Hi, brand new and not tech savvy so forgive the possibility of stupid question / obvious answer.
I have not yet set up my new phone (Moto G 2024) partially because I’m getting hung up on the degoogling work of separating out my contacts on my old phone (LG Aristo 5) and google cloud. [Context for concerns of losing contacts and other data: I switched from a flip phone in 2020, I was told my SIM card would allow contacts to transfer to my first smart phone, but instead it very much lost those contacts forever.] From what I understand my SIM card just keeps my phone number and account within my network (T-Mobile), they don’t usually store data themselves? So I’m trying to back up my contacts, but my SIM card doesn’t have enough space. I could back it up on the phone itself, maybe that’s the solution? Then export that file to temporary storage and transfer it to the new phone after I change over my SIM card? I feel like there’s something obvious I’m missing. I looked on reddit r/degoogle but I still really don’t understand it.
And within all that I really don’t know how much of my google contacts are synced with my phone contacts or how to find that information out. My phone contacts app says there’s nothing else to merge but I don’t know how to confirm that.
Check in your Contacts application settings for an “export” function, export as .vcf, save to your microSD card or a USB drive, copy to the new phone (anywhere), open the Contacts app on the new phone, settings, import .vcf, point it to the .vcf file you just pasted, et voilà! Now they’re in the Contacts app, and you have a saved backup (that .vcf file). You might also want to copy that to your computer, network storage, etc.
I can’t advise you there… no experience.
But I’m guessing if you’re currently syncing your Android Contacts to the cloud, then they’re likely identical. You would have to see what’s in that “cloud” and compare, I guess.
Hope that helps.
P.S. Welcome!
P.P.S. You can do your calendar the same way.
Also thanks to @Taurus-II for a quicker reply than I could manage
As an additional option, you can use DAVx5 (from F-Droid) to connect to your Google Account and then have your contacts and calendars sync to your device and used by the default Contacts and Calendar apps.
I sadly need to do this as there are a few extended family calendars I haven’t yet been successful at having people migrate away from, but also there are work calendar cases for many in the USA as Google Suite is used by so many companies. NOTE: a bit out of scope here but you can use Shelteror other ways in order to not have to use the Google Account on your main profile.
