This week I spent some time moving files and contacts from one phone to another. I passed all the information into my PC first, to make a backup of it all, and then I moved it to the new phone.

I thought it could be good to take note of the apps and methods I used.

Android

Something I like about Android phones is the possibility of turning the phone into an FTP server.

The app Solid Explorer can be used for this. You connect the phone and the computer to the same Wi-Fi, and then access phone’s contents from the computer using the file manager.

When it comes to contacts, it is possible to export all contacts into a single VCF file, which is very small and can be sent in an email or even through bluetooth.

iPhone

Unfortunately, you can’t turn the phone into an FTP server in this case. But something that works pretty well to share files through the Wi-Fi is the Documents app by Readdle.

As explained in this tutorial, once the app is installed on the iPhone, and both devices on the same wifi, you can connect the phone to the computer using a web app they provide (works on the browser, so no need for it to be a Mac computer). Once connected, the file transfer is managed through the web app. It is a bit confusing because the files are transferred without internet, but the app that manages the transfer is a web app.

When it comes to importing the contacts to the iPhone, I think the best option is to go to icloud.com and do it from there (explained here). If you use the Mail app of the iPhone, that is also an option (explained here).