Transfer Cell Phone Contacts

[sunedog]

(Tried searching and came up empty. Kind of surprised this hasn't been discussed before.)

I have a lot of contacts on my iPhone 3. My new employer graciously equipped me with an iPhone 4. How can I add the contacts from the iPhone 3to the iPhone 4?

Tried to get the AT&T store to do it but they say they can't because the new phone is configured with Microsoft Exchange. I really don't understand that point.

I synch my new phone to iTunes on my work laptop. I just synched the older phone to the same iTunes. I had hoped to be able to see the contacts from the old phone and simply drag and drop them onto the new phone, but I don't see contacts in any of the content sections.

I'm betting there is an easy solution that I just haven't figured out. Thanks.

[Dee8go]

Have you tried the Apple Store? I've found them to be very helpful with things like that.

[TX76513]

The majic words were I tunes. If you sync your contacts to iTunes then when you plug in your new phonechoose to set it up as your 3GS and your contacts will be synced to your iPhone 4...

[sunedog]

No Apple brick and mortar store within 100 miles. Have been there twice with my wife and her iPhone. They have been very helpful but each visit was more than two hours (even with appointments).

And have done the Apple phone support thing a couple of times. Three hours each call. Nice, smart people, but they can take forever to get you through your issue.

[MTI]

If you can wait, Apple announced iCloud today. The free service will update and sync all your iOS devices' mail, contacts, photos, documents, etc.

[sunedog]

Originally Posted by TX76513

The majic words were I tunes. If you sync your contacts to iTunes then when you plug in your new phonechoose to set it up as your 3GS and your contacts will be synced to your iPhone 4...

Please bear with me. I know enough to be dangerous.

I have 2 sets of contacts:
1. Personal on old phone
2. Work on new phone

I want to combine both on the new iPhone and will eventually delete all personal contacts from the old phone so I can give it to my son.

Both old and new phones have been synched to my work computer. When I synched the old phone, it did not transfer its contacts to my Outlook Contacts. At least I don't see them in Contacts. How do I get contacts on the old phone into Outlook on the laptop? I fell like if I could do that, then I could get them into the new phone. Remember, the work computer and new phone are using Microsoft Exchange and the old phone is not.

And I don't understand how to do this: "when you plug in your new phone choose to set it up as your 3GS and your contacts will be synced to your iPhone 4"

Thanks for your time.

Be very careful syncing your "old" phone with any other computer or you will erase the info from the phone (depending how iTunes is set). Do you currently have your contacts on a computer someplace, or are they only on the phone?

I assume you do not currently have any type of over-the-air syncing such as mobile-me or google?

The best way to do this is probably to copy your existing contacts to the computer that will be used to sync your new phone. I don't know enough about windows to be of much help, but there must be a way of exporting the contacts and importing them to the other computer.

[kknudson]

I agree check the app store for a program.

BUT your employer provided the iPhone configured for Exchange.
Verify with them that you can put your personal info on the phone, keeping in mind that it will probably sync that information with their exchange server.

You could even ask them if they can help move them.

[Medmech]

You have a couple options, you can set up a Yahoo account and sync your phone with that or you can delete the exchange account but when prompted do not delete the contacts.

or do nothing when you put your new phone on the exchange it will sync the contacts.

Or install the "bump" app on both phones and move the contacts.

Or with your phone in airplane mode turn off the contact sync and the Cellbrite will be able to read the contacts.

Or Set up Gmail as an exchange account and will work like the announced magical iCloud

Enough iDeas?

[sunedog]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I need to table this for a week because my son left today with his mom for a relatively spontaneous week long road trip. And he took my iPhone3.

In the meantime, I am a mobile me subscriber. That may be the easiest solution. I need to read up on how to upload contacts to that site. (I did my wife's about 6 months ago and I can see hers there. I was not able to figure out how to create a separate group of contacts in the few minutes I had to play with it.)

BTW, I noticed mobile me has suspended taking on any new clients.

[Aquaticedge]

You can see a little of the iCloud in the app store on the phone. interestingly enough all Purchased apps are there, no more needing to sync to a PC if you dont want to (I do it weekly)

[Aquaticedge]

On a side note, Do you know if 5 will be on the 3Gs?

[Aquaticedge]

I've been looking for desperate college students here looking for a quick buck. so far no takers... I upgraded from a 3G to a 3GS when mine died and the games work far better on the s then the 3G but I am lookin to upgrade to the 4 if I can swing it... It'll be hell getting a micro Sim card..