My contacts are not on the SIM so where are they on the old phone?
It’s a HTC One S

I’m stumped

Mine just sync to my Google account, so when I sign in to a new phone everything gets copied from the magic Google machine in space.

+1

Ooh, witchcraft!
I’ll see if I can sync old phone with Google

I found an app on the Play store that I put onto both phones. It saved all the contacts and texts from the first phone onto a SD card, then I transferred the card to the new phone, ran the app and like magic all my contacts and texts were there.

Can’t remember the name of the app, but I just searched for something like “text transfer” in the Play store and it was the first one.

Sync them with Google or similar service so if you loose your phone you still have access to your contacts.

Contacts haven’t been stored on SIM cards since extended address books came into favour some time around the late 90s. They simply haven’t got the capacity.

There are dozens of ways of transferring contacts between phones, from backup apps to syncing with third party apps like Outlook. But really, none of it is necessary. If you’ve got your phone tied to a Google ID / Gmail account then they should already be synced with Google. Transferring is as simple as signing into your new phone with the same ID.

If you haven’t got it tied to a Google account, you probably should. You’re missing out on tons of functionality.

Everything is synced with my google account. I got a replacement Nexus 5 on warranty, I just turned it on, entered my email and password and left it for a bit, all my apps, contacts and everything else was just there.

I usually backup the contacts to the SD card as a .vcf file and then copy the file across and import it back into the contacts on the new phone. No apps required.

Easiest way to check if your contacts are on Google is to open up the web interface to Gmail on a computer and click on the Contacts link.

If they’re not there it means some other app is handling them – probably provided by either your phone operator or the phone manufacturer. In this case you should probably investigate how to get them onto Google, it really is a lot more convenient and makes switching phones a lot easier.

Did mine via Contacts tab thingy on Gmail. Actually took the opportunity to tidy everything up there first, remove duplicates etc., since it’s easier. Login with new phone and it just syncs by magic.

Thanks everyone
I synched old phone to Google, then across to new phone. As this is my third Android phone in 5 years, I can’t believe I hadn’t done that before.

“Nothing is foolproof to a talented fool”

How are you finding the Archos phone?