Changing sim card can quite confusing for some mobile phone users, they don’t know if things might go wrong in the process, and this is where this question comes to the mind, what to do before changing sim card iphone or android.
If you’re using an android phone, iPhone, or all these feature phones, this post will educate on sim cards, and charging or switching of sim cards.
First, I want you to know that there’s no problem in charging sim cards on your mobile phone, but where you need to be very careful if your phone especially iPhone isn’t fully unlocked or carrier locked.
What to do before changing sim card
These are what you need to do before changing sim card on your iPhone, android or a feature mobile phone.
1. Transfer all the contacts
This is the number one major thing to do before changing sim card on any Android phone, iPhone, or a feature mobile phone.
If all your contacts are stored in your sim card, you need to do a transfer or kindly move them to your phone memory or email account. If you change the sim card on your phone without doing a transfer or even a backup of the contacts, you won’t see your contacts in your phone.
For example, you have sim card A and recently bought sim card B. Before switching to sim card B, you will have to move all your data or the informations on the sim card to your mobile phone.
If you prefer moving the contacts to your email address, that’s also better and very helpful if you’re using android phone.
Let me now guide you on What to do before changing sim card on android phone. So let’s get started.
On Android
Open the contact app on your android phone, and tap on the menu button which is the three horizontal line icon located on the left corner of your screen. Tapping on the menu icon brings out some options, and this includes manage contact. Tap on the manage contacts to open another window.
On the next windows are different functions which includes the followings;
- Merged contacts
- Import or export contacts
- Move contact
- Syn contacts
- Default location storage
As we focused on what to do before changing sim card, kindly tap on import and export contacts.
Clicking on the import or export contacts,
You’ll be presented with two options, and they are;
- Import
- Export
Now the main focus here is what to do before changing sim card, Kindly tap on import button to proceed on moving contacts from sim card to phone. On your android phone, options available will be shown to you, they include the internal storage, sd card and the sim card.
You will have to have select sim card by tapping or ticking the box, and you will see all contacts in your sim card. Incase you want to transfer all the contacts in your sim card to your phone memory, kindly mark all the contacts displayed on your screen.
However, if you have some contacts which you prefer to move, tick those contacts and proceed to the next step.
When you have finished, click on done.
Finally, select the location you’re transferring the contacts to, select phone by ticking or tapping on the box. Lastly, click on the import button and the contacts will be imported or transferred to your phone.
You can view the imported contacts by simply going to the contact app on your phone, you’ll see the contacts. So this is the first answer to what to do before changing sim card.
On iphone
For the iPhone users, it’s so simple and easy.
Don’t miss >>> How do i transfer contacts from sim to phone
On your phone, tap on settings and go to contact. Look below you’ll see where it states import sim contacts, kindly tap on that button.
You’ll see three options on the list, they include the followings;
- Icloud
- On my iPhone
- Cancel
select on my iphone by tapping on the button. Immediately your sim contacts will be imported into your iphone. Now that you have imported your contacts from your sim card to your iPhone, you can remove the sim card and view your contacts to see if you have successfully imported the contacts to your iPhone.
For iPhone user’s, the first step you need to do before changing sim card iphone.
Move contacts to email address
To move contacts from sim card to email address on android phone or tablet, kindly open the contact app on your android phone.
Tap on the option menu icon and select manage contacts. Tap on move contacts, and list of options will be shown on your screen. They include phone, sim card, and your google account which is your Gmail account.
Remember the topic of the post, What to do before changing sim card. Now you will have to tap on sim card, and all the contacts in your sim card will be shown to you.
You can chose to select all the contacts by marking all of them, or select the ones which you want to move and click done.
What’s next is to select the destination which you want to move the contacts to. If you have multiple Google accounts, select your preferred destination by tapping or ticking on the Google account, finally tap on the move button and all the contacts will be moved to your google account or any other email account.
Transfer or move contacts is the first step you need to take for this question on what to do before changing sim card.
2. Update your information
This is the second step you need to take, to update your information. Maybe you are no longer in need of the old sim card or its mobile phone number, and you used the number for your information like your banking information, email account, whatsapp account, or any other account, you will have to update these accounts with your new mobile phone number.
For your banking information, this is compulsory that you need to do that, update your banking information (phone number) with your new mobile phone number.
As you know that whatsapp is linked to your mobile phone number, you can chose to update your whatsapp with your new mobile phone number or leave it as it is. However, make sure that the old sim card number will be active and instead I recommend you changing your whatsapp contact number with your new phone number.
All the the accounts that has the old sim card number, kindly change them to your new mobile phone number and don’t forget to notify friends about the new phone number.
3. Make sure your phone is unlocked
This is very essential and there’s no way I will be discussing what to do before changing sim card without mentioning it. Changing sim card works best if your phone is unlocked and not carrier locked.
Again if you partially unlocked your phone using a sim card, it might get locked again when you switch sim card on the said phone. I’ve seen cases whereby a phone especially the iPhone gets locked out after switching sim card, the owner had to unlock the iPhone again.
If your phone is carrier locked, make sure to use a compatible sim card on the phone.
Do I need to backup my phone before switching SIM?
There’s no need to do so, switching sim card isn’t resetting of a mobile phone. You can only backup your phone if you want to reset your phone, and not to switch or change your sim card.
Mind you, switching of sim card doesn’t delete any files, data or information on your mobile phone. If you remove or switch your sim card to a new one, everything on your phone will intact and nothing will be affected.
Remember to move or import your contacts to your phone memory or email address before making the switch.
Will I lose anything if I switch SIM cards?
Absolutely no, you won’t lose anything if you switch sim card on your android phone, iPhone or even a feature phone. Everything on your phone will remain intact unless you got rid of them.
Remember, if you remove your sim card from your phone, all the received or sent text messages will still remain in the phone memory. They are not saved in the sim cards but rather in the phone memory, so text messages will still be stored in the phone even if you switch sim card.
You can read more about that on this post If i switch my sim card to a different phone will text messages be on it.
What information is lost when switching SIM cards
No information is lot when switching sim cards on your mobile phone. You will only need to move all your contacts from your old sim card to your phone, and later move the contacts back to your new sim card.
Just like I said on what to do before changing sim card, make sure your phone is unlocked, or you’re using a compatible sim card for your phone if it is carrier locked.
Just like I’ve been saying on switching of sim cards, all the received or sent text messages will still remain in the phone memory.
If you remove a sim card and put it into another phone, all the text messages will not be in the sim card or the phone which you inserted the sim card into, they will be in the old phone.
This is the only thing you will lose if you want to switch a sim card to a new phone altogether. But if you’re switching to a new sim card, all the text messages will still be in your phone.
