SMS Backup" to transfer my text messages to an .xml file and load them from the sd card into the new phone.

Is this still the best way of going about this or is there a better app or phone management SW that I should be using to move my contacts and SMS to the new phone?

Also, Is there a way that I could integrate the new text messages I have recently received on my s7 with the existing conversations I had going on my Razr Maxx?

Next, although I did backup on occasion just by copying the sd and internal storage to my pc (didn't think to export contacts and sms each time), it has occurred to me I need to be more proactive about making my own backups of my phone to my personal data storage system. What is the best practice and method for making regular phone backups using your desktop PC?

Finally, is there a software that will let you mange you contacts on you PC and then transfer them back your phone? My entire contact list could use to be reorganized and refreshed.

I prefer not to use cloud services, thank you.

 

[Rukbat]

See the Contacts section of Backing up an Android Device to convert all your contacts to Google contacts. Then, when you put another phone on that Google account it will sync the contacts to the new phone. (That's what syncing is for.)

 

[pbksoft]

If you are looking for really cloudless way (no transferring via network to Google account involved), you should find a way to export your contacts to vcf file and then import it on another phone. You can transfer the file between phones via computer, storage (SD) card or send it via mail or something.

I hope it helps.

 

[glasswave]

Thanks to all, I ended up using SMS Backup and Restore along with exporting my contacts as .vcf files. SMS BU also now allows backup of call history log, so I transferred that over as well. It worked like a charm. Thanks.

 

[bobobo3]

iCloud and iTunes come with your iPhone, and provide users with a fast way to backup and restore their iPhone data. So if you're going to copy iPhone contacts from one to another, you can take the iCloud and iTunes as options.