Transfer Contacts, Videos, Photos from Galaxy S3 to iPhone 5

It is relatively easy to transfer media files when you upgrade from one iPhone version to another. However, that is not the case if you are transferring data from an Android phone to an iPhone. A lot of Android phone users these days are making a shift to the iPhones. The task of transferring the data and settings in their previous Android phone, say Samsung Galaxy S3, to their brand new iPhone 5 becomes too daunting.

Many of them settle to start afresh and leave their files and settings behind in the old phone. However, it is possible to transfer files, contacts, videos and photos from old files to the new one by following a few straightforward steps.

Initial set-up and steps

Users can transfer files to their iPhone 5 from Samsung Galaxy S3 after they have set up their iPhone and activated it. The following step-by-step instructions can be followed to make this transfer. This is not applicable to call history and text messages which are dependent on the operating system.

• On your Galaxy S3, go to Contacts. Choose the menu button and then select Import/Export. Next, choose Export to Storage and select the data you wish to transfer ("Phone", in most cases). Select OK
• Connect your Galaxy S3 to your computer via USB. Activate the Disk Drive Mode in the phone. This will make the Galaxy 3 appear as a drive on Mac desktop or in My Computer. (Two drives will appear if your phone has as SD card).
• Create a folder on your desktop. Name this folder as "Galaxy S3" or "Android data" or anything you prefer. The folder is basically for storing all the information you need from your Galaxy S3. Thoroughly go through the files contained in the Android drive on the Mac desktop or My Computer and choose all the files you need to transfer to your iPhone 5.
• Drop the selected files which include music, photos, videos etc. on to the newly created folder in the desktop. It is important that the search is thorough since it will be a waste of time going back to doing the whole process again if you miss any relevant files.
• Search for VCF file and save it in the folder as well since this file has all your contacts. Drop this folder to the iPhone data folder. You are all ready to transfer this data to your iPhone, provided you have set it up and activated it. 

Transferring music

Connect your iPhone to iTunes. In order to transfer music, all you have to do is drag the iPhone data folder on the desktop folder (which now has the data from your Galaxy S3) over the name of your iPhone seen in the iTunes sidebar. This will transfer all the songs in that folder to your iPhone 5. This technique can be used to transfer any music file on your desktop to your iPhone 5. The transferred music can be found in Music app of iPhone 5.



Transferring photos and videos

On the left sidebar of iTunes, you will be able to see your phone"s name. Click on the phone"s name. Go to main window and access photos tab. Check out the option "Sync photos". A drop-down menu will appear on which you have to click "Choose folder".



You can then navigate to the folder containing the data from your Galaxy S3 on your desktop. You can see that your photos have now appeared in the Photos app on your iPhone 5. Videos can also be transferred in a similar manner.

Conclusion

The steps given above make the whole process of transferring files from Android phone to iPhone very simple. All it requires is connecting your Samsung Galaxy S3 (Android phone) to your computer and saving all the files to a desktop folder and then dropping it into the iPhone data folder. The next step is to connect iPhone to iTunes and then transfer photos, videos, music and contacts as described.