Transferring contacts from iPhone 3G to iPhone 4 WITHOUT iTunes sync . . .

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Level 1

15 points

Transferring contacts from iPhone 3G to iPhone 4 WITHOUT iTunes sync . . .

A friend of mine in his exuberance rushed out to buy an iPhone 4 today to replace his iPhone 3G. All good so far - until he realised that the Mac he has at home (original 'anglepoise' Flat Panel iMac) doesn't have the required 10.5 Leopard, he only has 10.4 Tiger.

Does anyone know a way of transferring the contacts from either his iPhone 3G or his iMac to his new iPhone 4 without iTunes?

I had wondered if exporting the contacts from the Address Book application on his iMac as a .vcf file and emailing the .vcf file to the Gmail he has enabled on his iPhone would allow him to receive the .vcf as an attachment and therefore be recognised as such on his iPhone 4 and populate the Contacts app on his iPhone 4.

An alternative I thought of was to sync the Address Book application on his iMac with his Gmail account contacts and then sync his iPhone with his Gmail over the air.

Does anyone have any first-hand experience of trying either of these methods or any alternatives that might be worth a shot?

Of course he could just go and buy 10.5 Leopard (if he can find a copy) . . .

Any help appreciated as always

Mac Pro 2x2.8 Quad Intel Xeon, Unibody 17" MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 21, 2010 12:40 PM

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Answer 1

DaVBMan

Level 6

9,280 points

Jul 21, 2010 1:10 PM in response to mac-dude

Well I do use gMail for my contacts and know you can set it up and have it not kill off your contacts on phone and they will go over to Google.

Then with other phone set it up thus get the contacts.

Think it will be best if contacts in Google is blank to start with (or at least one temp one).

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Answer 2

Jul 21, 2010 1:16 PM in response to DaVBMan

second gmail contacts. I love how it works. For any new contact or calender entry I generally use my computer to access google and enter the data easily. Because I have push enabled that's all I do and within seconds my phone has the info.

When in doubt, backup any contacts from the original source in case the way you setup the sync thinks you want to delete from one rather than add to the other.

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