Need help converting sister from dumb to smart phone (WP8.1)

I hope this is the BEST forum for this.

I have given several people Windows phones as gifts and am about to give someone an L635 I just got from HSN. But the person (my sister) I'm giving it to claims to have a fear of smart phones in general. She has a basic dumb phone and doesn't even have text service. I can't just give her the phone in a box like I did the others because I know she would say its too much trouble or too complicated to set up. I'm not 100% sure she is afraid of them. I know she thinks the plans are much more expensive than they really are and I know her husband has no use for smart phones for reasons I never dug into. So its unlikely but her fear could be a cover story. But I digress.

I am going to add her to our family plan and pay for her service for 6 months or less while she decides if she wants to keep it or keep the dumb phone. I have all my ducks in a row for setting up the phone service but am not clear on the Microsoft account side. I never had a MS account until I bought my first WP in Feb 0f 2013. (had just local accounts on our Win8 PCs at the time). So I created my MS account as part of the switch to WP.

I want to set up a MS account for my sister that I can turn over to her with the new phone so the account creation doesn't turn into a tipping point on accepting the phone.

But I don't even recall the process and suspect I let my phone setup process walk me thru it.

So what would be the steps to set one up for her ahead of time and what things should I avoid? Part of my reason for doing it ahead of time is so I can populate a contact list in the MS account so she won't start with a blank slate with the new 635. I don't think there is a way to migrate her current contacts from her dumb phone since it is dumb and doesn't use the same size sim card.

I really need to make this as seamless as possible. So here is your chance to save someone from a life of dumb phones or even worse: a possible future as an IOS or Android user.

My gf was the same, I just went and bought her a 520 and told her tough, you're moving into the 21st century, she loves it now

Just go to outlook.com and create a new account, then use those details to log into your sisters new phone

If you're setting up the account for her, make sure she knows the details so it can be recovered - in case she forgets her password or something.

The setup process lets you either sign in, or create a Microsoft account but you can create one by signing up for Outlook (aka Hotmail) say. You could set it all up, pack it back away then it's literally good to go as soon as she turns it on, and show her around it (ie let her explore and you point the useful stuff out).

Contacts can be created by going to the People section on Outlook.com. So you could add them all up there, and when you set the phone up, they will be ready and waiting when it's complete.

You'll get: an email account, and Onedrive (cloud storage) with 15GB to play with so plenty of space to store photos and such.

You are making a good decision because Windows Phone provides a decent level of customisation while still keeping the phone easy to use. She will like it, hopefully.
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To copy the contacts, take her old sim, cut it to the required size, put it in the new phone, copy the contacts (there is an option in people settings).
then make an account on outlook, and sync your phone.

Originally Posted by sidn625

To copy the contacts, take her old sim, cut it to the required size, put it in the new phone, copy the contacts (there is an option in people settings).
then make an account on outlook, and sync your phone.

Cut the card? You serious?!?!

Thanks to you all for some good advice.

BTW, I can't cut her old sim card to transfer contacts because this only works if she continues to have her functioning dumb phone as a security blanket until she decides to drop it and keep the 635. One condition is I get the phone back to give to someone else if she decides she doesn't want it. Since she is extremely frugal, the idea of giving back a smart phone with a ~$200 MSRP may be the biggest factor in her conversion.

Originally Posted by Richard Culverhouse

Cut the card? You serious?!?!

Yea why not? Old SIMs are the same as MicroSIMs except the have more plastic around the chip, if you cut them to the size of a MicroSIM, they work perfectly fine, Ive done it with mine and 3 family members so far

Originally Posted by HoosierDaddy

Thanks to you all for some good advice.

BTW, I can't cut her old sim card to transfer contacts because this only works if she continues to have her functioning dumb phone as a security blanket until she decides to drop it and keep the 635. One condition is I get the phone back to give to someone else if she decides she doesn't want it. Since she is extremely frugal, the idea of giving back a smart phone with a ~$200 MSRP may be the biggest factor in her conversion.

If you buy a modern SIM, they come as a normal old SIM sized holder for the pop-out MicroSIM, so if you call the carrier and ask them to transfer her number to a MicroSIM, then if she wants to go back to her old phone, you can just put the MicroSIM part back into the full sized SIM surround, and it'll work fine as before

For contacts, you could try exporting them from her phone / sending them via BT or email or messaging to the new phone, or put the new MicroSIM while it's still in its full sized holder into her old phone and transfer them that way

ie: Copy From SIM to Old phone > then from old phone to new SIM > New SIM to New Phone

Originally Posted by Detectionable

Yea why not? ...

Sorry - didn't realize lol

Originally Posted by Detectionable

If you buy a modern SIM, they come as a normal old SIM sized holder for the pop-out MicroSIM, so if you call the carrier and ask them to transfer her number to a MicroSIM, then if she wants to go back to her old phone, you can just put the MicroSIM part back into the full sized SIM surround, and it'll work fine as before

Maybe I didn't explain well. Two requirements are (1) BOTH the new phone and old phone are functional at the same time with no interruptions for months (two numbers obviously) and (2) I want to give her the new phone with the contacts already in it with her not knowing its coming.

The problem is solved already. I am going to add contacts to a new MS account I created for her. I won't have all of them but do have the majority.

Originally Posted by Richard Culverhouse

Sorry - didn't realize lol

lol I didnt either until I bought an L710 and found out my SIM didn't fit, so I took a chance and cut it without knowing if it would work, but it did :)

Originally Posted by Detectionable

lol I didnt either until I bought an L710 and found out my SIM didn't fit, so I took a chance and cut it without knowing if it would work, but it did :)

Also, you can buy special SIM cutting tools for this exact purpose. Just a glorified holepunch really.

Okay, the Outlook account is created. Her name wasn't even taken. I assume I can link it to her real email for the backup when the turnover happens.

As for transferring contacts, I'd like to avoid entering them by hand. I want to transfer many of my contacts to her phone but mine only exist in my Outlook account and phone and I don't see a way to export contacts from my Outlook.com account or to import contacts into her new Outlook account from a 3rd party Outlook.com account (mine). Am I missing something? Worst case I could transfer them by installing my sim card but then would have to delete tons of contracts I don't want on her phone.

Originally Posted by HoosierDaddy

Okay, the Outlook account is created. Her name wasn't even taken. I assume I can link it to her real email for the backup when the turnover happens.

As for transferring contacts, I'd like to avoid entering them by hand. I want to transfer many of my contacts to her phone but mine only exist in my Outlook account and phone and I don't see a way to export contacts from my Outlook.com account or to import contacts into her new Outlook account from a 3rd party Outlook.com account (mine). Am I missing something? Worst case I could transfer them by installing my sim card but then would have to delete tons of contracts I don't want on her phone.

On the People screen, go into the Manage menu - you can do export in there, and import is on the main screen. It should ask you what you want to import.