[affguy]

When my girlfriend switched from a razr to a Pearl a couple months ago, she had to manually enter all her contacts. When I upgrade from a VX8700 to a Storm next week, I *really* don't want to have to do that. So...what's the easier, automated way to move all my contacts from a non-BB to a BB OS device?

Also, do we want to start a list of "must have" apps? I know I'll immediately be looking for a multi-alarm-clock thing...having 3 alarms is all that gets me to work on time (or less than half an hour late).

[Habious]

Yeah, I'm looking into the same thing.

I have years worth of Datebook appointments and hundreds of contacts in my Address Book that I have to convert from a Palm DB format to something that the BB can read.

I've found a couple of utilities that will convert my Palm DB files into standard CSV files. I should be able to import those into the BB via the Desktop Manager. But, I know it's not going to be "three clicks and I'm done"...it'll be a process.

Dba 2 Csv - Does just Address book files.

PD-CSV Converter - Data conversion between Palm Desktop and CSV files - Looks like it does Address Book, Contacts, Tasks, and Memo files...all to CSV

I've got too much data to just start over clean with a new device.

There's hopefully something out there for your VX8700. Hopefully it doesn't use some goofy, proprietary format.

Also, as a last resort, Verizon can supposedly move your contacts over from your old phone to your new phone.

They did this for me once when I had to have my Palm replaced. However, their software did a really $h1tty job...didn't parse the data fields correctly. Ended up just syncing with some older data and cleaning out the messy duplicate entries that they'd made.

[Habious]

UPDATE -

I found this for you...

Welcome to BitPim

Supposedly, "BITPIM connects to the phone via usb or bluetooth and the software will export the phonebook to a CSV file."

Once you have your address in a universal file format like CSV, it should be a cinche to import it into the BB.

[DizzyGoldfish]

Not sure it helps but if you can get your contacts/calendar etc. imported into MS Outlook, you can sync via BB Desktop pretty easily. When I first got my BB over a year ago I took the time to manually enter everyone into Outlook and I think it was a good investment of my time. Once you get them into Outlook you can do all kinds of stuff with them (import to Google, sync to BB, etc.).

If you can use the converters mentioned above to keep you from having to manually re-key, all the better.

[affguy]

UPDATE -

I found this for you...

URL deleted because I'm a n00b

Supposedly, "BITPIM connects to the phone via usb or bluetooth and the software will export the phonebook to a CSV file."

Once you have your address in a universal file format like CSV, it should be a cinche to import it into the BB.

Awesome...I've already got my phone BT paired with my laptop (I don't have the proper USB cable), so I'll download and try that tonight. Thanks!

Presumably the BB OS allows multiple contacts for one entry (e.g. cell phone 1/2, home phone, office phone, email 1/2, etc) and doesn't require a separate entry for each method of contacting someone? I'm hoping this sounds like a dumb question to most, but I have had a couple phones that were the latter, and man was that a PITA to move.

[kstoutdog]

I just had the guys at the VZW store hook it up and transfer everything...

[affguy]

UPDATE -

I found this for you...

Welcome to BitPim

Supposedly, "BITPIM connects to the phone via usb or bluetooth and the software will export the phonebook to a CSV file."

Once you have your address in a universal file format like CSV, it should be a cinche to import it into the BB.

I've now downloaded, installed, and used this software, and it worked fantastic. It took me about 10 minutes to figure it out well enough to get into the phone, and then it was a breeze to copy all texts, contacts, and call logs to my laptop (and ringtones, media, etc are options). Even if I couldn't get into this phone, it'd be a WAY easier method to enter contacts and move them to the new phone. I should have installed this a year and a half ago! Thanks again.

Blues,
Dave

[Sooks]

well i look at it two ways ..... 1) there is no better way to learn to use the storm keyboard then tying in 300 contacts lol.... or 2) Have verizon transfer the data for free .

[bigbirdlarry]

gotta get an umbrella

[jbjtkbw007]

Does anyone know if VZW's Backup Assistant will allow you to import the uploaded contacts to your BB Storm once you activate it?

[fonebrkr]

For folks transferring contacts from other phones, if you get it to a pc you can send ms docs to these sweet babies and cut and paste also. Since it has docs2go preloaded, also there's the online gmail option I believe. I would recommend doing it yourself, for vzw to do it they have to add an app, cellebite? I believe is what it's called, and as someone said earlier, it does a crappy parsing job at best..

[cjohnson481]

Does anyone know if VZW's Backup Assistant will allow you to import the uploaded contacts to your BB Storm once you activate it?

backup assistant is only for non-smartphone devices. there is no way to use backup assistant on the 9530. you can, however, use backup assistant, then copy from the web and save as a file that could be read by outlook and import your contacts to outlook and then sync with blackberry.

the easiest way is really just to ask if they can do a phonebook transfer for you. they will use the cellebrite to transfer your address book. you do not want them to transfer your pictures to the bb using the cellebrite because the file size is huge. the best is to save your pictures to a memory card and then put the memory card in the bb.

[shooptek]

This is what I did when I switched to my first BlackBerry. I took all the contacts and dates that I had in my phone and started plugging them into outlook, attaching email addresses for the people I had them for. This allowed me to make many updates or corrections that I hadnt noticed before, including adding full/last names.

Now all of my info is backed up in Outlook and on my device, and I can just sync them back and forth whenever. It was a pain in the **** to put in over 400 contacts but it was worth it in the end. The great thing about Desktop Manager and Outlook is that any time your phone gets damaged or you upgrade or you lose your phone, you have it all backed up. Luckily none of those have been an issue for me anyway, but its nice to know it is backed up just in case.