How to Back Up Contacts to iPhone SIM

The iPhone doesn't let you copy contacts from your phone's address book to the iPhone SIM card. But that doesn't mean you can't back up your contacts. You just have to go about it a different way. Here's what you need to know.

Why You Can't Backup Contacts to a SIM Card on iPhone

The iPhone doesn't store data like contacts on its SIM card because it doesn't need to, and because it doesn't fit with Apple's philosophy about how users should use their data.

Older cellphones saved data to the SIM because there was no standard, simple means of backing up data or transferring it to new phones. Eventually, there were SD cards, but not every phone had them.

In contrast, there are two backup options for iPhone: it makes a backup every time you sync your iPhone to your computer and you can back up iPhone data to iCloud.

Beyond that, Apple doesn't really want users to store their data on removable storage that can be easily lost or damaged. Notice that Apple products don't have CD/DVD drives and iOS devices don't have SD cards. Instead, Apple wants users to store their data directly on the device, in backups on their computers, or in iCloud. To Apple, these are more powerful and flexible options for transferring data to new phones.

The One Way to Copy Contacts to the iPhone SIM

If you're truly committed to copying contacts to your SIM, there is one way to make this happen: jailbreaking your iPhone.

Jailbreaking can give you all kinds of options that Apple doesn't include by default. Remember that jailbreaking can be a tricky business and isn't recommended for users who don't have a lot of technical skills. You can damage your phone or void your iPhone warranty when you jailbreak it.

And, even if you do this, why bother backing up only address book data? Don't you want to backup and transfer all of your data from one phone to another? Your computer and iCloud are definitely better for that.

How to Transfer Contacts Without a SIM Card on iPhone

Forget SIM cards. Transfer your data from your iPhone to a new device using one of these methods:

• Using Your Computer: If you're replacing your current iPhone with a new one, transferring your data is part of the setup process. All you need to do is connect the new phone to the computer that you synced the old one with and then restore that backup data to your new phone.
• Using iCloud: iCloud works very much like your computer when you're setting up a new device. Also, if you sync your data to iCloud on one device, any other compatible device that also syncs with iCloud will automatically get that information.
• Using Other Services: If the data you care most about transferring is your address book and you're not locked into Apple's ecosystem, the tool you do use probably supports a convenient way to transfer your contacts. You can sync iPhone contacts with Google and Yahoo address books or, if you use a product based on Microsoft Exchange, your contacts automatically import when you connect your Exchange account.

What Does Work: Importing Contacts from a SIM Card

There's one situation in which the iPhone SIM card isn't useless: importing contacts. While you can't save data on your iPhone SIM, if you've already got a SIM with a packed address book from another phone, you can import that data into your new iPhone. Here's how:

1. Remove your iPhone's current SIM and replace it with the one that has the data you want to import (make sure your iPhone is compatible with your old SIM).

2. Tap Settings.

3. Tap Contacts (in iOS 10 and earlier, tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars).

4. Tap Import SIM Contacts.

5. After that process completes, remove the old SIM and replace it with your iPhone SIM.

Double-check all of your contacts imported before you get rid of the SIM.