23

How can I add and manage contacts on a SIM card with an Android phone (HTC Magic)? I'm aware of 1 application which is capable of doing this but it cost 4€ for SIMPLY managing SIM contacts o_O

samthebrand
  • 295
  • 6
  • 15

5 Answers5

10

The default (well, default on my Samsung Galaxy S - I guess default in Android doesn't mean much) contact manager can do a part of this. When creating a new contact, it gives the option of storing it on the SIM, Phone memory, or a linked account (like Google).

There's the option of copying contacts from SIM to Phone or Phone to SIM (Contacts->Menu->more -> Copy contacts). Import/Export is in the same spot.

I know these suggestions aren't quite what you're looking for. I don't know if contacts can be stored on a SIM card in different ways depending on the Phone. From what I've seen the software that comes with Android phones might (depending on manufacturer) let you move contacts around.

cofiem
  • 569
  • 2
  • 8
  • 14
  • 2
    on the T-Mobile G2, you can only "Import from SIM card". You cannot, apparently, put contact data into the SIM card. – benc Feb 05 '11 at 04:36
  • @benc HTC models some of them marketed as t-mobile gX (x for version) do not have option to back to sim, but you can use free application like contact2sim to work around – peter_budo Jul 29 '11 at 15:32
  • @cofiem update for Android 10: SIM and phone memory are not a storage option anymore -- it lets you save contacts only on an email (like gmail) account (I am on Xiaomi A2) – jjrr Oct 22 '20 at 14:12
5

I wanted to delete some contacts on my SIM card on my HTC Sensation. I tried and tried and it didn't work. So I took out my old Nokia phone and it can read and write to the SIM card. Deleted the contacts I didn't want. It worked.

BeachBearIT
  • 51
  • 1
  • 1
4

In general, don't store your contacts on the SIM card. There is no advantage in doing so. Modern smartphones are usually only able to import/export contacts stored on the SIM card.

The contact App from Android 4.0 on provides a feature which lets you import your contacts form SIM card to either Google contacts (which I highly recommend) or simply local phone contacts.

Open Contacts > Menu > Import/export > Import from SIM card

Furthermore the "Messaging" app of Android 4.0 is able to mange the text messages stored on the SIM card.

There are only a few very narrow reasons for storing contacts on a SIM. Some like to be able to swap the SIM card into a small feature phone when performing certain activities (like trail running).

However, note that contacts stored on the SIM card are unprotected. Everyone who has access to the SIM card can read your contacts. This impacts your and your contacts privacy.

Flow
  • 18,464
  • 16
  • 79
  • 138
0

New (manual) contacts should get backed up if your gmail account is linked, and they should show up in your gmail contacts.

But my old ones (on sim and phone before email was linked) did not. I had to copy the ones from my sim and phone to my SDcard by going into contacts (people) then menu -> export to SD (as for example SIM.vcf).

And after that menu -> import to (my email) linked gmail address. And i just told it to import all vcf files on the SD.

And that was it, they were now all in my gmail contacts.

mrcktz
  • 157
  • 2
  • 11
derp
  • 1
0

I have Android 10 on a SmartE11 phone.

I tried to delete contacts that are stored on the sim using the phone app. I get a message 'Could not delete contact' with no explanation why. I also got a 'silent notification': Problem deleting contact from SIM, with the body: This phone may not be able to delete contacts from a SIM.

At the top of the contact display, for contacts on my sim, it shows "Saved to SIM - view-only'. So, I guess it is because the contact is view-only.

The pre-installed Contacts app has an option 'Fix & manage'. This has an option 'Manage SIM'. This lets me import or delete the contacts on the sim. I wanted to delete some obsolete contacts added on my old phone. I selected the contacts to be deleted (actually, I unselected the contacts I didn't want deleted, because they were all selected by default and there was no option to unselect all) and clicked the trash can icon then clicked Delete on the 'Remove contacts from SIM?' pop-up.

This deleted the contacts from the sim but didn't remove them from the contacts list on my phone app. To achieve that, I had to shut down my phone then start it again. The contacts from the sim were then gone from the phone app: All of them were gone, even those I hadn't deleted from the sim. But a little while later, those that were on the sim reappeared in the phone contact list.

It's a bit roundabout and hardly obvious, but it worked.

Ian
  • 101