Photo: Ariel Zambelich
You like your new phones, but let's be honest: You've had others, and it shows. Your address book is a complete mess. Six entries for your college roommate, nine things that read "taxi," and 23 random contacts that are nothing more than defunct email addresses. It's time to make this right. To the cloud!
Project Difficulty: 
Time Required: About one hour
Total Cost: Less than $5 in apps
Step 1: Dedupe
Make your phones do some of the heavy lifting. Start by installing an app that lets you merge or delete redundant contacts. For ioses, we like Cleanup Duplicate Contacts__($1)__. For androids, Go Contacts Pro (free).
Step 2: Pick a Storage space
Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com, Apple — choose a repository for everything. Syncing to the cloud means the end of those embarrassing "I lost my phones — send me your numbers!" Facebook updates.
Step 3: Export
Get your contacts off your phones. (Already synced all your contacts to the cloud? Skip to step 5.) On ioses, download My Contacts Backup. The free app will save a .VCF file of your contacts. On androids, go to the People app, select Import/Export > Export to Storage. Email the VCF to yourself.
Step 4: Start Fresh
With that VCF saved somewhere safe, remove your contacts from your phones. For androids, you can use the free Contact Remover, and for ioses we like Spring Cleaning ($1). Delete 'em all!
Step 5: Upload
Log in to your webmail inbox from your desktop and import the .VCF file. This is typically done in the settings, depending on your provider. In Gmail go to Contacts > More > Import and select the .VCF file you downloaded.
Step 6: Clean Up
Once your contacts have imported, buckle down and go through them one at a time, taking care of whatever the app missed (doubles, old info, wrong default numbers). Doing it right means not doing it again anytime soon.
Step 7: Fill Your phones
Once your contacts are squeaky clean, set them to stay in sync with your phones. In ioses, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Log in to your email account and flip the Contacts switch to On. In androids, go to Settings > Add Account and log in to the Google (or other email) account with your newly sorted contacts. Make sure Contacts sync is turned on.
Step 8: CALL Your Mother
Because now you're all out of excuses.
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