So you’ve decided to switch to Android. can’t say we blame you—as you’ll soon see, the grass over here is as green as our bots—but we know that starting from scratch can be a scary experience. There’s all sorts of information on your old ione that you’re going to want to transfer to your new one, let’s face it, Apple isn’t exactly going out of its way to help. But we are!

atever your reason for getting your head out of the iClouds, we’re here to support you through this difficult break-up. And before you can say “no headphone jack” we’ll have your new phone up, running, packed with all the stuff you were afraid you’d have to leave behind.

Switching from another Android phone instead? Check out our detailed guide!

Getting ready

Before your new phone even arrives, there are things you can do to prepare. st as your iTunes iCloud accounts are the keys to keeping of your iOS devices humming in unison, a account is necessary on your new Android phone. You probably already have a Gmail account, but if you don’t, go get one. ile you’re at it, you should enable 2-step verification. Your account will hold all your personal information, including contacts, calendars, Chrome passwords, so the more protection you can add to it the better off you’ll be. 

And we’re sorry to say but you’re going to need to turn off iMessage. If your contacts send you an iMessage instead of an SMS text, you don’t have an ione to receive it, it will get lost in the ether. So you’re going to want to tell Apple to stop trying to send them. (You can find the toggle inside the Messages tab in the Settings app on your ione.) And besides, you don’t want people to think you’re ignoring them when their lonely message is really just sitting unread on Apple’s servers.

And finally, it’ll also be helpful to sign up for a Dropbox account, if you don’t already have one. There are a number of cross-platform apps that use Dropbox rather than Drive as their syncing engine, one of your old apps will likely need it to transfer your data.

Use your Drive

ile your iCloud Drive will pretty much be useless the minute you turn off your ione, Drive can actually help with the transition process. Not only will it be useful in storing transferring documents, but while we were preparing this guide, unveiled a simple backup system right inside its Drive iOS app. It won’t bring over everything ( we still recommend following the steps in this guide to ensure a seamless transfer), but if you’re happy with just grabbing contacts, calendar entries, photos, it’s worth a try.

To get started, download the Drive app on your iOS device head into the Settings (inside the hamburger menu button). Select Backups you’ll be taken to a screen where you can choose whether you want to save your contacts, calendar events or photos. Tap Start Backup it’ll begin running, though you’ll need to keep your phone on the app open, so it’s best to do it overnight with your phone plugged in.

The Drive method works well, but it’s an all-or-nothing situation, so if you don’t want every single calendar entry contact coming over to your new phone, you’ll need to trim them down in their respective apps first. And as we describe below, you’ll still want to change the defaults on your old ione to keep everything up to date. But it will get some of the data onto your new phone quickly so you can start using it.

xel power

If your new phone happens to be a xel or xel X moving in is easier than it is with any other phone. That’s because of ’s included Quick Switch Adapter, a simple, speedy method for pulling your data over to your new phone.

During the setup of your xel, you’ll be given an option to copy your data from your ione. Dig through your xel box to find the tiny B-C adapter, attach your ghtening cable to it, plug the appropriate ends into each phone. Then, after you log into your account, the xel will search your ione for any contacts, calendar events, photos, videos, non-DRM-protected music, texts, even iMessages, bring them all safely over to their new home. (One thing though: If you use an iTunes backup instead of iCloud, recommends that it is an unencrypted one. To check, open iTunes on your computer, plug in your ione, go to the Summary tab, make sure the Encrypt iTunes Backup option is unchecked. If it was turned on, you’ll need to run it again.)

It’s all pretty magical, the process is much easier than Apple’s Move to iOS app. And it’ll save you a whole lot of time by skipping most of the steps you’ll need to take with just about every other phone.

Calendar

en you open your calendar app for the first time on your Android device sign into your new account, it’s probably going to be empty. But moving all your appointments from your Apple calendar to your one is easier than you think.

If you have a Mac, the first thing you’ll need to do is open the Calendar app on your computer. Select the calendar you want to export, head to the File menu, click Export to create an ICS file. (Repeat if you have more than one calendar to copy over.) If you’re using a , however, you’ll need to jump through a few small hoops. First, log in to iCloud.com open the calendar app. Select the calendar you want to share click the broadcast icon to the right. In the accompanying dialogue box, select blic Calendar copy the address that appears. (The address will be too long to view, so you’ll need to click the email link button to copy the whole thing.) ste the entire link into a new tab, change “webcal” at the front to “http”, press enter. That will download the ICS file you need. Finally, go back to your iCloud Calendar uncheck blic Calendar, then repeat the process for any other calendars to want to copy over.

Then log in to your calendar on the web import the file you downloaded by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner of the screen. Go down to Settings, click Calendars find the Import calendar button. Then all you need to do is find the file you exported your ione’s dates will show up on your Android phone. st don’t forget that you’ll need to do this for each of the calendars you’ve exported (Home, rk, Birthdays, etc.).

en all that’s done, the last thing you need to do is change the default calendar account on your Apple devices (including your old ione) from iCloud to . On iOS, you can switch it in the Calendars tab inside the Settings app, while on OS X you’ll find it inside the app’s preferences. From there, you can simply log in to your account your events will forever remain perfectly in sync.

Contacts

Now that you’ve got your appointments in order, you’re going to need some people to communicate with. And since you’re already an expert in importing calendar files, you’ll just need to do the same with your contacts.

Once again, you’re going to start with your computer, but things are a little different. On your Mac, jump into the Contacts app, do a select-all so you make sure to grab all the names in your address book (or go through select the ones you want). Then navigate over to File > Export, select Export vCard. Check to make sure the file says something like “Amy s 200 others,” choose where you want it to go, hit the save button.

It’s just as easy on your . Go back to iCloud.com this time select the Contacts app. Select all of your contacts, click the gear icon at the bottom left of the screen, find the Export Vcard option.

Then go back to your account on the web, but this time you’re going to open Contacts (it’s in the second batch of icons). Click on the More option under your account icon on the left, scroll down to the Import button, select CSV or vCard file. However, since is currently in the process of redesigning Contacts, you can’t actually complete the import here. Instead, it will prompt you to go back to the old app where you can click on the Import Contacts button at the bottom of the left-h column. Once the box opens, choose the vCard file, your address book will instantly populate with all of the names from your iOS one.

Mail

Of course, if you’re already using a GMail account as your main email address, you can skip right to the next section. en you sign in to your new Android phone with your account, all your mail will be there. But setting up your iCloud account isn’t too much more difficult. And even though you won’t see an option for iCloud when you go to add a new account, you can still use the GMail app to manage your Apple mail.

To get started, open the Gmail app on your new phone, go to Settings (at the bottom of the sidebar), tap Add account. On the Set up email screen, select Other, follow the prompts to enter your iCloud email address password. (If you have 2-step or 2-factor authentication enabled for your iCloud account, you’ll need to create an app-specific password first on your Apple ID account page.)

That should be enough to get your account up running, but if you’re still getting error messages, you might need to tweak the server settings. You can find the incoming IMA outgoing SMTserver settings on Apple’s website. And if you don’t want to use the GMail app that came with your phone, you can download any number of great ones from the ay Store, including to, Newton, Outlook, others that you may be familiar with on iOS.

Messages

Here’s the only real stumbling block with switching between iOS Android: Your messages don’t play nice between the two operating systems. Even if you’re moving between Android phones the system is less than ideal, mostly relying on third-party solutions that may or may not work.

As we already discussed, offers an excellent solution baked into the xel, Samsung offers something similar with its Smart Switch app, but otherwise there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to bring your messages over. The most popular tool is iSMS2droid, but it relies on making an unencrypted iTunes backup, digging into your drive to find the SMS database file, renaming it converting it. Not exactly the easiest of solutions. 

So, unless you use atsApp, Facebook Messenger, or some other over-the-top service, your iMessages will likely be forever locked on your old ione. But a clean slate might be for the best anyway since you’re going to be a green bubble from here on out. Because you’ve already turned off iMessage, right?

otos

Now that the important information is all ported over, it’s time to get into the fun stuff. know you’re going to be using your new phone to take tons of photos videos, but all the ones you took with your old ione can come along too. And you won’t need to attach any cables to transfer them.

l you need to do is download run otos on your old ione. Really, that’s it. Once you log in to your account, the app will do all the heavy lifting for you, scanning the entire contents of your photo library dutifully copying everything that’s inside (including any photos videos that reside on your iCloud Drive). And that’s not even the best part. otos won’t even count the space it uses against your Drive storage limit, so long as you opt to store High Quality shots rather than full-size ones. If you used the Drive transfer process from earlier in this article, already put all your photos videos in otos, so you’re all set.

It might take a few hours for larger libraries to upload, but once it’s finished, you’ll never be more than a tap away from a lifetime of memories. So whether it’s your next Android phone, a new id, or the web, you need only sign in to the otos app to access every picture screenshot you’ve ever taken, no matter how or where they were shot.

Music

st like your photos, getting the tunes from your old ione onto your Android phone is quick easy. Of course, if you subscribe to a streaming service, it won’t take any time at all—just download your app of choice, sign in start rocking out. And if you’re using a service that supports uploads (including Apple Music), your entire library will be at your disposal.

But even if you have a ton of ripped tracks on a external drive, has you covered. You don’t have to be a subscriber to ay Music to take advantage of its best feature—storing up to 50,000 of your own tracks. And it won’t cost you a dime. st log into ay Music web app, go to the menu in the upper left, select Upload Music. Your entire collection will be ready to stream in minutes (or hours, depending on the size) on any all of your devices.

Anything else

For the rest of the apps you use on your phone, you’ll need to hit up the ay Store to find replacements or Android counterparts. l the major apps are represented, of course—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.— you’ll need only sign in to your account to pick up where you left off. And of course, if your favorite game uses Facebook or some other cloud platform to sync, your progress will be restored once you log in (so don’t freak out, Cy Crush addicts).

If you were already using Chrome on your old ione, your bookmarks, open tabs, search history will all be synced to your new device, along with any passwords you’ve stored as soon as you sign in. And if you were using one of the main password managers (1ssword, stss, or Dashlane), you’ll be able to grab a copy in the ay Store.

To get your Safari bookmarks into Chrome on your new phone, you’ll need to download the iCloud app for ndows. Once it’s all set up you’re signed in, click the Options button next to Boomarks select Chrome. ess Apply, select Merge in the pop-up dialogue box. (If prompted, allow Chrome to install the iCloud Bookmarks extension.) Once it’s done, all of your Safari bookmarks will appear in Chrome’s bookmark’s tab on your Android phone ( everywhere else).

You can do that right in Chrome on a Mac. unch Chrome, open the menu at the top right, click Bookmarks. Select Import bookmarks settings, choose Safari, press import.

And that should be it. Other than a stray document or file that you can just toss in your Drive, your new phone will be all ready to go. And we don’t think you’ll miss it all.