What does import sim contacts mean on iPhone and android?

This is a detailed post on what does import sim contacts mean, be it on android or iPhone smartphone. This question is usually asked by the newbies as the term import sim contacts might seem confusing.

what does import sim contacts mean

This simply means to transfer or all the contacts from your sim to your phone or Gmail account. Again it also means to copy all the contacts in your phone straight to your sim card.

If you insert a sim card into a mobile phone, you might see that it will request for you to import the sim contacts to your Gmail account or to your phone.

However, this occurs most if you insert a new sim card into a mobile phone. You’ll will import contacts to sim, or copy contacts to sim.

Going back to the question on what does import sim contacts mean, it literally means to transfer or copy contacts from the sim card to your Gmail account or the phone. Also it means to transfer or copy contacts from phone to your sim card.

I’ve seen quite number of persons ask what does import sim contacts on iphone mean, it simply means the same thing. Copying a contact or all contacts to your sim card, or to your iphone.

As you see the request on your phone and you wish to copy your contacts to your sim card or to your phone or probably Gmail account, you tap on yes to import the contacts to the destination which you wished for, and it doesn’t take up to three seconds to finish.

Right now I do hope I’ve answered the question on what does import sim contacts mean. Now let’s go further on how you can do that on your phone and be it android phone or the iPhone.

How to import sim contacts on iphone

Now let’s proceed.

Insert your sim card into your iPhone, go to settings and tap on contacts. Right there you’ll see where it states import sim contacts and tap to open.

It will immediately ask you to choose where you want to import your SIM card contacts, simply select phone and it will import your sim contacts to your iphone.

To confirm if you have successfully import your sim contacts to your IPhone, go your phone contacts and you’ll see the imported contact on your iPhone. You can as well insert a new sim card and copy the imported contacts to the new sim card using the same method above.

How to import sim contacts on Android

Now is for android users, and one things is that this tutorial differs from phone to phone. For example, how to import or export contacts on Samsung phones is different from LG phones or huawei smartphones.

However, they all starts from the phone contact.

For this tutorial on how to import sim contacts on Android, I will be using the Samsung Galaxy phone.

Go to your apps and open the contact app on your android phone. On the left top corner of your screen, you’ll see the menu button which is a three horizontal line.

Tap on the menu icon and you’ll see managed contacts.

Tap on the managed contacts and on the next window you’ll see import or export contacts just like on the picture below.

what does import sim contacts mean

Tap on import or export contacts. On the next page are two options for you to choose from, import or export. As the topic of this post is what does import sim contacts mean, I will focus more on import.

Tap on the import button and you’ll see three options for choose from, they include the followings;

what does import contacts mean

These are the options on the Samsung phones to import contacts.

Again, the topic of this post is what does import sim contacts mean, and our main focus is sim contact, so kindly select the sim card by ticking the box.

It will display all the contacts on your sim card, then you’ll have select all the contacts or any of your preferred contacts you want to import.

Mark them and tap done.

On the next page are list of options to import the contacts to, they include your phone, Gmail account or Samsung account for Samsung users.

Select your desired destination and tap import. Within seconds all the contacts will be imported to your phone or Gmail account.

With this, you’ve successfully imported contacts from your sim card to your phone or Gmail account.

What happens when you import SIM contacts on iPhone?

You’ll see the sim contacts on your iPhone and even if you remove the sim card from your iPhone, the contacts will still be there. This isn’t just for iPhone but rather applied to all mobile phones.

When you import contacts from your sim, it stays on your phone forever with or without a sim card.

What is meant by import and export contacts?

Like I said earlier, to import contacts is to copy or transfer contacts from a sim card or an account to your phone. While to export contacts means to move contacts to another destination like the sim card or the internal storage.

Do contacts automatically save to Sim?

No, unless you set it like that.

On saving a contact, you will be given option to save the contact on your phone or to your sim card. So it is left for you to select the destination which you want the contact to stay in.

For me I recommend the email account cause you can easily retrieve your contacts at any given period or on a new phone.

With all these said on this post on what does import sim contacts mean, I do hope you have understood what it means.

How do I know if my contacts are saved to my SIM on iPhone

Kindly know that it is not possible to view where contacts are saved on iPhone just like as it is on android. 

Even if you go over to the settings app >> contact, still you won’t be able to see where your contacts are saved in your iPhone. But let me tell you this, by default iPhone doesn’t save contacts to the sim card but rather the phone itself.

So as long as you are saving contacts on your iPhone, kindly note that you are saving it straight to the phone memory and not the sim card.

Are iPhone contacts stored on SIM?

By default iPhone doesn’t save contacts on sim card but rather it saves contacts in the phone memory. You can only import contacts from a sim card to your iPhone. 

But as long as you are saving a contact on your iPhone, it will be stored in the phone memory and not the sim card.

Are iPhone Contacts stored in the cloud?

If you set up iCloud for your Contacts, all your contacts will be stored in the cloud instead of your iPhone phone memory. 

To save or store contacts automatically straight to the iCloud, kindly open the settings app and tap on your Apple ID profile name.

On the next page you will see iCloud just like on the picture below. 

What does import sim contacts mean on iPhone and android?

Tap on iCloud and scroll down until you see contacts. Now you have to make sure that contacts are turned on just like on the below picture. 

Are iPhone Contacts stored in the cloud?

Once you have turned on contacts in the iCloud, all contacts saved in your iPhone will automatically be saved in the iCloud. 

Don’t Miss!!!

With this I’ve come to the conclusion of this post on what does import sim contacts mean on iPhone and android. I’m open to your suggestions and comments. 

About Kennedy

I'm Amaechi Uchenna by name, a mobile tech enthusiast who love writing articles about tips and tutorials especially relating to gadgets.

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