How to Transfer Phone Number to New iPhone: 4 Free Ways

Contacts should be kept on your new iPhone. Follow this passage to know how to transfer phone number to new iPhone in 4 free ways. And AOMEI FoneBackup mentioned in Method 1 might be most useful.

By @Dylan Last Updated December 23, 2024
 

Cannot transfer number?

I cannot transfer my phone number from my old iPhone to my new one. It keeps telling me to retry or contact support. I outreaches support but I’m not sure they can call me given that my phone is halfway through the transfer process….help!

- Question from Apple Community

It is so exciting to unbox a new iPhone. Yet we all know that phone number is an indispensable part of phone data. To keep the old phone number and recognize the call from your friends, colleagues, and family and never lost iPhone contacts, you must know how to transfer phone number to new iPhone.

In this post, we will list 4 ways to save iPhone numbers to a new iPhone. You can choose the professional AOMEI FoneBackup mentioned in Method 1 to directly make it at a super-fast speed.

Method 1. Best way to transfer phone number to new iPhone

The best and easiest way to quickly transfer number to new iPhone with a different Service Provider is to use AOMEI FoneBackup. With its powerful feature, you can transfer any phone numbers to a new iPhone, no matter you have saved the phone number on the SIM Card in advance or not.

๐ŸŒŸ Advantages: · 1000 + contacts can be moved in minutes. · You can easily preview and select contacts to transfer to your new iPhone. · AOMEI FoneBackup supports the latest iPhone 16, iPad 10/Air 6, as well as iOS 18/17. ·โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹โ€‹ You can export contacts from iPhone to PC and save them as vcf/csv/excel to send emails.

Part 1. Transfer multiple phone numbers to new iPhone via USB cable

You should use AOMEI FoneBackup's iPhone to PC feature to transfer contacts from old iPhone to your computer first, then use the PC to iPhone function to move contacts from PC to your new iPhone.

Step 1. Download and install AOMEI FoneBackup

Click the button below to download, install and launch the software. Connect your old iPhone with a USB cable and unlock it. Then press Trust on the iPhone if you are asked.

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Step 2. Run AOMEI FoneBackup and choose the iPhone to PC feature

Launch AOMEI FoneBackup on your computer, and choose Phone Transfer > Go to iPhone to PC > Click Get Started to continue.

Step 3. Choose iPhone Contact to move to PC

Check the Contacts option to transfer all phone numbers on old iPhone to your computer , or you can click the icon to choose specific phone numbers to transfer. Then click OK.

Step 4. Change transfer settings and begin the transfer

Confirm the contacts you need > Click Start Transfer > Choose the destination on your computer from the Transfer Settings option > Click OK to save the selected contacts to your computer.

Step 5. Connect new iPhone to computer

Now you can unplug your old iPhone and connect the new iPhone to the computer. Go to Phone Transfer > Choose PC to iPhone and Click Get Started.

Step 6. Select contacts to transfer to new iPhone

Click the Contacts icon and select the phone numbers you just saved on the computer > Click Start Transfer to begin the task.

๐ŸŒŸTip: If necessary, you can also use AOMEI FoneBackup to transfer everything from old iPhone to new iPhone (Phone Transfer > iPhone to iPhone).

Part 2. Directly transfer contacts to another iPhone

If you need to transfer a few contacts from iPhone to another iPhone, you may want to use the built-in AirDrop feature to make it, but once the transfer is finished, you may can't find the moved data together on your target iPhone. Then some questions will appear: "Where do AirDrop files go?" "How to find AirDrop files on iPhone?"

If they are big headaches for you, you can turn to AOMEI FoneBackup for iOS to make it. You can use it to airdrop files as the built-in feature on your iOS devices and you can easily find all moved files from the Transfer Records on your targeted iPhone.

You can scan this QR code below to download AOMEI FoneBackup for iOS to your iPhone.

Now, here we would like to guide you on how to use this app. Just follow the content below.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI FoneBackup app on both source and targeted iPhone. 

Step 2. Make sure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are enabled on the devices. Then choose the "Connect Device" tab. And tap the other iPhone to make a connection.   

Step 3. Select the contacts you need (phone number), and tap "Send" to transfer data.

Then you can go to the new iPhone to check them on your Contacts app.

Method 2. How to transfer phone number to new iPhone with SIM card

If you switch from Android to iPhone, you might find that there are huge differences between them. It is convenient on Android phones to save or import contacts with a SIM card, but you can only import contacts from your Android phone.

Now follow the steps below to safely place SIM card.

โš ๏ธNote:
  • Please make sure that you have saved your phone number on the SIM card.

I. Before you remove the SIM card from the old phone, please switch it off.

II. Find out the SIM Card tray on your old phone and then insert the SIM ejector tool in the pinhole to extract the SIM Card.

III. Use the same SIM ejector tool to eject the SIM tray on the new iPhone.

IV. Then remove the SIM Card from the old SIM tray and place the SIM Card in the new iPhone’s SIM tray.

V. At last, place the SIM tray back in the new device and ensure that, the SIM tray is perfectly locked in place.

If you didn't use an iPhone before and have stored the phone number of your contacts in SIM card, you should go to Settings > Contacts > Import SIM Contacts on your iPhone to transfer phone number to new iPhone.

If you used an old iPhone before, the phone number of your contacts would not be stored in SIM card, you need to sync them with iCloud or you can read the following passage to get an easy and safe way to transfer phone number to new iPhone.

Method 3. Move phone number to new iPhone without SIM via iCloud

Another answer to how to transfer phone numbers to new iPhone to use iCloud. iCloud is a cloud-based service provided by Apple to store and sync data with the same Apple ID. If your contacts are sync to your iCloud storage, the phone number will be downloaded to your new iPhone.

Step 1. Open your old iPhone > Go to Settings > Tap [your anme] > iCloud > Turn on Contacts.

Step 2. Then it will ask you if you want to merge the local contacts, tap Merge.

Step 3. Open your new iPhone, and make sure you are signing in with the same Apple ID. Then perform the same steps above to enable the Contacts on the iCloud feature.

Then wait for the phone number to sync to the new iPhone.

โš ๏ธNotes:

If you don't have enough iCloud space during the transfer, AOMEI FoneBackup's iCloud manager function can also help you delete iCloud data from PC simply (My iCloud > Manage iCloud).

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Method 4. Transfer SIM phone number to eSIM using eSIM Quick Start 

iPhone X models and later models, iPhone uses eSIM (Embedded-SIM) allowing you to activate a mobile data plan without using a physical SIM card. iPhone 14 and later models in USA even remove SIM slot with eSIM. 

If you are a customer of AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, C Spire, or U.S. Cellular, you can directly transfer SIM to eSIM during the setup process. Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1. Place your old iPhone and new iPhone near each other.

Step 2. Turn on your new iPhone, and follow the setup process to choose languages and Wi-Fi. Then you will enter the Setup eSIM screen.

Step 3. Tap "Transfer from another iPhone" on the Transfer-Your-Phone-Number screen. And tap Transfer SIM on the new iPhone.

Step 4. You will get a message to confirm the process on your current iPhone. Then the new iPhone will show a six-digit verification code. Just type the code on the old iPhone. 

Step 5. After the activation, tap "Continue" on the new iPhone. And wait for the transfer to get finished.

๐ŸŒŸTip: If you didn't transfer SIM to eSIM during the setup, you can go to Settings > Cellular to set up cellular service on your new iPhone. Or go to this transfer eSIM to new iPhone page to get more information for your iPhone 16 (Pro) / Pro (Max) or iPhone 15.

Conclusion

This is how to transfer phone number to new iphone without or without SIM card, you would better confirm that if you want to transfer the phone number with the same or different Service Provider, then choose the proper way to do the job. You could transfer phone number to new iPhone by importing from SIM card directly, or you could use AOMEI FoneBackup to transfer phone number whether you use the same carrier or not.