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How to Transfer Data from Android to iPhone (2020)

Piyush

Are you finally ready to overhaul your smartphone experience?

Switching from Android to iPhone might just do the trick. While there are many benefits to this switch, you might face some challenges with transferring data from one device to another. 

In this guide, we’ve listed all the possible ways to migrate your data with ease safely.

Be it contacts, photos, videos, files, or music. These steps should transition from an Android device to an iPhone much more comfortable. Let’s get started.

Using an iOS App

Here are some prerequisites before you start with this process:

  1. 1
    Turn on the Wi-fi on the Android phone from which data is to be transferred.
  2. 2
    Throughout the transfer, keep both the devices plugged into a charger.
  3. 3
    Ensure you have enough space in your iPhone to accommodate all the data (including external SD card if available) from your Android device.
  4. 4
    Update the Google Chrome version on your Android device if you also wish to transfer all the bookmarks.
AndroidToiPhone

Apps & Data

  1. 1
    While you set up the new iPhone, browse for the option of “Apps & Data”. From the options given, click on “Move Data from Android.” 
  2. 2
    Download the app of “Move to iOS” on your Android phone from the Play Store.
  3. 3
    Open the Move to iOS app on your Android phone and follow the prompts displayed on the screen. Read the terms and agreements, click on “Agree” and then tap on “Next” present in the top right corner of the “Find Your Code screen.”
  4. 4
    On the “Move from Android” screen of your iOS device, tap on “Continue” to receive a six-digit or ten-digit code. (If prompted, ignore the low connectivity error on your Android device)
  5. 5
    Enter the six/ten-digit received code on your Android device. This will take you to the screen of “Transfer Data”.
  6. 6
    Select the content you want to transfer from your Android device and tap “Next.”NOTE: Make sure you that your devices stay connected until it shows finished on iPhone. ( even after  Android shows the process to be complete )
  7. 7
    Once the process is completed on iPhone i.e. the progress bar loading is complete on your iPhone, click on “Done” on the Android mobile phone. Now, click on “Continue” on the iPhone and follow the onscreen prompts to complete the setup.

How to Move from Android to iPhone - Apple Support

Photos and Videos

Using Data Transfer

You can easily transfer all your photos and videos from Android to iOS using a computer.

  1. 1
    Using a USB cable, connect the android mobile phone to the computer.
  2. 2
    Search for all the videos and pictures to wish to transfer.(Find this by going to DCIM → Camera)
  3. 3
    Install “Android File Transfer” from Android.com, to locate your books and PDFs on a Mac.  Open it and go to DCIM and then search for ‘Camera’.
  4. 4
    Copy/move all the media files you wish to transfer to a separate folder on the desktop.
  5. 5
    Now, remove the Android mobile phone and connect the iPhone you wish to transfer the videos and photos to.

Alternatively, 

  1. 1
    For Mac users running macOS Catalina, open Finder. Open iTunes, for PC users and macOS Mojave or earlier,
  2. 2
    Now, select our iPhone and click on Photos, then Album. Here you can either sync your entire album library or choose specific media files.
  3. 3
    Click on “Sync” to confirm.
Data Transfer

Using Google Photos

This is a hassle-free method of accessing your Android photos and videos. This saves the extra effort of actually saving/transferring all the photos and videos to your iPhone. Here’s how you can do this:

  1. 1
    Download “Google photos” on your Android device.
  2. 2
    Back up all your photos and videos.
  3. 3
    Now, download “Google photos” on your iPhone.
  4. 4
    Sign in to your Google account.
  5. 5
    You can now access all the photos/videos while you’re online or click the three-dot action button to the top right corner to save them to your device.
Google Photos

Music

You can carry your music to your iPhone when you switch from an Android device.

It is as simple as using a computer to transfer it. In case you’re using a music streaming app, just download the application from the Apple Store and log in with your user ID and password.

  1. 1
    Using a USB cable, connect the android mobile phone to the computer.
  2. 2
    Locate your music (You can usually find this by going to Music)
  3. 3
    Install “Android File Transfer” from Android.com, to locate your books and PDFs on a Mac.  Open it and go to Music.
  4. 4
    Copy/move all the music or songs you wish to transfer to a separate folder on the desktop.
  5. 5
    Now, remove the Android mobile phone and connect the iPhone you wish to transfer the songs to.
Music

Alternatively,

  1. 1
    For Mac users running macOS Catalina 10.15, open Music. For PC users and macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, open iTunes and select Songs.
  2. 2
    Drag and drop the songs from your folder into the Songs section of the Music app or iTunes Library.
  3. 3
    Now, select our iPhone and click on Music. Here you can either sync your entire music library or choose specific songs.
  4. 4
    Click on “Sync” to confirm.

Documents

If your documents are saved on cloud-based applications like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive, you can simply download the app from the Apple Store and Sign in.

If you want to transfer your documents through apps and not the cloud, Mac apps like Notes, Numbers and Keywords support various file types, including MS Office documents.

  1. 1
    Install Notes, Keywords, and Numbers from the Apple Store on your iPhone.
  2. 2
    Using a USB cable, connect the android mobile phone to the computer.
  3. 3
    Locate the documents (You can usually find this in Documents)
  4. 4
    Install “Android File Transfer” from Android.com, to locate your books and PDFs on a Mac.  Open it and go to Documents.
  5. 5
    Copy/move all the documents you want to transfer to a separate folder on your computer
  6. 6
    For Mac users running macOS Catalina, open Finder. For PC users and macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, open iTunes and sync the documents to your iPhone.
Documents

Contacts, Mails, and Calendars

If you’re an Android user that uses a Google account (Play Store, Gmail, Google Drive, etc.), your contacts will ideally be synced to your Google account. Here’s how you can manually sync your contacts on your android device:

  1. 1
    Go to “Settings”
  2. 2
    Go to “Accounts and Sync”
  3. 3
    Select the Google account or enter the account details.
  4. 4
    Enable synchronization.

NOTE: Make sure your phone is backed up before following these steps.

Now, all you have to do is get the contacts on your new iPhone. Here’s how:

  1. 1
    Go to “Settings”
  2. 2
    Tap on “Accounts & Passwords” ( Mail, Calendars, Contacts, in some older iOS versions)
  3. 3
    Add the same Gmail account as above (synced to your contacts)
  4. 4
    Your device should automatically add your contacts from the account.

Using a SIM card

This method will work if the SIM card size for your Android phone and iPhone are the same. iPhone has an inbuilt feature to transfer all the contacts from an already working SIM card (your android phone)

  1. 1
    Save the contacts on your Android phone to a SIM.
  2. 2
    Carefully place the SIM into your iPhone.
  3. 3
    Go to “Settings.”
  4. 4
    Tap on “Contacts”
  5. 5
    Select “Import SIM Contacts”

Switching from Android to iPhone in 2020 - The TRUTH!

Books and PDFs

You can transfer your eBooks from your Android phone in two ways. One is to access it through apps like Google Play Books, Kindle, Nook, etc., and the other is using a computer. Of course, in the first method, you can download the apps on your iPhone and access them directly.

Here’s how to transfer it via a computer.

  1. 1
    Install Notes, Keywords, and Numbers from the Apple Store on your iPhone.
  2. 2
    Using a USB cable, connect the android device to the computer .
  3. 3
    Locate all the books and PDFs (You can usually find this in Documents)
  4. 4
    Install “Android File Transfer” from Android.com, to locate your books and PDFs on a Mac.  Open it and go to Documents.
  5. 5
    Select all the Books or PDFs you want to transfer and copy/move them to a separate folder on your computer
  6. 6
    For Mac users running macOS Catalina, open Finder. For PC users and macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier, open iTunes and sync your ePub books and PDFs. Now you’ll be able to access the synced books/PDFs from your library.

Using a Third-Party Application

You can find many cross-platform apps on the app store to transfer data between the two devices.

Here are some:

  • Feem: This application lets you transfer files over a local wi-fi network. All you have to do is install the app on your Android phone and iPhone, use the same username to pair the transfer devices and begin the transfer.
  • Instashare: This is another application that allows you to transfer data over a local Wi-fi network. Available on both Android and iOS, it functions a lot like Airdrop (familiar to iOS users).
  • Zapya: This is a peer to peer file sharing application that lets you transfer files of any format or size without an internet connection. Zapya comes with additional features like QR code sharing with which you can sync or remotely control your camera and more. 
  • SHAREit: This is a popular file-sharing app that not only lets you transfer media (photos, videos. music) across devices but also lets you transfer applications. All you have to do is download SHAREit on your Android and iPhone, connect or pair the devices through a hotspot and send the data. NOTE: Hotspot can be enabled using mobile data or wi-fi depending on the availability.

Using a Wireless Storage Device

There’s a lot you can do with USB sticks these days. The SandiskConnect USB stick, for example, is a brilliant way to transfer data between devices wirelessly.

The USB stick (capacity of 256 GB) comes with a built-in wi-fi receiver that lets you upload content on one platform and download it from another without the hassle of wires. Here’s how you can do this:

  1. 1
    Plug in the Sandisk Connect wireless USB stick into your computer or US-AC adaptor to keep it fully charged for the transfer.
  2. 2
    On your Android device, install “SanDisk Connect” from the Play Store.
  3. 3
    Switch on the wireless USB stick.
  4. 4
    Open the SanDisk Connect mobile app on your phone and choose your USB stick wi-fi network.

Now, you should wirelessly transfer files and media between your Android phone and computer and then from your computer to the iPhone using the same mobile app.

Key Takeaways

As you might have figured by now, Android and iOS are two different operating systems that are not designed to allow secure file-sharing or transfer between them. However, this guide should make easy work of cross-OS data transfer.

Depending on your need, you can either transfer data from Android to iOS using a computer (PC/Mac), upload it to a cloud-based service to later use it from different devices, transfer it over a wireless connection or use third-party applications for a truly seamless experience. 

Piyush

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About the Author

Piyush Kashyap is a Ph.D student at Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sangrur. He is a budding editor/ writer and has been working as a part-time reviewer for online content. He loves to read tech-based articles and has a knack for reviewing such articles He likes to stay updated about the latest trends in technology. He has also been working as a reviewer for many scientific journals. He also writes articles based on science. Know More About Piyush

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