How to Copy Contacts from iPhone to iPhone (5 Ways)

So you eventually get a shiny new iPhone for daily use and you want to take bits of data stored on your previous iPhone with you, namely your precious contacts that are elaborately organized in address book. In fact, transferring contacts from iPhone to iPhone is remarkably simple if you know the trick.

Here in this article, we will collect together five feasible methods to make sure your original iPhone's contacts including phone numbers, email addresses and other information come over to your new iPhone. Read on and figure out the method that suits your need.

Method 1: Restore from iCloud Backup

Generally, transferring contacts from an old iPhone to a newly purchased iPhone is easy if you have synced your iPhone and its contacts with iCloud, for the fact is that Apple allows users to directly restore the previous backup to the new iPhone during the setup process, instead of starting from the scratch.

Before you trigger the wireless transfer through iCloud, you need to make a backup of the contacts in your original iPhone. To do this, pick up your old iPhone and first connect it to Wi-Fi network.

• Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud, toggle the Contacts to ON
• Scroll down and tap on iCloud Backup.
• Tap Back Up Now.
• Set up your new iPhone.
• When you reach App & Data screen, select Restore from iCloud Backup.
• Sign into your Apple ID and password and tap on Next.
• Choose the most recent backup from the list.

The new iPhone will restore contacts from iCloud backup.

Depending on the internet connection and how many data files are embedded in the iCloud backup, it might take a couple of time. Once it's done, all your old iPhone's contacts should be on new iPhone's address book.

Method 2: Use Phone Transfer

If you're looking for a more easier way to get the job done, Phone Transfer is the one that will give you the value. It's an all-in-one smartphone transferring utility that is able to bringing over the messages, music, video, photos, calendar, contacts from one iPhone to another, as long as you use a PC or a Mac as a go-between. It also come with a handful of features such as backing up device to computer, restoring backup to your device and erasing all the stuff before you ditching your device.

The application is fairly straightforward to use and the iPhone to iPhone contacts transfer process is generally involves three steps:

• Run the program and choose Phone to Phone Transfer on the main window.
• Connect both iPhones to the computer. You may need to tap Trust on new iPhones.
• Make sure your original iPhone is as the source device and new iPhone is target device. If not, use the Flip button for making exchange between them.
• Check Contacts and other contents you'd like to migrate.
• Click the Start Copy button and you're good to go.

Method 3: Use iTransfer

Mostly similar to Phone Transfer, iTransfer also makes it a breeze to copy all of the contacts from old iPhone to the new iPhone. It serves well in transferring contacts along with virtually any kind of data from one iPhone to another. In addition to its basic data transferring features, it offers more flexibility in managing contents amongst iOS devices, Android phone & tablets, iTunes and computer.

Just Download iTransfer and install it on your computer. With it, you can do the iPhone contacts transfer with a minimum of fuss:

• Connect two iPhones to your computer and tap Trust when a notification prompts.
• Open up the program and click the Phone to Phone Transfer shortcut on the startup interface.
• Select the target device from the drop-down menu and click Next button.
• On the next screen, select Contacts and press Transfer button.

This way you can get the contacts off your old iPhone and onto the new iPhone.

You may be interested in this tutorial: How to Import Songs from PC to iPhone without iTunes.

Method 4: Use iCloud Sync

This method is applicable to the case when you've already set up your new iPhone and would like to have all your contacts in original iPhone transferred to new iPhone without resetting the device to factory settings. iCloud Sync could do you a favor, which requires both iPhones are signed into the same iCloud account and connected to Wi-Fi network.

• Head to your old iPhone's Settings > Apple ID > iCloud.
• Slide Contacts to the On position.
• Scroll down to iCloud Backup, tap on it and tap Back Up Now in the next screen. Doing this backs up your original iPhone's contacts details within iCloud.
• On new iPhone, go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud
• Enable Contacts syncing.

You can now see the contacts from your old iPhone appears in the contacts list on new iPhone.

Method 5: Use iTunes Sync

Apple's iTunes offers a good way to transfer contacts from one iPhone to another, the trick of which is mostly the same as iCloud sync — just make contacts backup of your old iPhone via iTunes sync on local computer and import it to your new iPhone.

• Attach your previous iPhone to computer through USB cable and start up the iTunes.
• Click on the small iPhone icon on the menu bar.
• Click Info option form the left column and enable Sync Contacts.
• Click Sync and the contacts on your iPhone are now begin syncing onto computer.
• Once the backup process is done, disconnect your old iPhone and replace it with your new iPhone.
• In iTunes, click iPhone icon on the menu bar.
• Choose info option again and make sure Sync Contacts is enable.
• Scroll down to Advanced section and check Contacts.
• Finally, press Sync to apply the settings.

This will import the old iPhone contacts from computer to your new iPhone. Done!

The Bottom Line

Five solutions are presented here to that common problem of getting contacts numbers onto a new iPhone from the old iPhone — all are worth-having ways and you can try any one of them to get the transfer task done.