Copy & Move Contacts between Phone, SD card, SIM Card on Android

Your Android contacts can be saved on your phone, SD card and SIM card. In this article we will show you how to import contacts stored in the SIM card or SD card on to your Android phone, export contacts from phone to SIM card or SD card, or copy contacts from SIM card to SD card, or from SD card to SIM card. It seems to be difficult. However the operations are actually extremely easy. And best of all, not extra apps or tools required. Note that, by copy or move your contacts from phone to SD card or SIM card, you can then take out the SIM card or SD card and use them in a new phone, this servers as a way to transfer contacts from one phone to another. It is useful when you want to switch Android phones. If you want to batch migrate or transfer contacts and more other data between mobile phones, you can follow the steps to transfer files from Samsung to Lenovo phones or this tutorial to copy data from Xiaomi phone to Samsung mobile. These two linked data exchange articles can help you freely move data between all major mobile phones, like iPhone, Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola, Nexus, Lenovo, ZTE, Huawei, Xiaomi and many more.

How to import contacts from your SIM Card or SD card to Android phone?

On your Android phone, open contacts application and then tap on the Menu button, the one left to the Home button of your Android mobile phone, without selecting any specific contact. On recent Android phone models, the Menu button has been updated. When you press on it, you will open a list of recent apps. In this case, you need to LONG press on the Menu button or the left button on your mobile phone. Please do not worry, this is not to select or transfer all contacts, you will have the chance to select any or all contacts later. Once you tap on the Menu button, you will get a screen on your Android phone like this:

import export contacts on android phone

Now choose the Import/Export option, if you can’t see it, tap on the More option if any, the Import/Export may be put under the More options menu. We are using a Samsung galaxy phone in the demo, if you are using other Android phones,  you could see the appearance is slightly different on Motorola, HTC, LG, Sony, Lenovo, Huawei, Sharp and other Android devices. Now you should see a list of available contacts transfer options. You can also refer to following updated guide to export Contacts from Samsung phone to computer with more screenshots and details.
transfer contacts from sim card or sd card to phone on android

To import contacts from your SIM Card or SD card to Android phone, you can choose Import from SD card or Import from SIM card, after that you will be able to select any contacts from SD or SIM card and import them to Android phone’s internal memory.

How to export contacts from phone to SIM Card or SD card on Android

To export contacts from phone to SD card, choose Export to SD card, then choose any contacts from your phone and export them to SD card. If you like to transfer contacts from Android phone to SIM card, choose Export to SIM card.

transfer contacts from phone to sim card or sd card on android

How to copy contacts between SIM Card and SD card on Android

Just like you export contacts from phone to SIM or SD card aboe, to swap contacts between SIM Card and SD card on Android phones, you can select Export to SD card, then select any contacts on SIM card to copy to SD card. To transfer contacts the other way around, choose Export to SIM card to select and transfer contacts from SD card to SIM card.

copy contacts from sim card to sd card on android

The move or migration of contacts on Android phones is mostly straightforward, no bumps on the way. Now you know how to export or back up contacts on Android mobile phones.

Android mobile phone contacts backup & restore

You can export contacts and phone numbers from phone to external SD card, then copy the contacts backup from SD card to computer or other external storage for backup. In case of any unexpected data loss on the phone, you can restore the contacts from previous backups. If no backups created or you can’t find contacts on your mobile phone any more, you can refer to this guide to recover lost contacts from Android phone or follow the instructions in this tutorial to retrieve deleted contacts on Samsung phones if you are a Samsung phone user.

Leave us a comment below if any questions concerning contacts transfer, backup and restore.

11 thoughts on “Copy & Move Contacts between Phone, SD card, SIM Card on Android”

  1. from Lenovo A6000, unable to delete multiple contacts in one go, can you help please coz it does not show option to select /mark multiple contacts

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