[allorenzo]

Hello everyone!

I hope that you can assist me. I lost my blackberry storm this weekend and just received my replacement. Unfortunately, I was under the impression that verizon kept all my contacts through back up assistant. Apparently, once you obtain a blackberry, they no longer keep them and you are required to synchronize your contacts with th computer. Well, I never had the opportunity to do that.

I lost 10 years worth of contacts. Fortunately I have about 90 of them store in an excel spreadsheet. I have tried using the blackberry software to synchronize them into my blackberry but only the names show up on my device and not the phone numbers. I know that I must be formatting the file incorrectly but am confused on what it should look like. Please help! I don't want to type them in!! Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Lillian Lorenzo

[suby723]

I did a quick search for you.. You will need to download google sync. Enjoy!

OK... I figured it out!!! I thought I might post what I did here in case it helps someone else! Hope my directions make sense!

I had already been using the Google Sync application to sync my calender but had never synced contacts before because I was scared it would sync "ALL Contacts" in Gmail. Turns out it only syncs those contacts in your "My Contacts" so it worked out well.

Here are the details:

I had a regular Excel spreadsheet with these column headers:

First Name
Last Name
email address
mobile phone

(I didn't have any email addresses for these people, but I read somewhere that for gmail import to work that you HAD to have an email address column)

From Excel
I clicked:
File - Save As -
Named the file (contacts import.csv)
Under "Save as type" I picked .csv

After clicking "Save" I got a couple warnings about not supporting multiple sheets and may contain features... blah blah and I clicked "OK" or "Yes" through them.

In Gmail
I went to Contacts and clicked the "Import" link
Browsed for my "contacts import.csv" file
Clicked Import

These 45 names were added to my "My Contacts" list in Gmail.

On my BBerry
I went to Google Sync
Options
Check mark next to Sync Contacts
Save
Sync Now

Now those 45 names and numbers are on my Blackberry! Yay!

[patches152]

i use yahoo to sync to, you can import an excel contact sheet (.csv i believe) and then sync with DM to your new phone.

the benefit is that if i don't have my phone, it's dead, lost, stolen, at the bottom of the ocean, etc...my yahoo contact list is still there!

[allorenzo]

Thank you for posting. Unfortunately, I read those directions and had a similar problem. I think it is the way I am formatting my excel spreadsheet. Any thoughts?

[patches152]

hmm...on DM there are settings, since an outlook or yahoo contact are labeled/organized differently than the blackberry contact, where you set "field A" = "field 1", "field B" = "field 2", etc....so that the information is entered into the correct fields. i think that is the issue, considering that the name syncs and the contact info doesn't...it should be within the sync settings...i'll research further and get back to you

[allorenzo]

Thank you... I tried reading over that information but it didn't make sense to me. The way that I have my sheet set up now is a a column for each field, Name, Last Name, Phone Number, Work Number and I have it saved as a csv file. It uploads great in DM but when I look at my contacts on my device, it seems like it only obtained the first two columns obtaining first and last name. But the numbers don't show!! I am soo frustrated!! Thank you for the help!!

[Mart23]

Thank you... I tried reading over that information but it didn't make sense to me. The way that I have my sheet set up now is a a column for each field, Name, Last Name, Phone Number, Work Number and I have it saved as a csv file. It uploads great in DM but when I look at my contacts on my device, it seems like it only obtained the first two columns obtaining first and last name. But the numbers don't show!! I am soo frustrated!! Thank you for the help!!

For anyone who didn't have yet RIM service, you can do this:

You can import contacts of outlook by synchronizing your blackberry storm Microsoft Outlook. Follow the steps given below to synchronize it:

1. Install the Blackberry Desktop Manager Software
2. Run Blackberry Desktop Manager software
3. Connect your Blackberry device with computer
4. Click on Synchronize option
5. Check the Synchronize organizer data check box
6. Click on the Configuration tab
7. Then click on the Configure synchronization button
8. Select all data check boxes according to your preference
9. Select the program that stores your data on your desktop computer by selecting the data

Just copy from : forums.techarena.in/portable-devices/1181231.htm

[elavum]

Just my two cents
Create a new contact in Yahoo/ Gmail , which ever is convinient for you and then export the new contact to csv format. this will give you an idea of how they need you to format your contacts file before uploading back to the account. Then you are ready to sync with DM