How To Access iCloud Content On Your Android Device.
iCloud provides you with a great way to organize your content in the cloud. It supports various types of files, including images, videos, notes, contacts, and so on. Pretty much anything you use on your device on a daily basis can be synced to your iCloud account.
While all of this is great, there are serious restrictions on accessing synced content. iCloud does not offer an official app for Android users to access their iCloud content. If you are using an Android device and have important content on iCloud, there is no easy way to access it.
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However, the lack of an official app cannot prevent you from accessing iCloud on your Android phone. There are several workarounds to help you access iCloud contacts, email, calendars, and more on third party devices.
Use an iCloud Android email account
If you’ve been an Apple user all this time, you’re probably using an iCloud email account to send and receive emails. While this email account will work right out of the box on an Apple device, it will take some steps to get it working on an Android device.
It’s pretty easy to set up on an Android device because iCloud email uses industry standard email protocols, allowing you to access your email from any supported email client.
Most likely you have a Gmail app installed on your device, which we’ll configure to use an iCloud email account. Here’s how to do it:
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Launch the Gmail app on your device, click your profile icon in the upper right corner and select “Add another account”. This will allow you to add an iCloud account to your device.
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iCloud will not be listed on your screen. However, you can add it using the “Other” option at the bottom of the list. Click on it.
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You will be prompted to enter your email address. Enter your full iCloud email address and click Next to continue the process.
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Open a new browser tab on your computer, go to the Apple Accounts page, sign in if required, and click the Generate Password button to generate a password to use with the Gmail app on your device.
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Enter the generated password in the Gmail app on your device and click Next.
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You have successfully added your iCloud email account to your Android device. Gmail will sync your email so you can send and receive iCloud emails from your device.
Get iCloud Contacts on Android
There are two ways to access iCloud contacts on an Android device. You can import the contacts file to your device or upload it to Google Contacts and let the contacts sync with your device.
In both cases, you will need an iCloud contacts file, which we will now show you how to get from the iCloud website. Once this is done, you can decide how you want to import it to your device.
Get contacts file from iCloud
Get iCloud Contact File
Go to the iCloud website in any of your browsers, sign in to your iCloud account, and click Contacts.
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Select the contacts you want to make available on your device, click the gear icon at the bottom and select Export vCard.
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A file containing all your iCloud contacts will be saved to your computer. Now, use one of the two methods described below to display contacts on your device.
Method 1. Import contacts offline
Connect your Android device to your computer and transfer your contacts file to your device storage. If you have any problems, check out our Android and Mac File Transfer Guide.
After transferring the file, disconnect the device from the computer. Launch the Contacts app on your device, tap the three dots in the upper right corner and select Settings.
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Click Import / Export at the bottom of the next screen.
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On the next screen, select Import from .vcf file and then Phone. Select the iCloud contacts file using the file manager.
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Your iCloud contacts will be imported to your device.
Method 2. Import contacts over the Internet
Chances are, you sync your phone contacts with your Google account. In this case, you can simply upload the contacts file to your Google account and then everything will be done for you.
Go to the Google contacts site, log in and click Import.
Select your iCloud contacts file and click Import.
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The next time your phone syncs with Google, you will get new contacts on your device.
Access iCloud Calendar on Android
There is an easy way to import your favorite iCloud calendars to your Android device.
Go to the Calendar option on the iCloud website, click Share Calendar, check Public Calendar, and click Copy Link.
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Paste the link into a new tab, but don’t open it yet. Replace webcal with http at the beginning of the calendar url and press Enter. It will download the calendar to your computer.
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Go to Google Calendar, click on the + (plus) sign next to “Other Calendars” and select “Import.”
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Select the iCloud calendar file that you previously downloaded to your computer and click Import.
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The newly added calendar will be reflected on your Android device as well.
iCloud Notes Sync to Android
When iCloud notes are imported to your Android device, they appear in the Gmail app under the Notes tab. It may not be exactly the solution you are looking for, but to some extent it works.
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On your iOS device, go to Settings Notes Accounts Gmail and turn on the Notes option.
View iCloud Photos on Android
You can download iCloud photos to your Android device in two ways. Either you download the photos to your computer first and then transfer them to your device, or you use the Google Photos app to sync your photos.
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To do the latter method, install the Google Photos app on your iOS and Android devices. Go to Settings in the app and turn on Backup & sync on both devices.
Your iCloud photos will sync with the Google Photos app on your Android device.
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