How to move from Windows Phone to Android

I’m moving from a Lumia 950XL to a Galaxy S9+. I’m trying to figure out the best way to move from the Windows Phone world to the Android world.

How do I sync my Outlook contacts and calendar to Android’s contacts and calendar? Is this a one time setup or do I have to repeatedly sync them? IOW, if I add a new contact to Outlook.com, will it appear on my Android phone? Or do I have to resync everything every time I make a change? If I have to constantly resync everything, does it make sense to abandon Outlook mail and calendar and just use Google services?

Conversation 11 comments

  • Brazbit

    19 March, 2018 - 7:03 pm

    <p>Go to the Play Store and install Outlook and any other Microsoft apps you want to use from Windows Phone. Sign into them with your Microsoft account. Done. </p>

  • arunphilip

    19 March, 2018 - 11:06 pm

    <p>Welcome to Android! I made the leap a year ago to an S8+. I think Android is a good choice as it allows us to fiddle around and configure things the way we enthusiasts like. And the S9+ is arguably one of the best phones in the market. </p><p><br></p><p>Warning – long post ahead! </p><p><br></p><p>Integrating your Outlook account with your phone is a one-time setup, after which it works seamlessly and transparently. </p><p><br></p><p>For Outlook contacts – Install the Outlook app for Android, &amp; set up your account. Then, in the Outlook app, open the account's settings by tapping its name, and enable contact synchronization. You should soon see your contacts flowing into the Samsung Contacts app (the orange icon), and it will stay synced. In the Samsung Contacts app, there are a couple of useful settings under Manage Contacts and Settings – you can show only your Outlook contacts ( thereby hiding the Google account's contacts, Samsung account's contacts, phone's onboard contacts, etc.), and you can set Outlook as the default location to save contacts. </p><p><br></p><p>For Outlook calendar – you can directly view your Outlook calendar from the Outlook app itself. However, if you want to integrate your Outlook calendar into the Samsung Calendar app (the t<span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: transparent;">urquoise/cyan icon), then the process is a little more involved. You'll have to configure the Samsung Email app (the red icon) with your Outlook account, and in that app's settings, enable calendar sync (you can also minimize the amount of email sync to 1 day, headers only). Once this is done, your Outlook calendar's contacts will show up in the Samsung Calendar app. If you go to 'Manage Calendars' in the Samsung Calendar app, you should now see an entry for your Outlook calendar, and you can then show/hide the other calendars (e.g. I turn off the Samsung &amp; Google calendars). </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); background-color: transparent;">I have done this extra step because by doing so, it makes the calendar information available in other places in the OS (e.g. lock screen) and elsewhere (e.g. on a paired Samsung Gear smart watch). I've also turned the email sync settings down to the minimum (sync 1 day, headers only) and turned off Samsung Email notifications so I don't end up pulling the same email data twice. </span></p><p><br></p><p>All this is one-time setup, after this contacts and calendar entries will sync automatically within a minute or so of the change being made. Note that in both cases, we've synced with Samsung's Contacts and Calendar apps, since this offers the best integration with the phone. In the past, I've read that syncing Outlook with Android's Contacts app has had problems. </p><p><br></p><p>The OneDrive app – if you use OneDrive for photo storage, you can install the OneDrive app to back up your camera's photos. </p><p><br></p><p>The Cortana app – useful to bring notifications from your phone to your PC (e.g. to be able to read/respond to text messages/SMS, low battery notifications). </p><p><br></p><p>The Microsoft Launcher replaces the stock Samsung launcher. I'd suggest you try both the default launcher that came with your phone (Samsung Experience / TouchWiz) as well as the Microsoft Launcher and pick what works best for you. </p>

    • JimP

      20 March, 2018 - 4:59 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#254639"><em>In reply to arunphilip:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Thanks, I installed the Outlook Android app to my phone and setup my account. Inside the Outlook app, I can see my e-mail, contacts and calendar. </p><p><br></p><p>However, if I open the Phone app, none of my Outlook contacts are displayed. Did I do something wrong? Is there a way to sync my Outlook contacts to the Phone apps's contacts. </p><p><br></p><p>I've several numerous articles on the web about this and they all (so far, anyway) recommend exporting my Outlook contacts to a CSV file and then importing them to my phone. But if I do it this way, that means that whenever I add/remove/change a contact in Outlook, I'll have to re-do the export/import process. This isn't a practical solution. Is there a way to keep them automatically in sync?</p>

      • arunphilip

        21 March, 2018 - 1:37 am

        <blockquote><a href="#254879"><em>In reply to JimP:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Can you please try this? </p><p><br></p><p>In the Outlook app: </p><ul><li>Open the hamburger menu on the top left, and go to the settings gear icon. </li><li>On this <em>Settings </em>page, your Outlook.com account will be listed on the top. Tap it to open. </li><li>There'll be a slider titled '<em>Sync contacts</em>', turn this on (I'm guessing it is presently turned off). </li></ul><p><br></p><p>Then, open the Samsung Contacts app (orange icon): </p><ul><li>In the top right '…', open <em>Settings</em>, choose '<em>Contacts to show</em>' and ensure that your Outlook account is selected (or choose '<em>All contacts</em>' if you wish that). </li><li>In the top right '…' open '<em>Manage Contacts</em>', and under '<em>Default storage location</em>' select your Outlook.com account. </li><li>In the 'Manage Contacts' screen, you can also click on '<em>Sync contacts</em>' to see when your contacts were last synced. </li><li>You don't need to manually perform a sync, but you might wish to trigger it the first time (I didn't, it had already synced by the time I got to that menu). It's also good to know where you can force a sync if required. </li><li>In any case, you should start seeing your contacts appear in this app now. </li></ul><p><br></p><p>The contacts that are listed in the Samsung Contacts app are what will then show up in your phone app as well. </p><p><br></p><p>A thing to note is that since Samsung uses its own apps (Contacts, Phone, Calendar, Email) in its implementation of Android, when you check online for any information make sure it's specifically written for Samsung, and not Android in general. </p><p><br></p><p>The recommendation of exporting contacts to CSV is *so* last decade, ugh! I wouldn't wish that on my enemy, and I definitely wouldn't wish that upon you! 🙂 </p>

  • Paul Thurrott

    Premium Member
    20 March, 2018 - 8:10 am

    <p>If you install Outlook Mobile and sync your account, you have nothing to do. Sync to the native Android experiences is now automatic. Or, you could simply configure your account in the system.</p><p>Moving to native Google services is a given, I think. But you don't have to do this right away. The Microsoft stuff will work fine. (That said, do create/use your Google account to sign-in to the phone.)</p>

  • glendo calrissian

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2018 - 10:59 am

    <p>Hopefully you don't have a Toyota vehicle. My move to a 9+ from 950XL has been marred by the inability of the Entune system to:</p><p><br></p><p>1) download any contacts other than me to the car. My contacts were in Outlook, which synced fine to the Samsung Contacts app on the phone. Found a bunch of things online to try. What worked was exporting the contacts to a vcf on the phone and then importing the contacts to the phone itself (not Outlook, or Contacts). I can now dial from the car but am not sure the contacts are being synced between Outlook and the car. </p><p><br></p><p>2) No ability to patch into Google Assistant from the car bluetooth the way Win Mobile did by dialing a contact number for Cortana. It relies on the mic on the phone and "OK Google" If I want voice navigation in the car, or to hear any phone notifications in the car I have to have the audio source set to Bluetooth. Listening to the Radio or XM means I don't hear anything from the phone (as its connected via bluetooth for audio) and Entune doesn't process the incoming notification.</p><p><br></p><p>The way android deals with incoming text messages is simply archaic. I have to ask Assistant to read my last X messages, and then I am given the option to reply. It won't ask me if I want it to read an incoming message the Win Mobile would (maybe there's a setting I'm missing)</p><p><br></p><p>The continue on your PC experience is much more reliable for me with the 9+. Receiving and replying to texts on my PC is much more reliable. Outlook and focused Inbox has been a godsend with the loss of live tiles. Overall the experience with the Samsung has been wonderful, other than the in-car calling/texting experience (Music in the car is great, playing music on Spotify from PC continues seamlessly when I get in the car). That, I am assuming, has more to do with Toyota than Samsung. </p>

    • Markfurry

      14 July, 2018 - 8:38 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#255094"><em>In reply to glendo calrissian:</em></a></blockquote><p>I actually came to the forums to try and address this. I find the Android Auto experience atrocious. Sounds like there isn't a fix yet. </p><p><br></p><p>Google needs to have an office where their staff drives as a commute, then maybe the car experience with Android wouldn't be awful.</p>

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  • KingNerdTheThird

    21 June, 2018 - 1:13 pm

    <p>Is there anyway to move text messages from Windows Phone to Android?</p>

  • jumpingjackflash5

    15 July, 2018 - 7:55 am

    <p><br></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: black;">Yes it is Import SMS from Windows Phone. </span></p><p><span style="color: black;"> If you wanna import MMS you must pay for PRO version but first try with sms.</span></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • Rachel Gomez

    07 March, 2022 - 3:17 am

    <h2>Switching from your Windows Phone to your Android device</h2><p><br></p><p>Your phone is full of data that you want on your new device. To help you, we’ll explain how to take the following things with you:</p><ul><li>Transfer contacts</li><li>Transfer email</li><li>Transfer photos</li><li>Transfer music</li></ul><h2>Contacts on your new Android phone</h2><p>In the settings of your phone, go to accounts and add your Outlook account. Next, go to contacts, and tick this account in the settings under the visible contacts header. You’ll see all contacts that were synchronized on your Windows Phone, and you’ll be able to call them right away!</p><p>On your Android phone, new contacts won’t be added to your Outlook account. Android uses a Google account to synchronize contacts.</p><h2>Save contacts via Google account</h2><ul><li>Go to people.live.com and log in with your Outlook account.</li><li>Click manage and then export for outlook.com and other services.</li><li>Click Contacts.</li><li>Use the gear to select all and select the option Export vCard. Save this file. It contains all your contacts.</li><li>Save your contacts as a CSV file.</li><li>Next, go to contacts.google.com and log in with your Google account.</li><li>Select import contacts and click the CSV file you just saved.</li></ul><h2>Email</h2><p>Do you have an Outlook email address? Download the official app in the Play Store, log in, and your mailbox will be synchronized and ready to use within moments. Even if you use a different provider, you can easily read your emails on your new device. Simply add the appropriate account in the Mail app. Finally, Gmail is inseparable from Google and Android. You’ll need this kind of email account to log in to your Google account in the first place.</p><h2>Apps</h2><p>A smartphone is worthless without a truckload of useful apps. You can also download those on your Android phone, of course. Go to the Google Play Store to do this. You’re lucky too, because Android has a lot more available apps than Windows Phone. Both free and paid. Just think of anything, and there will be an app for it!</p><h2>Photos</h2><p>Are all pictures on your Windows Phone synchronized with OneDrive? You’ll only have to download this app in the Play Store to be able to view those pictures on your Android smartphone. If you want to keep using OneDrive, you can choose to save any new photos to this account as well. Google also has its own service for this: Google Photos. This part of the drive offers unlimited storage for pictures you take with your smartphone.</p><h2>Music</h2><p>Do have a Windows Phone and do you stream your music via Spotify, or Groove Music by Microsoft? Download the right app on your Android device, log in and listen to your favorite songs. You can also choose Google Play Music, especially designed for Android. Use the data cable and copy songs to your smartphone to transfer your music collection from your computer to your smartphone.</p><p><br></p><p><strong><em>Regards,</em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Rachel Gomez</em></strong></p>

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