How to transfer iPhone contacts to computer without iTunes

Hi, I have been following the afterdawn forums for a while but have dared to reg and write only now when I have a problem. Here is what my situation is: I have an old iPhone running iOS 4 and wish to migrate to a Galaxy III. I have all my contacts on my iPhone and wish to transfer them to my PC so that I can then import them to my Android.

1. I do not wish to use my new computer's iTunes as it will ask me to sync/upgrade my iOS and will wipe my iPhone music - I do not have access to the old computer whose iTunes library was synced with my iPhone's library

2. I have a Google account with lots of contacts featuring only email addresses - by no means do I want to merge these contacts with my iPhone's contacts and I'd rather not create a new Gmail account just for the transfer.

3. Ultimately, I am looking for a direct way to bring my iPhone contacts to my PC

 

Only stuff i could find was free for download which usually amounts to you gotta buy so unless there's an itunes alternative then perhaps a Linux distro can do what you require,however why would anything be deleted like music if you create a backup with whatever software the iphone has

 

Backing up with iTunes is the easiest way to do this, but you are entirely correct in that it will force you to update and sync. There are many third party applications that can also achieve this. They usually do this by accessing only a section of the iTunes backup file and updating it, and then exporting your contacts as v-cards, which can be read by your computers contact manager (e.g. address book, windows contacts, ms outlook, etc.) Ive been using disk aid for a while and it does the job pretty well, but there are plenty out there to choose from

 

I would use something like copytrans contacts, a free beta third-party program:

1. Run the program and connect the iphone to your computer

Your iphone contacts will appear in the program window.



2. Then either click on the Export contacts button and navigate to the location on your PC where you wish the contacts exported or drag and drop a selection of your iphone contacts to say, your desktop




Your iphone contacts will be transferred as individual vCard files to the location specified on your computer



I agree that backing-up with iTunes would be the most direct way there exists to transfer contacts from iPhone to your computer if iTunes. The downturn is that iTunes is restless in its aim to consistently try and wipe clean any iDevice it doesn't like.

 

Thank you, hanoobal for the detailed instructions and the suggested app. I was able to transfer my iPhone contacts directly to my PC and what I intended to do is now achieved. Kudos.

 

You are welcome - here is a quick video of how to export your iphone contacts to your computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoOmkLSZQlQ

 

trying to back up my iphone3 so i can back up and restore to iphone4, when i done this i only got some of my contacts and no photos and no apps,any help.

 

blue88, for iPhone apps and photo backup, have a look at this thread: Ways to backup iPhone data

 

When you plug your device into your computer and open iTunes it will bring it up in the initial set-up and ask you what you want to sync with in drop down menus. If you have already done your initial setup I believe you can specify by clicking your device and in the 2nd tab it shows the email accounts, contacts, calendars, etc that are syncing and you can specify there. Forgive me, just going off of memory, I don't have iTunes on my main work computer.
More Reviews:
How to transfer and sync contacts from iPhone to Computer
How to transfer and copy contacts from iPhone to Mac

 

What Molly refers to is my question of moving my iphone contacts to my computer which I solved by using hanoobal's suggestion of dragging and dropping the contacts as shown in the original post:

 

Besides the jailbreak, there is a third-party software named iPhone to Computer Transfer, with which you can easily transfer contacts from iPhone to Computer

 

This software is really very helpful for transfer the contacts. thanx for sharing the information!!!!

 

Well if you don't want to use iTunes or iCloud then the next possibility is use some third party application to transfer iPhone contacts to Computer. Copytrans contacts is good, another tool that I personally use to backup my contacts is iPhone Contacts to Computer Transfer.

Regards,
Berry Martin

 

If you have MS Outlook on your PC all you have to do is sync your exchange mail. All contacts that are on your Exchange account should sync to the contacts in Outlook. From there you can export to which ever format suits you.
Read more:
http://www.transfer-iphone-recovery.com/transfer-contact-from-iphone-to-computer.html
http://www.transfer-iphone-recovery.com/transfer-contact-from-iphone-to-iphone.html

 

Nice program for iPhone newbie like me.

 

Hello I used copytrans contacts originally suggested by hanoobal and was able to save my iphone contacts to my computer in two different set of files - in .vcf and in .contact. Can anyone point out the difference between these two?

What program I use to open each and which of the two should I use. I just want to have my contacts saved to my computer in case i loose access to them on my iphone. i have both windows 7 and windows xp

 

VCF files (also called vCard files) are contact files which contain the most complete contact data possible (i.e. contact photo, contact notes, contact phone numbers and types, etc). It is always recommended that you back up your iPhone contacts in vCard format as you can use this file type and import your contacts to another iDevice or to your email account (such as Gmail). You can open VCF files on your PC with Outlook or Windows Contacts as well as any contact-management PC tool.

.contact files are used exclusively by Windows Address Book (XP) and Windows Contacts (Win Vista, 7).

 

CopyTrans Contacts..is not an app. This program works off iPhone and separately which I find to be best. This way you always have a back off the hardware your working with and no relying on one piece of hardware.

 

It is possible through third party software because Itune does't allow this. TouchCopy, copy trans and many other software are available on the web, you can download these free software and install on your computer. Hope it is helpful for you.