Transferring contacts from Palm Treo

[ndoren]

Just a note on transferring contacts from a Palm device to Droid. Hopefully those who go in search will find this note useful.
This method does not require MS Outlook or MS Exchange.

1) Sync your palm device to your Palm Desktop software (hotsync).
2) Open the Palm Desktop and highlight the contacts you want transfer.
3) Export as a vCard file.
4) Go into your Google mail and import the vCard file.
6) Sinc your Droid to your Google mail.
5) Done! (5 minute effort).

All emails, addresses and phone numbers from your Palm device will appear properly on your Droid.

 

[gravity]

Does this mean that the Droid has contact input fields comparable to a Palm? I'm a little sick of carrying a Palm and a phone, and have been hoping the Droid could be my first all in one replacement. I'm eligible to upgrade next Thursday, and am considering picking the Droid over the Blackberry.

So, does it allow for home and work addresses, 2 work numbers, and 2 cellphone numbers? Some of my contacts have 2 cells, 2 work numbers, 3 emails, and fax, etc. I bought an LG Dare last year under the assumption that it would at least have a Notes section to add any extra info, and was sorely disappointed.

None of the videos or specs I've seen say anything about the contact list beyond FACEBOOK. :icon_eek: I need a phone with a great address book and calender/appointment book.

 

[ndoren]

The Droid contact list import function from a Palm Treo may not be perfect, but it's probably going to do the best job of any possible phone you could upgrade to. So, if you're expecting a perfect transition, stick to your Palm. If you want to upgrade, I feel the Droid/Google did an EXCELLENT job of importing my contacts and keeping the fields straight.

Mind you, DO NOT use the CSV (comma separated) output file format from your Palm Desktop, or else the fields will NEVER map properly into your Droid contacts. Instead, use the vCard output, and import that into your online Google account. My contacts weren't as sophisticated as yours, but all of mine mapped into the proper Droid fields perfectly.

My Phone's contact list and associated online Gmail-based list have NOTHING to do with facebook. I know nothing about how it synchronizes Facebook. I'm talking strictly about how it synchronizes the vCard list exported by the Palm Treo and into your phones main contact list. So, yes, I'm talking specifically about the "contact list" beyond facebook.

As far as contacts: Multiple phone numbers: Work, Home, Mobile, Work Fax, Home Fax, Pager and Other. Also custom. I mean you can have several of each of these. Multiple emails and SMS IM addresses. Multiple work, home, other or custom postal addresses. Multiple organizations. Multipe sets of notes, multiple nicknames, and websites. You can attach a photo for each contact, and set the category. Neall

 

[gravity]

Perfect! I wouldn't care if I had to do it all by hand, so long as I can keep everything on one device! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Are all of the contacts managed by Google, or does the phone have a contact list independent of Google Contacts? I've read a number of posts regarding Google Contacts problems on the Droid.

 

[ndoren]

I really think they modelled the contact list directly after Palm's. There is a Google field for every Palm field. I was stunned at how similar they were, and how well they mapped from one to another.

The Google phone is intimately tied to its online Google account. The phone list is NOT independent of the online Google list. You can configure the phone to synchronize (or not) the two lists, and obviously your phone list is available when the phone is offline (for instance in airplane mode while on a jet). However, they're intertwined and they're essentially one-in-the-same.

I actually love that... I can log in from any PC when I'm away from my phone and I get the same list of contacts on Gmail as on my phone. Consider the online Gmail account to take the place of your Palm Desktop software. Your phone list and the online Gmail list are synchronized to each other.

I have used my Droid almost continuously since I got it on the day of release. I have NOT had issues with Google contacts. Everything works great. I suspect perhaps the other online posts had to do with importing contacts.. I don't know. Import as I described above, and you'll be trouble-free. Neall

 

[gravity]

Thanks again!

 

[Qreaigh]

I upgraded from a Treo and all my contact info transfered. with out a problem.

 

[the beast]

I have been struggling for a few days (off and on) trying to snc my contacts from palm to droid and kept getting an error message when i would try to export the vcard. I finally figured out that if your phone numbers do not have a space or dash between them, the will not allow an export to vcard...hope this helps someone out there!

 

[Qreaigh]

I have been struggling for a few days (off and on) trying to snc my contacts from palm to droid and kept getting an error message when i would try to export the vcard. I finally figured out that if your phone numbers do not have a space or dash between them, the will not allow an export to vcard...hope this helps someone out there!

I didn't have that problem at all, but I didn't try to go directly to the phone. I copied my vcard to my desktop and then imported it to my contacts in google mail. all contacts transferred even the ones with out dashes between the numbers

 

[w t rush]

Contact Notes and Alpha order

Two issues.
1. Contact notes -- a place I hide info that helps my fading memory did not transfer from Outlook to Contacts on Droid.
Any ideas
2. Contacts (transfered at Verizon store end in alpha order by first name not last. Any ideas how to flip. Even outlook did that

 

[tlutzy]

Trouble importing Palm Contacts as vCard file

Hi,

I just tried importing my Palm Contacts as a vCard file to Google contacts, but Google rejected the VCard format. Can anyone help me out? (I'm buying a Droid and want to import my contacts from my Palm Desktop.)

Many thanks!

 

[shosh]

I used to love my Palm -- guess we all did. Hung onto that last Palm
Treo until it froze so much I just couldn't stand it. Took me almost
two years to find a way to get my data onto a contemporary system.
Finally did it! Google is the answer, people. I can't recommend which
"smartphone" is the best one to use to sync with Google, but there
are more and more of them out there. The point is that Google's Gmail
system has enough flexibility to handle all the "extra" fields that
former Palm users have in our data -- like multiple mobile tel no's
for a contact, etc. I haven't found anything else.


Whatever you do, don't get a Blackberry and don't try WinMobile.
You risk losing lots of data because there just aren't enough fields
to handle everything. You have to get your data over to Gmail. Just
set up a free Gmail account. It wasn't easy to find the applications
to get my data from Palm to Gmail because most of the app's leave
some data fields out. I am happy to share the info that I finally
nailed it. You just have to buy a couple of inexpensive programs, but
it's well worth it. Here's what to do:


First, tranfer your data out of the Palm Desktop into Outlook using
the Chapura PocketCopy Software. Look, I am not suggesting actually
using Outlook. (Outlook hides many fields, like that 2nd mobile tel
no for a contact, into obscure locations where it's very hard to
find. Yuck.) Outlook is just a conduit for getting your data onto
Google. Read on.


To transfer all your data (contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks)
including all fields from Palm Desktop go here:


http://www.chapura.com/pocketcopy.php


Then, back up all your data for safekeeping from Outlook into PST
files. You have to do that separately for each of Contacts, Calendar,
Notes, and Tasks. Just go to File, Export, etc.


Now, here's the gold -- The one and only program that I have found
which will actually copy 100 percent of all your Contacts, Calendar,
and Notes fields from Outlook onto Google's Gmail is Gsyncit. (V-cards do NOT transfer all the fields BTW -- contrary to someone's suggestion earlier in this thread. But Gsyncit does.) Works great. You can get it here:


http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/gsync/index.shtml


Just read through all the Settings in Gsyncit very carefully. (You
can even use it to periodically back up all your data from Google
onto Outlook, which is way more convenient than those awkward CSV
files.) Here are some settings that I highly recommend in Gsync for
your initial upload to Gmail, and then it works like a charm:


CONTACTS:
-Check Automatically continue synchronizing on failure (in case your
internet goes down)
-Check to sync everything -- and especially User Defined Fields at
the very end of the list
-Uncheck "allow contacts to be deleted"
-Uncheck "removing duplicates when syncing" (Trust me -- you can
merge duplicates in Gmail after uploading.)
Read the other options and do what you want, but I strongly advise the above.


CALENDAR:
Read the Settings options and do what you want, but here's a taste of
what I did and I was happy:
-Check Automatically continue synchronizing on failure (in case your
internet goes down)
-Check to sync or not what you want - read carefully
-Uncheck "allow events to be deleted"
-Uncheck "removing duplicates when syncing"


NOTES/Memos:
You can upload by Category (hooray!!!) to Google Docs using GSyncit.
There are detailed instructions on the GSyncit support page. I did it
and was very delighted. I have almost 500 Memos from my Palm Treo
which are all organized by category and I was very concerned about this.


TASKS:
Apparently, Google has made it impossible for any developer to get
access in any way to upload into their Tasks system on our Google
Gmail accounts, despite the fact that people have been asking for
over a year. GSyncit has a way of uploading to a separate calendar,
but it's not ideal because you lose your categories from Palm. I'm
about to try a separate app called GTasks, but I don't know if it
works or not -- I don't think that the GTasks app works with Google -
I think it's maybe a standalone. So, if you don't have a lot of
tasks, and you want everything on Google, the GSyncit workaround
might work for you.