How do I transfer only Contacts, Messages, and call history?

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How do I transfer only Contacts, Messages, and call history?

Hello all. today I upgraded to a new iPhone 6S from my old iPhone 5. My 5 was having some issues, specifically an issue with keys not responding when you try to type in landscape mode, but then working fine when you rotate it back to portrait. Oddly, the problem followed me onto the new phone. I thought the problem might be related to the fact that I chose to "restore" from my old save information, so I saved everything from my old phone, reset the new phone and tried again with the option that treats it like a new phone. It worked great in that is got rid of the typing issue, and I was able to reload all of my pictures(with a 7GB reduction in storage space needed!), but now my contacts, text history, and call history are not available.

I want to transfer only these items from the old phone to the new, as it seems there is some issue with the combination of apps I have on my old phone that causes the typing issues, but I can't find a way to do it through iTunes or iCloud. ICLoud will not allow me to access my contact information at all. It says it is stored online, but when you go there, the only thing there is my own name and number.

Quote honestly, Apple's instructions for this are extremely frustrating to use. I'm a relatively tech savvy individual, and I have been completely bamboozled by their so called "help" information. It goes around in circles, with nothing making any sense in the end, and no information whatsoever on how to manage what is saved and transferred.

So, can anyone help me out here?

Alan

iPhone 5, iOS 7, Verizon

Posted on Feb 11, 2016 9:22 PM

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Answer 1

braden85

Community Specialist

Feb 13, 2016 7:39 AM in response to feeshta

Hi feeshta,

I understand that in your course of troubleshooting an issue on your old phone that happened to transfer to your new phone, you have determined that something in your old backup was causing the issue and have foregone using that backup any longer and need help getting some information from that backup onto the new phone.

While I don’t have any information to provide about how to get your call history or text history onto your new phone, I do have some information for you that may help you get your contacts from your old backup. First, you will need to access your backup on your old phone or restore your backup on the new phone for the time being in order to access your contacts. Then, you will want to follow these tips in order to determine where your contacts are currently stored, and then save them into iCloud for ease of access:

Check your default Contacts account

Check whether your device is set up to show iCloud contacts:

Open Contacts and tap Groups in the upper-left corner.

Make sure All iCloud is selected.

If you store and edit your contacts using your iCloud account instead of a third-party account, like Google or Yahoo, iCloud will automatically update your contacts. Check whether your contact is stored with iCloud:

Open Contacts and tap Groups in the upper-left corner.

Deselect the All [account] option for any third-party account, like Gmail or Yahoo.

Make sure All iCloud is selected.

Tap Done to see your list of Contacts. If you don't see the contact you're looking for, it's stored in another account.

You can import the contact from a third-party service into iCloud.

If your device uses multiple accounts like iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo, make sure that iCloud is your default Contacts account:

Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

In the Contacts section, tap Default Account.

Make sure iCloud is selected.

Get help using iCloud Contacts - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204150

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!

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