how to transfer contacts from iphone 3gs to iphone 5

Old Phone to New Phone

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2109

I presume you can back up your contacts using iCloud, when you sign into your new device the contacts will carry over, I say presume because I have never had a 3GS.

Good luck!

iCloud is the way to go.

On your old iPhone: Settings > iCloud. Use your Apple ID/iCloud account to log in. Flick the Contacts switch, and your contacts should save onto iCloud.

Do the same thing on the iPhone 5 and voilà - you should have your contacts.

I guess the good way is to connect iTunes and transfer data from old iPhone to iPhone 5.

<Link Edited By Host>

Transferring data from your current iPhone to a new iPhone using iTunes

Transfer music, photos, contacts, SMS and more from one Apple device to another. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and iOS.

Step 2: Connect your current iPhone to iTunes and sync it. Verify that your original iPhone is backed up. For more information on how to do this, see iPhone: iPhone and iPod touch: About backups

Step 3: Connect your new iPhone 5 to iTunes (on the same computer you used to back up your current iPhone 3G).

Step 4: iTunes will ask you if you want to restore from a backup or set up your new iPhone as a new phone. When prompted, select the backup of your current iPhone. If iTunes does not prompt you to select a backup to restore when you connect your new iPhone, use iTunes to restore iOS on your new iPhone and try this step again. Note: During the process of restoring your old backup to a new iPhone, you may see the iTunes progress bar pause. If this occurs, please allow for additional time for the upgrade to complete.

Step 5: After iTunes finishes restoring the backup you selected to your new iPhone, the iPhone will restart.

Step 6: When your new iPhone appears again in the iTunes window, select it.

Step 7: Click the tabs (Info, Music, Photos, and so on) and verify or change the items you want to sync.

Step 8: Click Apply to sync your new iPhone 5 with iTunes.

Step 9: Verify that your saved contacts are present on your new iPhone.

<Link Edited By Host>

If you want transfer contacts from one iPhone to another iPhone, you can do it with‘s export/import feature.
Actually you can transfer contacts files from iPhone to iPhone directly.
- Connect two Devices to PC.
- Choose the category list of one device that you need to export files.
- Check the files that need to export in the Content Panel and click "Transfer file(s) from device to device" button.
- All the checked files from one device can be transferred to the other one.

<Link Edited By Host>

I would advise you to use some third party app in order to transfer the iPhone contacts to your PC.

Use the same tool to import the contact entries from your PC to your new iPhone.

Alternatively, you might want to start iTunes in Safe mode by clicking on CTRL+SHIFT keys while starting iTunes with your iPhone connected. Next, enter in device settings and tick "Manually manage music and videos"

<Link Edited By Host>

This is REALLY BAD advice. You don't need any 3rd party tools, and the post originally had a link to a site that sold a tool of dubious safety and quality. iTunes does this beautifully without any "help" from spammers: Transferring data from your current iPhone to a new iPhone using iTunes

Clearly you really like the support.apple.com process but I'm still stuck on the "iPhone disconnected" error when transferring data to my new iPhone. Isn't there any way other than iTunes?

The problem is not iTunes. It is a problem with the USB hardware or drivers on your computer. You would have the same problem with any software that you used to transfer content to or from your iPhone. what USB troubleshooting have you done?

Thanks for getting back.

Data transfer to two other iphones and two ipads had no trouble, using a new MacBook Pro.

Eventually I was able to upgrade the 3GS to 6.1.3 and use Contacts Backup from IntSig which took all of 2 minutes to completely transfer and merge 150 contacts by exporting a Vcard file and emailing it.

You can try this way and see if it works:
1. Use iCloud to backup your contacts
2. Then connect iPhone 3gs to your computer
3. Open the iCloud backup file and copy those contacts to iphone 5

More info about iCloud backup you can visit URL: support.apple.com/kb/HT4859

Hope it will help.

<Link Edited By Host>

Lawrence Finch wrote:

This is REALLY BAD advice. You don't need any 3rd party tools, and the post originally had a link to a site that sold a tool of dubious safety and quality. iTunes does this beautifully without any "help" from spammers: Transferring data from your current iPhone to a new iPhone using iTunes

I recently moved from a 4s to a 5s iPhone and plan on giving it to my daughter for Xmas
I started to erased my pics from my old phone and was going to do the same with my contacts list but realized that the pics that were synced are being erased from my new phone
I saved the pics in the computer and wanted to do the same with my contact list cause I never saved them before but I can’t do it.
I m afraid that if I wipe off the old phone my contact list will disappear from my new phone.
Y tried to sync the old one to the computer but I can’t do it
Help someone please!

As far as I know iPhone 3GS is not compatible with iOS5+ and iCloud. So you will need to create a backup of your old phone using iTunes and restore it to new iPhone. If you find this method difficult, try Mobiletrans Manager.

<Link Edited By Host>