Maybe you care the bend of theiPhone 7 , maybe you justdon’t trust Googlewith your data any more , or maybe someone just give you an iPhone as a natal day present . Whatever the reason , here ’s how to get your entire digital animation from Android to iOS with as little foreland - scratch as potential .
For simmpleness ’s rice beer , we ’ll assume you ’re set up on Android with your data plugged into Google ’s religious service ( Gmail , Google Calendar and so on ) . If you ’re using something else , like a Microsoft or Yahoo email address , the process will be similar , and often just involves instal the relevant Android - correspondent app on your new iPhone .
We should also point out that a future Field Guide will talk about impress in the opposite counselling , so watch this space for that .
Apple’s Move to iOS app
you’re able to automatize much of what we ’re about to tattle about with Apple ’s officialMove to iOSapp for Android : it handle email , calendar , impinging , picture , telecasting ( admit with the gimmick ) , and even text content account .
There are a couple of caveats to consider . One , you need to be setting up your iPhone from slit , so it require to be steel new or freshly reset , and two , it does n’t give you all that much control over the way everything gets switched . It also misses out some of the data file and data we ’re go to cover below , and as you ’ll observe in brushup of the app , it can be score and miss on actually transferring texts .
Moving texts
Moving SMSes is tricky — Move to iOSis in theory one of the white options , as we ’ve mentioned , but you need to be setting your iPhone up from scratch , and users report mixed results in transferring MS history right into iOS Messages . We tried several fourth dimension to get the app to make for on our devices and had to give up as it turn down to make a wireless connection , but your gasoline mileage may variegate .
back up an archive of your Android textbook is n’t too difficult : SMS Backup+will air them all to Gmail for you , andSMS Backup & Restorecan back them up to Google Drive or Dropbox too . A variety of third - company Windows and macOS apps promise to do the job for you as well , but we ’d be mistrustful of installing anything unofficial unless it ’s been around for a long time , is regular update , and has a long inclination of incontrovertible drug user recapitulation . We ca n’t vouch for the security department or reliability of any of them , except for SMS Backup+ , which we ’ve been using without any problems for years , and SMS Backup & Restore , which comes from a very reputable package developer .
Unless you could get Move to iOS to work well than we did , duplicate an exact transcript of your Android SMS history in Messages see almost impossible — at full you could get some sort of archive exported for succeeding reference . It ’s a different story with other instant messaging apps , which we ’ll come on to by and by .
Moving emails
If you want to take your Gmail story with you over to iOS , you ’ve got two options : set up the Gmail app for Apple machine , or add your Gmail account to the default Mail app on iOS . The first one is easier but the 2nd helps you bring down ties with Google more quickly .
First , you need to make your Gmail account for the great exportation . start the configurations tab on the vane ( click the cog icon then configurations ) , switch over to the Forwarding and POP / IMAP section , and enable either popping for all emails or IMAP .
Are you going to carry on using your Gmail account ? Then use IMAP , which give you two - manner access to your Gmail inbox from Apple ’s Mail app . Do you just require to download your old Google messages and never count back ? Go for POP , which will download all your emails .
With that done , open up preferences in iOS , take Mail , then exploit Accounts and Add Account . Choose Google if you ’re conduct the IMAP approach , then stick with the instructions on covert to sign into your Gmail ; choose Other if you ’re using POP , in which case you ’ll needthese detailsto configure access .
Moving contacts and calendars
you’re able to move your Google ( Android ) contacts and calendars over to iOS very well : give preferences on your iPhone , tap Contacts ( or Calendar ) , then choose Accounts . opt Add Account and Google , or pick the existing Google incoming from the list , then lumber in with your Google certificate to get everything sync over .
That then observe your Google Contacts and Google Calendars in sync with the native Contacts and Calendar apps on iOS ( and macOS)—but perhaps that ’s not what you need . If you ’d rather forget the syncing aspect and just move your Google data over in a one - fourth dimension operation , it ’s a morsel more involved and needs a manual export and import : it ’s messier , but it does mean you’re able to get everything natively inside Apple ’s apps and provide Google behind .
First you export your Google touch to a .vcf file from the Contacts app on Android ( in options on the app menu ) or viaGoogle Contactson the web . take all your contacts then cull More to encounter the Export linkup . That .vcf file can then be importedthrough iCloud on the webor emailed to your iPhone — once you tap on the attachment , you ’ll be asked if you need to import the contacts .
It ’s a similar summons with Google Calendar . Here you need tovisit the web interface , then export your schedules by clicking the sprocket icon , configurations , Calendars and Export Calendars . The files you ’ve created ca n’t be import into iCloud though — you need toadd them in the Calendar app in macOSto sync them to an iPhone via iCloud . If you do n’t have a macOS machine on hand , you ’re pretty much stuck with entering your birthday and fitting all over again , unless you ’re well-chosen with just usingGoogle Calendarfor Io or tryingMove to iOSfor Android with the caveat we mention in the beginning .
Moving photos and videos
This can be implausibly straightforward or rather messy look on how you want to do it and where your photos and videos are store . adopt you ’re taking reward of Google Photos , the native pic managing director for ( blood line ) Android , you’re able to simply instal the iOS version to get at your whole library pictures and picture show ( and to upload anything you take on your new iPhone ) .
You go to preferences then Back up & sync and Back up machine folders to check that you ’ve got absolutely everything copy off your phone and up to the cloud . Even if you ’re abandon Google services totally , this pick will show you all the different folders on your Android gimmick where picture are put in .
If you need to get everything moved , pixel - by - pixel , from Google Photos to Apple ’s iCloud Photo Library , more sweat is postulate : we ’ve in reality donea concluded guide to thisin the past times . Refer to that article for full detail , but in sum-up you ask to use Google Drive or Google Takeout to get hard copies of your pic and videos downloaded to a macOS or Windows machine . From there you’re able to spell them into Photos for macOS , iTunes on Windows , or iCloud on the web , and from there over to an iPhone .
If you do n’t habituate Google Photos , you need some other method for get all your Android photograph and video to a computer , and from there to Apple Photos and iCloud . Dropboxwill do it , for example , or you could use the tried and trusted USB cable television service method acting . Just be indisputable that you ’ve harvested all the files from all your apps — apps like Twitter and WhatsApp save photos in a different positioning to the primary gallery , for example .
Moving music and movies
Android being Android , you might have your euphony and motion-picture show on your phone in all variety of ways : Netflix , Plex , Google Play Movies & TV , and so on . Just about any video or medicine app you have installed on Android will be on iOS as well , include those we just mentioned — a lot of the time there are no Indian file to transfer , just logins to deal .
Any local files you ’ve got queue up up on Android should work just finely on iOS too . You do n’t have to apply Apple ’s own music and video apps if you do n’t want , but if you do then you need to get your local files off your Android gadget and into iTunes with the assistance of a macOS or Windows machine .
presumptively a mickle of the file cabinet on your Android twist were synced from a computer in the first seat , but if not they can be transplant via USB or an app like Dropbox , as with your personal photos and video . Then from iTunes , select File and tot up to Library ( macOS ) or Add File to Library ( Windows ) to import the medium . If you scarper into file data formatting problems we ’d recommend usingHandbraketo solve them .
iOS is more restrictive when it amount to syncing medicine and movies to your phone , and if you do n’t want to go through iTunes , you need to utilize an app that can rive filing cabinet directly from the cloud or over a Wi - Fi connection rather than swear on local memory : the likes of Plex , Spotify andVLCwill all do the job .
If you are n’t cutting the Google electric cord whole , Google Drive is another good option for watch video on iOS without having to actually transfer any files , because you may stream single file straight from the cloud . It ’s when you ’re switching between mobile operating system that these gimmick - agnostic apps and chopine really come into their own .
In scant , you ’ve drive heap of choice for apps that will play your local , unexclusive , DRM - destitute music and picture single file on iOS , while any digital library app you ’ve been using on Android will have an equivalent on iOS , so there ’s no real problem there either .
Moving apps and games
There ’s no agency around the fact that you need to get all your Android apps set up again on iOS , and pay up doubly in some cases . Though subscription service like Netflix andSpotifyjust switch flat over ( moving between devices is another beneficial ground to live your digital sprightliness in the swarm ) .
Most social media and messaging apps will take everything from Android to Io for you , though there are exclusion , with WhatsApp being one of the big ones . regrettably , WhatsApp ’s own backup and doctor part only works when you ’re going from Android - to - Android or iPhone - to - iPhone . As with textual matter messages , various third - political party alternative are available , but we ca n’t vouch for any in particular .
If you ’re well-chosen just having a record book of your WhatsApp chats and are ready to start afresh on iPhone , you may e-mail them to yourself . From the WhatsApp configurations screen , tap chat , then visit history , and Email chat : you’re able to then pluck your conversation one by one and email yourself a written matter , with or without attached media .
We ca n’t go through every message app in point here but evidently your transposition is expire to be easier with those apps that stash away everything in the cloud ( hello Google Hangouts ) . Virtually every insistent courier on Android has an Io equivalent so it ’s a enquiry of explore the import and export options — you may just have to begin again with a clean message history on iOS .
Another area where you might have trouble is with your saved games and high score : not only will you necessitate to yield for all your game again , you ’re probably going to lose your progress too . Some apps , likeSubway Surfers(with Facebook ) andBoom Beach(with a codification ) , will get you transfer advance and scores between devices , but again you ’ll have to do the research every secret plan you own to be certain .
If you ca n’t find the answers you ’re count for out on the web then connect with the developer at once and see if there ’s any agency for getting your save games from one platform to the other . The same goes for other types of app if you ca n’t see an obvious way of locomote data between Android and Io installs .
Moving yet more files and data
We ’re not quite done yet ! You might want to be as comprehensive as possible in your datum switchover — think about any documents or spreadsheet you ’ve got stored on your Android gadget . Most productivity apps will store these in the cloud , so getting at them from iOS should be unproblematic , but it ’s saucy to double - balk .
The huge bulk of Android apps can be found on iOS , with the only exclusion being advanced customization tools such asTaskerorthe Android rocket launcher , which you ’re just going to have to live without in iPhone - land . Other apps should have iPhone equivalent weight and some sort of mechanics for switching files over — if you ’re worried about something getting left behind , habituate a file coach likeSolid Explorerfor a deeper spirit .
One of the folders to check is the Downloads pamphlet , which convey us to our final section .
Web Browsing
If you ’ve gotChrome on Androidsyncing everything like passwords and bookmark back to the swarm , you’re able to simply installChrome on iOSand get on with your life , but if you ’re dictated to utilize Safari on your newfangled iPhone then you need to alternate through a few more basketball hoop .
The aforementionedMove to iOSis one option for your entanglement bookmarks , or you may set up up synced versions of Chrome and Safari on macOS and use the various export and implication tools to get everything moved over ( and from there to your iPhone ) .
If neither of those options appeal , you ’re going to have to start from scratch , and the same goes for stored passwords and range history ( you may at least get at your saved Chrome watchword fromthis page on the webto ease the process of switching over ) . These elements are just too deep integrate into Chrome to get them easily over to Safari , so sweep up the hazard to start afresh .
It may not be potential , but ideally you want to keep your Android and iOS devices running alongside each other for a while : it makes it well-situated to check up on gaps in your transferred data , like pasture chronicle , and help you spot anything you might have overlook ( such as a PDF file that ’s diminish through the chap ) .
Android
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