Learning how to switch to GrapheneOS is straightforward — but if you are coming from an iPhone, there is one thing you must do before anything else. Before you transfer a single contact, before you remove your SIM card, before you even open the box on your new phone, you need to turn off iMessage. If you skip that step, text messages from other iPhone users will keep going to Apple’s servers and never arrive on your new phone. The sender sees “Delivered.” You see nothing.
That is the single most common thing that goes wrong when iPhone users make the switch. We will cover it in full detail first.
For Android users, there is no equivalent landmine. You can move more quickly — but there are still a handful of things worth doing properly so you do not end up chasing missing contacts or blank message threads after the fact.
This guide covers everything you need to know about how to switch to GrapheneOS, Contacts, SMS history, photos, documents, and files — from both iPhone and Android — transferred securely to your new GrapheneOS phone, and from your GrapheneOS phone to your computer. No cloud services required. No Google account. No data passing through servers you do not control.
If you are still deciding which phone to get, start with our guide to deGoogled phones in Australia. This post picks up from the point where you have your new FreedomTech phone in hand and you are ready to move across.
This section is for iPhone users only. Android users can skip to Step 2.
iMessage is Apple’s messaging system. When your mobile number is registered with iMessage, other iPhone users send you blue-bubble messages through Apple’s servers instead of regular SMS. The moment you put your SIM into your new GrapheneOS phone, Apple still thinks your number belongs to iMessage. Your contacts send you messages. Apple accepts them. Your new phone never receives them. Neither party knows.
The fix is to deregister your number from iMessage before you move your SIM. Here is exactly how to do it.
Do this while your SIM is still in your iPhone and connected to mobile data — not just Wi-Fi.
Both need to be off. Apple routes FaceTime calls through the same system, and leaving FaceTime active can cause ongoing delivery issues.
Once iMessage is off, your contacts’ iPhones will start sending you green-bubble SMS instead of blue-bubble iMessages. You can confirm it worked by asking a friend with an iPhone to send you a text — it should arrive as a green message on their end within a few minutes.
⚠️ Apple’s servers can take up to 24 hours to fully update. If messages are still not arriving the next day, repeat the process or use the online tool below.
Apple provides an online deregistration tool at selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage. Enter your Australian mobile number, complete the CAPTCHA, and Apple will send a verification code by SMS to your new phone. Enter the code to complete deregistration.
⚠️ There is a known catch-22 here: the verification code is sent by SMS, but if your number is still stuck in iMessage, that SMS may not arrive on your new phone. If this happens, insert your SIM back into your old iPhone temporarily, complete the deregistration there, then move the SIM back.
One more thing: if you have an iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch linked to the same Apple ID, disable iMessage on those devices separately. Messages sent to your Apple ID email address (rather than your phone number) will still route to those devices even after deregistering your number.
Contacts transfer as a .vcf file — a standard format that every phone, operating system, and contacts app can read. The process differs slightly between Android and iPhone.
On your old Android phone:
You will now have a contacts.vcf file in your Downloads folder. Send it to your new GrapheneOS phone using Forkgram Saved Messages or by emailing it to yourself (see the transfer methods in Step 4).
On your new GrapheneOS phone:
⚠️ If the Contacts app shows ‘format not supported’ when you tap the file, the vCard version may be incompatible. The fix: open a browser on any computer, go to contacts.google.com, sign in with your Google account, select all contacts, and export as vCard. The Google Contacts export produces a clean vCard 3.0 file that imports reliably on GrapheneOS.
iPhone contacts are stored in iCloud. You will need to export them from there.
On a computer (or tablet), open a browser and go to icloud.com. Sign in with your Apple ID and open the Contacts section.
Send that file to your new GrapheneOS phone using Forkgram Saved Messages or email (covered in Step 4). Once it is on your GrapheneOS phone, tap the file in the Files app and the Contacts app will import everything.
⚠️ If contacts arrive with scrambled special characters — accented letters showing as symbols — the encoding has not transferred cleanly. This sometimes happens with older iCloud exports. The fix: import the .vcf file into Google Contacts first (contacts.google.com), then re-export it. Google normalises the encoding, and the re-exported file imports cleanly on GrapheneOS.
⚠️ If you have more than 200 contacts and the import fails partway through, try splitting the .vcf file into two smaller files. Large contact files occasionally cause import failures on first attempt.
SMS history is the trickiest part of any phone migration. The good news is that it is very achievable from Android. From iPhone, it is more limited — we will be straight with you about what is and is not possible.
The tool you need is SMS Backup & Restore, made by SyncTech Pty Ltd — an Australian company. It backs up your messages as an XML file that can be restored on your new GrapheneOS phone.
Install it on your old Android phone from the SyncTech website or via Aurora Store on your old phone. The free version does everything you need.
⚠️ Important: Before you create the backup, set SMS Backup & Restore as your default SMS app. Some Android versions do not give the app full access to your messages unless it is the default. You can switch back to your normal SMS app straight after.
Creating the backup on your old phone:
Send that backup file to your new GrapheneOS phone using Forkgram Saved Messages or email (Step 4).
Restoring on your new GrapheneOS phone:
Install SMS Backup & Restore on your GrapheneOS phone. You can get it directly from synctech.com.au/sms-backup-restore as an APK download, or through Aurora Store.
Do not use F-Droid for this — F-Droid carries a different app called SMS Backup+ which is a separate product and requires a Gmail account to function. Make sure you have the SyncTech version.
Open SMS Backup & Restore.
Tap Restore.
Navigate to the backup XML file in your Downloads folder.
Select the file and confirm the restore.
Your SMS history will appear in the Messages app.
⚠️ SMS text messages restore reliably. MMS messages — photos and images received in group chats — are less reliable. Images may show as blank even if the restore appears to complete successfully. This is a known limitation, not a fault in the process. Your text history will be intact; media attachments may not be.
⚠️ If the restore fails with an error, restart your GrapheneOS phone and try again. The internal messages database sometimes needs a reset before an import can complete cleanly.
We will be direct: transferring iMessage history to GrapheneOS is genuinely difficult, and there is no clean automatic solution. iMessage uses a proprietary format that Apple does not expose to third-party apps.
Standard SMS messages (green bubbles) sent to or from your iPhone number can be exported using a paid third-party desktop tool called iMazing. iMazing connects your iPhone to a computer via USB, reads your message database, and exports SMS conversations in a format that can be converted for import on Android. It works, but it requires a computer and some patience. If you have years of important SMS history you genuinely need to keep, iMazing is the most reliable path.
iMessage conversations (blue bubbles) cannot be transferred to GrapheneOS. They exist in a closed Apple ecosystem and there is no supported way to move them to a non-Apple device. You can read old iMessage threads on your iPhone or iPad if you keep those devices, but they will not appear on your GrapheneOS phone.
For most people making the switch, the practical decision is to accept that iPhone message history stays on the iPhone. Your new GrapheneOS phone starts fresh. That is not a flaw — it is a clean break from a closed system that has been harvesting your communications for years. What matters is that going forward, your messages on GrapheneOS are yours.
For moving photos, documents, and other files between your old phone and your new GrapheneOS phone, the easiest method does not involve cables or a computer at all.
Forkgram is a privacy-respecting Telegram client installed on your FreedomTech phone. One of its most useful features is Saved Messages — a private space in the app that only you can see. It functions like a private inbox where you can send files to yourself, and access them on any of your devices.
New clients sometimes mistake Saved Messages for a chat with another person. It is not. Nothing you send to Saved Messages is visible to anyone else.
On your old phone:
On your new GrapheneOS phone:
⚠️ Forkgram supports files up to 2 GB per file. If you are transferring a large photo library, send photos in batches rather than all at once. For a phone with thousands of photos, this takes some time — but it works reliably and nothing leaves your control.
If you do not have Forkgram set up on your old phone yet, email works as a secondary option. Send files as attachments to your ProtonMail address (already set up on your FreedomTech phone), then download them on the new phone.
The limitation with email is file size — ProtonMail’s free plan supports attachments up to 25 MB. For photos, send a few at a time. For documents and small files, email is perfectly adequate.
Once your files are on your GrapheneOS phone, you may want to back them up to your computer. This is done via USB cable — and there is one step that catches almost everyone the first time.
GrapheneOS is designed to lock down the USB port by default. When you plug your phone into a computer, it will charge — but it will not automatically appear as a storage device. You need to actively approve the file transfer connection on the phone itself.
This is a security feature, not a bug. It means a computer cannot silently read your phone’s contents just by plugging in a cable. You are in control of when access is granted.
Here is exactly how to enable file transfer:
⚠️ The notification is easy to miss. If you do not see it, go to Settings > Connected devices > USB and change the mode manually from Charging to File Transfer.
⚠️ If no USB notification appears at all, check your cable. Many USB-C cables are charge-only and cannot carry data. Try a different cable — ideally one that came with a laptop or hub rather than a cheap phone charger cable.
Once file transfer mode is active, your phone appears in File Explorer under This PC. Open it, navigate to Internal shared storage, and drag and drop files to your computer. Windows occasionally needs a driver the first time a Pixel is connected — if it does not appear automatically, Windows Update will usually find and install it within a minute or two.
Linux Mint uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) to connect to Android phones. Open the Files app — your phone should appear in the left sidebar under Devices. If it does not appear, open a terminal and run:
sudo apt install gvfs-backends mtp-tools
Then unplug and replug the phone with file transfer mode active. It should then appear in the file manager.
⚠️ On some Linux setups, file transfer over USB does not work reliably even with the correct drivers. If you hit repeated MTP errors, the Forkgram Saved Messages method from Step 4 is a reliable alternative — send files from your phone to Saved Messages and download them on your computer via the Telegram desktop app.
A Dual USB Drive — with USB-C on one end and USB-A on the other — is one of the cleanest ways to move files between your GrapheneOS phone and any computer. Plug the USB-C end into your phone, copy files using the Files app, then plug the USB-A end into your computer. No MTP, no drivers, no permission prompts. It just works.
When first using a USB drive with GrapheneOS, plug it in and open the Files app. The drive will appear in the sidebar. If prompted to format it, choose exFAT — this format is compatible with both your phone and any Windows or Linux computer.
Before you complete the process of switching to GrapheneOS, it is worth thinking about what you actually want to bring with you.
There is a principle worth considering before you spend time transferring everything from your old phone: not everything is worth moving.
Most people’s old phones are full of data accumulated over years — apps that track you, accounts that data-broker companies have already indexed, location history embedded in photo metadata, and browser cookies tied to advertising profiles. Bulk-migrating all of that to a new private phone is a bit like packing up a house you are leaving for a fresh start and bringing all the rubbish with you.
The contacts you genuinely need — yes, transfer those. Important documents — yes. Current photos you want to keep — absolutely.
But consider leaving behind: every app from your old phone that you install out of habit rather than need, old SMS threads full of marketing messages and spam, and accounts on platforms that have been profiling you for years. This is your opportunity to audit what actually deserves a place on a device that is now properly private.
Your FreedomTech phone comes with a curated set of privacy-respecting apps already installed. Before adding anything new, ask whether it genuinely needs to be there. A phone with fewer apps is a more private phone — not because the OS cannot handle them, but because each app you install is another potential data point, another permission granted, another connection to a server you do not control.
This is not about making your phone useless. It is about being deliberate. GrapheneOS gives you control that standard Android never did — the best way to use that control is intentionally, not by recreating your old phone on new hardware.
Yes, and this is critical. If you do not turn off iMessage before removing your SIM from your iPhone, text messages sent from other iPhone users will keep routing to Apple's iMessage system instead of arriving as regular SMS on your new phone. The sender sees 'Delivered' — you receive nothing. Turn off iMessage in Settings > Apps > Messages before you do anything else. Also turn off FaceTime. If you no longer have your iPhone, use Apple's online deregistration tool at selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage.
Export your contacts as a .vcf file from your old phone and import it on your new GrapheneOS phone. From Android: open Contacts > Settings > Export to .vcf file. From iPhone: log into icloud.com on a computer, select all contacts, click the gear icon, and choose Export vCard. Send the .vcf file to your GrapheneOS phone via Forkgram Saved Messages or email, then tap the file to import into the Contacts app. If the import fails, the vCard format may be incompatible — importing and re-exporting through Google Contacts produces a clean vCard 3.0 file that imports reliably.
Yes. Use the free SMS Backup & Restore app by SyncTech to back up your messages as an XML file on your old phone. Transfer that file to your GrapheneOS phone, install the same app, and restore from the backup. SMS text history restores cleanly. MMS media attachments (photos in messages) are less reliable and may not restore completely — this is a known limitation of the format, not an error in the process.
iMessage conversations (blue bubbles) cannot be transferred to GrapheneOS. Apple uses a proprietary format that is not accessible to third-party apps or other operating systems. Standard SMS messages (green bubbles) can be exported using a paid desktop tool called iMazing if you need them. For most people, the practical approach is to accept that iMessage history stays on the iPhone, and start fresh on GrapheneOS. Your communications going forward — via Signal, Molly-FOSS, and standard SMS — will be yours entirely.
GrapheneOS defaults to charge-only mode on USB connection. Your phone will charge but will not appear as a storage device until you actively approve file transfer on the phone. After plugging in: unlock your phone, swipe down to see notifications, and tap the USB notification. Select File Transfer (MTP). If no notification appears, go to Settings > Connected devices > USB and change the mode manually. Also check your cable — many USB-C cables are charge-only and cannot carry data. If you continue to have problems, using a Dual USB Drive or the Forkgram Saved Messages method avoids USB entirely.
Yes, once you have confirmed everything has transferred successfully. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone (on iPhone) or Settings > General management > Reset > Factory data reset (on Android). This removes your personal data from the old device. Do not do this until you are certain your contacts, photos, and any other files you need are safely on your new phone or backed up elsewhere. Take your time to check before you reset.
If you are ready to make the switch to GrapheneOS, your FreedomTech phone arrives fully configuredand ready to use, with GrapheneOS already installed, hardened, and set up with privacy-respecting apps. The full range of deGoogled phones is available here — from Pixel 7 series through to the latest Pixel 10 Pro. If you have questions about which model suits you, reach out to us at [email protected] or join our telegram community
If this guide helped you make the switch — or if you know someone sitting on the fence about their privacy — send them this page. The more Australians who know this is possible, the better.
