Transferring contacts

[BrendaHerrick]

New phone with smaller sim card and only option seems to be "pop in to nearest store". 200 mile round trip from here. Why no instructions or video on your website? Is it so complicated?

[drey_p]

Hi there

That is because the Red Box service is the easiest way to transfer your contacts.   It all depends on what phones you have and where your contacts are stored.  If you can provide a bit more info, perhaps we can try and help you here.

[hrym]

If the contacts are on the SIM, it may be possible to use a SIM reader as long as it will also take the smaller one or you can get an adaptor.

If you can tell us what phones you have, there may be other options. It would be difficult to have instructions on the website as the range of possibilities is almost endless!

[BrendaHerrick]

Asking for a friend who won't do fb ! Moving from Motorola defy to Nokia Lumia 520. Says he's tried using Outlook as advised but it doesn't seem to be showing nos. only names and emails. Sorry I'm a bit piggy-in-the-middle.

[hrym]

This is going to be difficult at 2nd hand, but let's try.

It sounds as though the contacts are on the phone, not the SIM, if email addresses are included. The starting point would be to sync the contents with an email service, but I don't have experience of the Motorola, so can't advise the process. It may then be possible to sync directly to the Nokia but, again, I'm not familiar with the OS. 

Can you export the contacts on the old device? Either as a comma-separated or vcard file? It may then be possible to import that into the Nokia (transfer it as an email attachment). If not, it may be possible to use an email account as a vector - Gmail would do it, if nothing else.

Your friend doesn't have to post via fb, but can access the forum from the Vodafone website - support tab as far asI remember. It would help if we can talk to them directly.

[hrym]

When you say "talking to you", do you mean he called 191?  That's not quite the same thing.  This is a public forum and most of us who post here aren't Vodafone staff and may have expertise outside that of the Tech Help people.

If you pass this link (http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Other-manufacturers-and-OS/Transferring-contacts/m-p/1860254#M50153) to your friend, it'll take him directly to this thread without going through Facebook.  He can read the replies, but will need to register to post for himself.

I don't specifically know what Phone Copier is but it sounds very much like an alternative version of the Vodafone Red Box service.  All you need is someone or something that can copy the contacts off the old phone and put them on the new one - as long as it's compatible with the storage format of both.

If not, the export/forward/import route is the simplest DIY method.  As is said before, I don't know the specific menu layouts of either device, but there's probably an option in there somewhere if you look under menu/settings in Contacts.

I'm not clear what "going through Outlook" means.  Outlook is the name of the communication manager on Windows Phone, so it would (I assume) be where contacts are stored on the Nokia device, but the phrase itself doesn't really describe a process.

Now that I'm back up and running on a full pc and not pecking away at an on-screen tablet keyboard, I can go through things in more detail if necessary.

[BrendaHerrick]

He's tried talking to you - that was where advice to use Outlook came from. Meanwhile he posted on a local technical forum and has been advised by a local company to use a Phone Copier so maybe that's the answer. I'll pass your reply on to him anyway just in case so thanks.