2 Best Ways to Sync Contacts From iPhone to iPhone

Previously, you had to manually add a contact on multiple phones. But with advancements in technology, you can transfer and sync contacts between multiple devices quite easily. While there are many ways to transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone or from iPhone to Android, keeping them in sync is a puzzle. If you are also wondering how to sync contacts from iPhone to iPhone, this article will help you.

When we talk about keeping contacts in sync, it means that if you add, edit or delete a contact on one iPhone, the same change should be reflected on another iPhone. The change should happen instantly and automatically without any manual effort from the user.

Let’s check two methods to sync contacts between iPhones.

Note: You can use the same methods to sync contacts between iPads, iPhone and iPad, or vice versa.

Sync Contacts from iPhone to iPhone with iCloud

This is one of the easiest and most straightforward ways to sync your iPhone contacts with your other devices. The only downside is that this method only works between Apple devices. But since we are concerned with syncing contacts between iPhones in this article, this method will be useful to us.

In this method, you have to use iCloud to sync contacts from one iPhone to another.

Note: You need to use the same Apple ID on both iPhones to sync contacts.

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Open the settings on your first iPhone. Tap your name at the top.

2nd step: Tap iCloud. In iCloud, turn on the toggle next to Contacts.

Step 3: Sign in with the same Apple ID on your second iPhone or iPad. Then follow steps 1 and 2, i.e. go to Settings> [your name] > iCloud> Contacts.

Step 4: Open the Contacts app on the second iPhone and pull down to refresh the app. This is a one-time-only step, or you should try it if a change is not reflected quickly on the second iPhone.

Now your contacts will be constantly synchronized with each other. Any changes you make to a contact on one iPhone will be reflected on another iPhone.

Point: You can also view contacts stored in iCloud from PC. Open iCloud.com and sign in with your Apple ID. Go to Contacts. All of your synchronized contacts will be displayed. Learn more about the uses of iCloud storage on iPhone.

Sync iPhone Contacts to iPhone without iCloud

If you don’t want to use iCloud to sync contacts, Google Contacts will come in handy. Google Contacts is a service that synchronizes contacts between Apple devices (iPhone / iPad) but between iPhone and Android.

Since Google Contacts uses a Google account, you can use this method to sync contacts from iPhone to iPhone running on two different Apple IDs. However, you need to add the same Google ID on both iPhones.

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Move iPhone contacts to Google contacts

First, you will need to move your iPhone contacts to Google Contacts. If your contacts are already available in Google Contacts, go to step 2.

You can move iPhone contacts to Google Contacts with and without PC. Both methods are mentioned here.

Method 1. Transfer iPhone contacts to Google contacts using PC

Step 1: Open iCloud.com from your computer’s browser (Windows or Mac). Sign in with your Apple ID. Click on Contacts.

Note: Make sure contacts are turned on under iPhone Settings> [your name] > iCloud. If it’s off, you won’t see contacts from your iPhone or the web version of iCloud.

2nd step: Click the Settings icon in the lower left corner. Choose Select All from the menu.

Step 3: Once all contacts are selected, click the same Settings icon again. Choose Export vCard from the menu. Download the VCF file to your computer.

Step 4: Now open contacts.google.com and sign in with the Google account you intend to use on your iPhone. Click Import in the sidebar.

Step 5: Click the Select File button and choose the file you downloaded in step 3. Then iOS will transfer iPhone contacts to Google Contacts. Proceed to step 2 below to enable the sync feature.

Method 2. Transfer iPhone contacts to Google contacts without PC

If you don’t have a PC handy, don’t worry. You can transfer contacts from your iPhone to Google Contacts directly from your iPhone using Google Drive. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Install the Google Drive app on your iPhone.

Download Google Drive

2nd step: Open the Google Drive app and tap Settings in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Tap Save in Settings.

Step 4: You will be taken to the Backup with Google Drive screen. Tap Contacts and turn on the toggle for Save to Google Contacts on the next screen.

Step 5: Go back and tap on the other two options one by one, i.e., calendar events and photos and videos. Disable the toggles for them.

Step 6: Return to the Backup with Google Drive screen. Now with only contacts backup enabled, tap on Start Backup.

Step 2. Keep Google Contacts Synchronized

Now that your iPhone contacts are available on the Google Contacts service, it’s easy to sync them with other devices.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Open the settings on your first iPhone. Go to Contacts.

2nd step: Tap Accounts. If a Gmail account is already added, tap it. Otherwise, tap Add account.

Step 3: Tap on Google and add your Google account where you saved your iPhone contacts.

Step 4: Once added, go back to the Settings> Contacts> Accounts screen and tap on Gmail.

Step 5: Activate the toggle next to Contacts under Gmail. Now your contacts saved in Google will appear on your iPhone.

Step 6: Repeat steps 1 to 5 on another iPhone. Make sure you are using the same Google Account.

Step 7: Open the Contacts app on your iPhone and refresh it.

Change the default account to save new contacts on iPhone

Method 2 will keep your existing contacts synchronized with each other. If you want to save new contacts to Google and sync them too, go to iPhone Settings> Contacts. Tap Default Account. Choose Gmail. Do this on both of your iPhones.

The good choice

We hope you can sync your contacts with each other using the two methods above. Although the first method should be enough, but if you have an Android phone / tablet, the second method would be the right choice. If you accidentally delete a contact from Google Contacts, know how to restore deleted contacts.