How to Copy Contact from Gmail to SIM Card & Move Contacts
Many users can’t seem to figure out how to copy contact from Gmail to a SIM card. This seemingly simple task becomes quite complex due to many underlying factors like the way you keep your contacts on Gmail.
Whether you operate a regular or eSIM etc. Not to worry, as we have a sure shot method that helps you in this process. Before we begin let us lay out the list of things you must complete prior to the contact copy.
Want to Transfer Contacts from a Gmail Account to a SIM Card do this First
See what type of SIM you are using. If it is an eSIM then sorry to inform but many major smartphone manufacturers (like Samsung) no longer allow users to keep contacts inside eSIM. This is an industry-wide trend so even the ones that allow for now may soon revoke the feature permanently.
If you are an iPhone user this limitation extends to physical extractable SIM cards as well. So once you pass the first series of checks next step is to determine the number of contacts currently in your SIM card.
There are always a few numbers kept in every SIM card even if it is brand new. These are emergency numbers of police, ambulance, and fire services. Moreover, many carriers also add a helpline, and customer service number in the SIM itself. While you are at it also note the number of new contacts you are about to copy from your Gmail.
This is important as a SIM card is not a primary storage device meaning it comes with only a few kilobytes of space. Some of which is occupied by information like carrier, phone number, current status, etc. Leaving little room for contacts to fit in.
Therefore, most SIM cards can hold only 300-500 contacts at most and some limit the number to double digits.
There is no way to see how much of the space is occupied you have to perform guesswork.
How to Copy Contact from Gmail to SIM Card from an Android Phone?
It is important to acknowledge that the native Google Contacts application (phone or web version) does not allow you to put multiple contacts in a SIM card at once.
This is due to how a Subscriber Identity Module stores contact information, it only contains two fields name and number. Whereas a typical Gmail (Google) contact contains many different fields.
The process is both similar and different from the one where we add Microsoft contacts to Android.
You can export out of the app, even delete the existing contact but not add multiple contacts at once. This doesn’t mean that it is impossible but the process does become manual and time-consuming.
- Open the Google Contact App on your phone.
- Hit the + Icon at the bottom right
- From the Save to Dropdown Select your SIM.
- Type in the name, you can also copy and paste the email address of the Gmail contact here. Just be mindful of the fact that the name can be only up to 30 characters long.
- It is mandatory to fill in the name there is no way around it. However, you can choose to disable the phone number if you want.
- After filling in the details all that’s left is to hit the Save button.
If you have other accounts on your phone and dont want to unintentionally save the contacts there instead of the SIM. We suggest that you toggle the “Use without an account” setting in the contacts app. This is to prevent your contacts app from resetting the selection back to the Gmail account after every new contact addition. However, this also means you will lose access to all accounts and their contacts. Therefore, make the decision as per your own situation.
Use Custom Contact Apps (Samsung)
Many Android Phone manufacturers add their custom skin on top of the stock Android OS. This also changes the default apps. So if you own a Samsung Android device adding Gmail contacts to your SIM card may be easier. Mare sure that you have a physical and not embedded SIM card.
Here we have the steps.
Step 1. Tap on the 3 horizontal bars.
Step 2. Click on the Import or export contacts option.
Step 3. In the From option select Phone or Cloud and pick the Google/Gmail contacts.
Step 4. Once contact selection is complete press Done.
Step 5. Select your SIM and press Import.
Alternatives to How to Copy Contact from Gmail to SIM Card
As we saw how problematic the whole process is, on top of that a SIM card can barely hold enough contacts to justify such a long and manual process. It can be thought of if there are only a few contacts that need to be moved but that is not the case.
Moreover, even the way contacts are kept in a SIM card is too shallow and does not preserve much information. You can only keep the name and phone number, so the email ID which is the main form of communication on Gmail is lost.
You may be able to automate the process with the help of scripts but that requires in-depth knowledge of the Android ecosystem. Apart from Google’s own contact app which does not allow a bulk import of contacts into a SIM card, you can try other native apps present on your phone. You might have to give them access to your contact list Gmail account and SIM card.
If you are an admin in an organization who was recently asked to put Users Gmail contents in the SIM card of their phone you can try an alternative approach.
The SysTools G Suite Export Tool can help you get your contacts in a format that can be further transformed to be kept inside a SIM card. You may as well keep the contacts in the regular vCard format.
If you want the tool can also get the contacts in PST format. This makes it easier to add contacts in a Microsoft Outlook app.
Conclusion
Now you know how to copy contacts from Gmail to the SIM card of any carrier. The process is not tough but there are a few caveats like the storage limit of the cards. Moreover, in case an admin wishes to perform this process for all users in an organization then they can fast-track a major chunk with the help of the automated solution provided above.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Gmail contacts can I keep on my SIM card?
Most SIM cards regardless of carrier can only contain up to 500 contacts.
Why doesn’t the Google contact app allow mass import of Gmail contacts in SIM cards?
Gmail contacts contain a lot more details than what is permissible inside a SIM card, the contact app does not have the feature to automatically select the most relevant feature. All these reasons together prevent the app from having a bulk import capability. However, this limitation is only if you select a SIM card as the endpoint. Other Google accounts or your phone’s internal storage allows mass import of contacts from Gmail.
