Sim Card

[Lo20]

I can no longer use my current phone (S7) because I dropped it and the screen has gone black. I'm also not able to transfer files from this phone to my old phone, or transfer it to my computer.

I still have my older phone (S3) and the old sim card that goes with it.  I would like to use the S3 until I get my S7 fixed, or buy a new phone.  Please note that my S7 uses a micro SD which I cannot use with my S3.

My question is, once I get a new phone, am I able to reactivate my micro SD card I used for my S7 and use it in my new phone? Also am I able to access my files that are on that micro SD card once I reactivate it?

Hope this makes sense. Any help is appeciated.

[Cawtau]

Hello Lo20,

  Welcome to the community!

  Sorry to hear you've damaged your phone. Firstly, a SIM card and microSD card are not the same thing. The former is used to identify and authenticate your phone services on the networks. On the other hand, the latter are memory cards used to store files, images, etc.

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@Lo20 wrote:...I'm also not able to transfer files from this phone to my old phone, or transfer it to my computer....

...Please note that my S7 uses a micro SD which I cannot use with my S3...

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  With regards to the memory card (microSD), as far as I am aware, the S3 should be able to accept a micro SD card (see here). You should be able to transfer any information already on your microSD to either your computer or S3 by inserting the card into either device (or new phone). In addition, you might be able to access files on your S7 by connecting it to a computer via USB cord. If you are not familiar with the process, there might be third party services which could help you retrieve those files.

  With regards to the SIM card. As far as I am aware, the S7 uses a nano-sized SIM whereas the S3 uses a micro-sized one so they wouldn't be interchangeable. Assuming you used the S3 with your same phone number and account, once you switched to the S7, the S3 SIM would no longer work. You would need to get a new SIM in order to use your phone services on your S3. On the other hand, if you purchased a new phone which used the same nano-sized SIM as your S7, you could simply use that same SIM from your S7 in your new phone.

  As mentioned, if you did wish to use your old S3, you would need to purchase a new SIM. However, most new SIMs are multi-sized. That is, you can remove or keep parts of the SIM according to your phone's size requirements (see below).

  The innermost portion is the nano-sized card. If you include the adjacent portion, that is the micro-sized card. Similarly, including both adjacent portions provides the standard SIM size. Once you purchased your new phone, you could resize the card accordingly. If you chose to get a new SIM, updating your account to your new SIM would deactivate the SIM currently in your S7.

Hope this helps 😀

Cheers