Database Users

alternative way to backup contacts?

Hi
Just got this thing the other day (O2 XDA Mini S) and am pulling my hair out with ActiveSync. A google and a look round these forums convinces me I'm not alone.
I'm now at the point where notes will sync, but Contacts and Calendar will not. This appears to be most likely because I'm not using an Exchange Server.
I give in. Can anyone advise whether this some alternative to ActiveSync that I can use to back up my contacts list? I'd hate to have to do it all over again.
I have a memory card, so adding software from that is no problem if necessary.
Thanks

You can try the backup tool Sunnysoft
in advanced mode is an option Backup PIM databases

lansalot said:
I'm now at the point where notes will sync, but Contacts and Calendar will not. This appears to be most likely because I'm not using an Exchange Server.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you just trying to sync with your pc over the usb link? You don't need Exchange Server for that - it sync's with Outlook directly. Have you set up what information you want to sync in ActiveSync's Tools->options?
Another possibility for not syncing is any firewall you are running - although, if it was that, you wouldn't even get Notes to sync.
John

yup
Thanks for that John, yep I've done all I can see that I need to do. Missing Exchange was about the only thing left I could think of. I think I might uninstall Outlook and reinstall it to see if that helps. Though I *hate* having to install that POS just so I can backup some settings !
Perhaps there's somewhere within the phone that will export the various settings somewhere. Or perhaps I should dig out VS2005 and attempt to write one myself. Backing up to storage card would be the best option I think, and from a look around the .net mobile CF, it would appear to be pretty well supported.
And I had to disable Zonealarm despite having all the appropriate configurations set up to allow it. I even put 169.254.x.x in the trusted zone, to no avail.
ActiveSync is a shocking piece of software - and I know from owning other phones that there's things like MobiExplorer and MobiManager that tends to work much better than the usual manufacturer-supplied stuff.
Chak, thanks for the lead with SunnySoft.

Copy the pim.vol file from the root directory of the device. This contains all your pim info (contacts, call history, tasks, calendar). You can't really make anything out of it if you try to view it, but when you hard reset, you can just overwrite the new one and soft reset to restore everything. I copy mine to my storage card every time i add something new that has to do with pim stuff.

guttrhead said:
Copy the pim.vol file from the root directory of the device. This contains all your pim info (contacts, call history, tasks, calendar). You can't really make anything out of it if you try to view it, but when you hard reset, you can just overwrite the new one and soft reset to restore everything. I copy mine to my storage card every time i add something new that has to do with pim stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in my case, pim.vol file is protected, so copying & replacing it after hard reset does not work. i have other workaround for backuping contacts (as my activesync with outlook simply does not work) - each contact via irda to computer. it saves contact as .vcf file that you can send to wizard back again after hard reset.

Try using total commander to get to the file.

I yust transfered the file via email inside my home WLan to the PC.....

Hey, is this a common problem for HTC devices or Windows mobile in general?
I just started searching because my calendar won't sync. (3 palm devices and 3 pda's later, I have 1,400+ contacts.)
Are there any workarounds that anyone knows?
I tried setting up the sync settings whilst the device was disconnected, but the calendar entry just disappears when I re-connect.
-Worried of Sheffield.

thanks
Thanks eva_d, I had already hit on the idea of bluetoothing all my contacts over (thankfully, there's not that many) from my nokia 6600. Luckily, the XDA didn't require my SIM to be in it during the transfer. It even took over the mini pictures I had for some of the contacts, quite smart.
But it would be some chore with more than the couple dozen I had.
I'm reading up on the windowsmobile classes in dotnet, I reckon the answer would lie in there somewhere. Writing an app in VS to back things up to some funky open format would be the ideal, even if it does just drop a directory full of VCF files for example.
Once I'm sure VS2005 is installed and working correctly (http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=41155), I'll throw some serious effort at it.

Re: thanks
lansalot said:
Thanks eva_d, I had already hit on the idea of bluetoothing all my contacts over (thankfully, there's not that many) from my nokia 6600. Luckily, the XDA didn't require my SIM to be in it during the transfer. It even took over the mini pictures I had for some of the contacts, quite smart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
copying contacts to other handset is bit risky, because various producers are using various interpretation of .vcf file format. for instance, when i copy contact from siemens s65 to wizard, email field is always ripped off the contact and polish national characters are also absent. copying contacts to computer via irda is quite safe, however personal ringtones assigned to contact and voice dials are sacrified. all other data within a contact are still present, including contact picture.

A bit more info on the missing calendar link:-
I have one laptop using activesync V.4.1 this was where i first discovered the problem.
Just tried laptop #2 running a/sync v.3.7.1 which has an older copy of my appointments in outlook. Calendar doesn't sync to this either, so it must be something inside the MDA.
Tried to search microsoft support to find a solution, but no entries found. This seems to indicate that it is a HTC issue. I had a MDA Pro briefly sync-ed up which worked Ok. The problems are with my MDA compact running WM2003.

pim.vol not only saves the contact but also the assigned ringtone and pic. only way to do it is copy to storage card.
then after hard reset it won't let you overwrite the new one but if you rename it to pim.vol.old it lets you do that. then you can overwrite it.

laich71 said:
pim.vol not only saves the contact but also the assigned ringtone and pic. only way to do it is copy to storage card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
contact pictures are NOT saved in pim.vol. when i restore contacts via irda from .vcf files on my laptop, pictures are already there.

I know this thread has moved on a bit, but I've just got my calendar to sync. again and I'm soooo relieved!
Take a look at this forum to find out how:-
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync
Look at 'Cannot get calendar to sycnhronise' and the second reply.

Backing up the Contacts with Mail2Web Live Mail Service
I basically use the mail2web live mail service, and use its exchange server as the server source in Activesync. I only choose synching Contacts with this server (but you can choose others).
This way, all my contacts are always up to date in mail2web servers, and even if I need to hard reset, I can reget all of my contacts back very quickly.
Highly recommended...
Fast

please use the search PLEASE! ....search for PPCBckpContacts.exe
damn it!

Recovering numbers

Hey everyone,
I usually hate posting (as most things I need is found through searching).
but here goes my little story.
I have my 8125 (wizard), I plugged it into my laptop (not my usual one), and activesync started working or something, then I notice it saying something about deleting previous information, so immediatly , I look at my phonebook while it's doing that, it's empty! So I disconnect the USB connection before anymore could be done.
I was wondering if it were possible to get back my contact info?
I copied a file off of the phone, PIM file. I opened it with notepad, looks like it has some names and numbers stored on it, even my SMS messages still have names from the people sent on it.
Is there any hope of getting all my contacts back?

Why not just connect it to the computer you normally sync with? If you sync with Outlook on that system, your contacts will re-populate automatically.

That's the problem, that pc was sent to my father in law =\
that's about 2000 miles away...

will, sorry to tell that it's hard to get back the data, you can add them one-by-one from the PIM file you have or pay a visit to your father-in-law...or file a lawsuit against Microsoft ;-)
I found a stupid flaw in ActiveSync 4.5 that if you don't sync the contacts (uncheck the contact checkbox in the list of items you want to sync), they will be deleted...so my advice to you -after you get back your data- is to use PPC PIM Backup (you can find it in the forum)

Yea, kinda sucks for me.
I was hoping since all my contacts were in outlook mobile, they would have some kind of backup file, or deleted files directory =\

Why not have your dad export your contacts and send them to you? You can then import them into your Outlook and sync it with your phone.

Contacts on WM6!! a MESS! please help!

Hey,
Im somewhat new to this WM6 stuff. I previously had a Sony Ericsson and when I had switched to my new Wing, I had saved all my Contacts to my SIM card and when I went to load my contacts from my SIM onto my PPC, they all look like "Norman/M; Norman/H; Norman/W" or instead of "Norman Kiwan" it would show "Kiwan;Norman" for all my contacts. It gets really annoying and I was hoping maybe some of you found a program I can use to easily edit/change my contacts on my phone... it would be extremely appreciated! thank you.
- Norman

That's quite simple. Space character is not allowed in name string on SIM That's probably why you have a semicolon between the first and the last name. /M or /H are shortcuts for (M)obile or (H)ome phone number. Remember on SIM one number is always one independent record. Just save numbers to Contacts in your phone, then synchronize with Outlook. Amend contacts there and synchronize back.

ok so pretty much use outlook to change the contact's name... just gotta figure out how to do that with outlook.. ill give it a shot.
Now in terms of using MSN messenger, for some reason even if I put in the settings NOT to sync contacts it still does! and its just a huge mess seeing all these phone contacts and email contact everywhere... is there a way to get rid of those too?
thanks for the help!
- Norman

** bump **

Not syncing contacts means only not syncing contacts when you sync manually. but when you start messenger it syncs contact's automatically.

Contact manager..amzing and easy install
lol
I hate the way contacts are sorted on wm6 too!
Check this one out is pretty good one, actually i love it!
http://www.pocketcm.com/

Haven't had problems with contacts ever since my first WM phone ( got used to it quick) but the only problem I ever had was that you couldn't delete multiple contacts at once. Tried to do this for the first time in over a few years and seems like the SIM Manager has had quite an overhaul since I've last tried to use that feature. If it were a Microsoft program I think we would still be having this program.
Thats enough ranting for now
Peace

Contact Issues...

I imported my used activesync with my google (gmail) account to sync up my contacts, calendar and email. The contacts all came through but were showing up as last name, first name. I wanted them to show up as first name, last name so I started looking around. I found the "app" contact changer mentioned on here and then grabbed it off XDA. It went through and said it changed my contacts. I found that they were all changed properly. After time though, not sure if it just when the phones dies or reboots, some of the contacts change back to last name, first again. It seems random which contacts are reverting, but all of the "facebook linked" contacts reverted plus some more random ones. I can go in and run contact changer again, or go in and manually change them but this seems to make the contact changer app useless if I have to run it all the time.
Any thoughts on what is causing this problem? From what I can tell the contacts in my Google contacts list are named properly, with the first name and last name in the proper field.
I am running T-mobile stock rom, and have not ever synced up with outlook on the PC (just using gmail via server on activesync).
Thanks for any help.
UPDATE: I just ran contact changer and then rebooted my phone (actually popped battery out) and the contacts did not revert. I then ran a sync via activesync and the contacts reverted. :-(

even though the way they are displayed is correct the system still manages them last-first, so if you create a new one after running the cab it will default to last first unless you specify differently in the drop down.this may be why they change when you sync fb.
it also helps (if you are using outlook on the pc) to have outlooks defaults changed to first-last.

Thanks for the tip. I am trying to avoid hooking up to the PC with outlook but I may end up having to. The contacts that are reverting are not new ones. Also it is not only the FB contacts that are reverting back, there are some other random ones that are doing it as well. Very strange. I am guessing it is just a normal WM quirk that I will have to find a workaround.

NickPDX said:
Thanks for the tip. I am trying to avoid hooking up to the PC with outlook but I may end up having to. The contacts that are reverting are not new ones. Also it is not only the FB contacts that are reverting back, there are some other random ones that are doing it as well. Very strange. I am guessing it is just a normal WM quirk that I will have to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you do have access to outlook on a pc, i can HIGHLY recommend it as your main method of contact/calendar backup/restore.
I've been using it as my phone backup for years, and it cuts both ways, , , pc goes down? all your outlook contacts gone? no worries! theyre on your phone! Phone goes down? no worris, theyre on the pc!. hehe.
plus with outlook it saves every single field, so your facebook links and favourite poeple is saved, (yes i know that also happens on myphone and whatever, but how often are those services down? )

No Tmobile Contacts Acct With CM7, Help???

Hello,
Having big problem with contacts. I flashed Cm last night and when I went to my contacts they were not there...so I thought no big deal I would just goto Acct & Sync and then Manage acct and use tmobile...but its not there.
When I click on "add account"...there is no tmobile. Please someone help with a fix. I dont understand what to do...please keep in mind, Im kinda still new to this so if you have ideas please explain in simple terms.
Thanks in advance,
Brian
PS: am I the only one with this issue, if so why?

fst2011 said:
PS: am I the only one with this issue, if so
why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are not the only one with the issue. All of Cyanogen's ROM are AOSP (android open source project). They do not have this feature. That is a feature added to the MySense that T-Mo bloats this phone with.
There is really nothing you can do unless you mind using a MySense based ROM.

wait...so how do all these people add the contacts back on their phones....I dont understand...there must be an easy way.

fst2011 said:
wait...so how do all these people add the contacts back on their phones....I dont understand...there must be an easy way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
most, if not all, of our contacts on on our Google account. and when we log into the google account [on the phone] it automatically pushes the contacts that are on our account to the phone.
it's a "no touch" method. We just log in and Google takes care of the rest.
If it is possible to extract the contacts from the t-mo website as a .cvs file you may be able to bulk import them to your google account but i dunno. I used Google Sync on my blackberry prior to owning an Android so i never had that problem.

I went to tmobile site and from what I see there is no cvs...but I could be wrong. Aside from that...how can I get my contacts back to the phone...?

fst2011 said:
I went to tmobile site and from what I see there is no cvs...but I could be wrong. Aside from that...how can I get my contacts back to the phone...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
manually enter them?

neidlinger said:
most, if not all, of our contacts on on our Google account. and when we log into the google account [on the phone] it automatically pushes the contacts that are on our account to the phone.
it's a "no touch" method. We just log in and Google takes care of the rest.
If it is possible to extract the contacts from the t-mo website as a .cvs file you may be able to bulk import them to your google account but i dunno. I used Google Sync on my blackberry prior to owning an Android so i never had that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is a way to export to csv...dont know how well it works...
http://yincrash.livejournal.com/188605.html

I just used the UiA Backup Contacts app from the market on my wifes phone, and imported the csv output into her Google account...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

This is hopeless....I cant believe what a problem this is turning into. I might be able togo back to the Ice rom and get my contacts but the problem Im have then is...I cant get the contacts to sync with google.
Meaning....for example...I have my wifes phone, which is not flashed yet so as a practice run, I tried to sync her contacts to gmail/google and it will not take...if I can get this to work, they I might be able to fix this.
Any ideas on getting atleast my wifes phone to sync with google?

This is a pain to do, but it may help...
You can print your T-mo contacts from the T-mo website. If you install a pdf printer driver (neevia docuprinter), you can print the contacts to pdf. You can then select the data on the pdf, and cut and paste into a csv, and import into your Google contacts.
You will only get the basic information, like name, cell number, email, etc...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

First thing I did when I got this phone was disabled tmo sync so all my numbers default to google. Sorry, man. I feel your pain. You sure there's no way to export contacts from the tmo website? I bet there is.
Sent from my HTC Glacier

If we did bet you would have lost...Lol, here is the problem
I spent about 1 hour on the phone with a tmobile smart phone tech...we both logged into my tmobile acct and looked at the contacts, which were about 250. He was shocked...as was I, that there was NO export...only import. We both dont understand why they would make it this way but its dumb.
ok...so he had me do one method which didnt work well but I will post it here, maybe someone might be able to fine tune it.
So, the tech had me goto my "manage contacts" page. Then look for an option to print, once that window opens you hold down ctrl+A...this will highlight all your contacts. The right click and copy.
Next, open up excel and paste into the first column "A1". Then you have to adjust each column just a little to make the names and numbers fit.
Next, you goto save as, and choose "CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)"
Next you goto gmail and choose import and browse to the file you just created. This will add all your contacts however here comes the part, maybe someone else can figure how to fix...when you import the contacts, it doesnt put the numbers in the right spot...it puts them in the "Notes" section.
So you would then have to goto each name and copy and paste into the correct section...yes I know thats alot of work, but it beats entering in each number by hand.
Also, I'm not some tech...Im still new and make no claim to be smart with this...so save the put down remarks.
The other option which I did...was I just flashed back to my first rom "Ice"...then I Exported contacts to SD card...next you flash the rom you want...go thru the steps the guides tell you, when done, setup google and sync...this will add all contacts.
*** Make sure thu, that when you add NEW contacts to your phone that you create under the google acct. Meaning, when you open up the new contact window, you add the name of person and then (depending on custom rom) you can choose to create under tmobile or google...you want to choose google.
And thats it...
Brian

fst2011 said:
If we did bet you would have lost...Lol, here is the problem
I spent about 1 hour on the phone with a tmobile smart phone tech...we both logged into my tmobile acct and looked at the contacts, which were about 250. He was shocked...as was I, that there was NO export...only import. We both dont understand why they would make it this way but its dumb.
ok...so he had me do one method which didnt work well but I will post it here, maybe someone might be able to fine tune it.
So, the tech had me goto my "manage contacts" page. Then look for an option to print, once that window opens you hold down ctrl+A...this will highlight all your contacts. The right click and copy.
Next, open up excel and paste into the first column "A1". Then you have to adjust each column just a little to make the names and numbers fit.
Next, you goto save as, and choose "CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv)"
Next you goto gmail and choose import and browse to the file you just created. This will add all your contacts however here comes the part, maybe someone else can figure how to fix...when you import the contacts, it doesnt put the numbers in the right spot...it puts them in the "Notes" section.
So you would then have to goto each name and copy and paste into the correct section...yes I know thats alot of work, but it beats entering in each number by hand.
Also, I'm not some tech...Im still new and make no claim to be smart with this...so save the put down remarks.
The other option which I did...was I just flashed back to my first rom "Ice"...then I Exported contacts to SD card...next you flash the rom you want...go thru the steps the guides tell you, when done, setup google and sync...this will add all contacts.
*** Make sure thu, that when you add NEW contacts to your phone that you create under the google acct. Meaning, when you open up the new contact window, you add the name of person and then (depending on custom rom) you can choose to create under tmobile or google...you want to choose google.
And thats it...
Brian
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your post
I recently flashed cm7.2 and I lost my tmobile sync and tried to get my g1 to sync but there was no sync so i had to figure a way to do it.
I took what you posted in the tmobile conversation and copied the contacts and saved as a cvs file. Than i exported a google file to see their format. copied and past my cvs info to the google export file and got the name to number to match. Thanks! will use google for now on for contacts!

Wow.... This was a old post of mine and really glad I was able to help you out. Take care
Brian
profen said:
Thanks for your post
I recently flashed cm7.2 and I lost my tmobile sync and tried to get my g1 to sync but there was no sync so i had to figure a way to do it.
I took what you posted in the tmobile conversation and copied the contacts and saved as a cvs file. Than i exported a google file to see their format. copied and past my cvs info to the google export file and got the name to number to match. Thanks! will use google for now on for contacts!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse