Do You Know Where Your Contacts Are?
Remember back in the day when you had to upgrade your phone and you “hoped” you were able to use your sim card to save the contacts?
Well, now you can save all your contacts to “The Cloud” and simply have your phone access them. All your people information can be stored safely by the same email system you use every day and accessed by all your devices, including your phone, (and the new phone you just got).
Lets’ talk about where your contacts are and how you can make sure you can access them when you need them.
Contact Locations
Contacts in Google:
Google has a contacts option in the 9 square menu (upper right). From there you can add, view, and edit individuals.
Contacts in Outlook:
Outlook Online has a contact link in the lower-left corner (email, calendar, people). You can add, view, and edit the information for your people here.
Contacts on your iPhone:
When you add a contact to your phone the system will save it to the “default” account you choose when you set up your phone. Unless you choose otherwise your iPhone will want to save your contacts to your iCloud account. It is generally better to change this default to your primary email account.
To see which account is set as the default account for your iPhone you will need to visit settings.
- From settings scroll down until you see Contacts.
It should list your default contact account. If your primary email account is not listed you can change it. You can do so by clicking on it and choosing a new default account. If your preferred account is not listed you will need to add it.
To set up an account in the iPhone, look for “accounts” this option is available in the mail, contacts, and calendar section of your settings. You can also type “accounts” into the search field in settings.
Click “add account” and go through the process. Both Google and Outlook.com are pre-configured in the iPhone and should be easy to set up as long as you know your email address and password.
Contacts on your Android:
Because Android is a Google thing it is likely that you already have your contacts set up on your Gmail account. You can tell by opening the contact app on your phone (it looks different on different android branded phones, Pixel, Galaxy, Moto, etc.).
From the contact app, click the “Add contact” button. At the top of the new contact information screen should be the account your new contact will be saved to. If you click on it, you will be able to change it. You want it to be set to your primary email account, not the device, or the sim card. The next time you add someone to your contacts they will also be saved to that account.
If your primary account is not listed you will need to add it. This can be done in the settings of the contact app. In the settings search field type “Accounts” choose accounts and scroll down to “Add an account”. You should be able to easily follow the rabbit trail to set up a new account. You will need the email address and your password.
Once you have your contacts defaulted to your primary account you will be able to add someone to your phone and have them automatically sync to the list on your computer. And add to your computer and have it save to your phone. Be aware that it can take a few minutes to sync. Depending on what sort of mood the internet is in.
Good luck and
Don’t let your technology bully you!
