READ THIS for PALM > P800 CONTACTS MIGRATION INSTRUCTIONS

12 replies · 15,575 views · Started 26 May 2003

marcnyc 26 May 2003, 16:15

Hello everybody, I just wanna contribute my two cents for those who have the same problem I did have until yesterday... Here's my story first and at the end of the post my how-to solution!

I had a Palm OS Visor Handspring PDA and bought a P800. I had read on this forum that to migrate addresses from Palm to P800 I had to go through Outlook, as opposed to the Palm Desktop software I had always been using. That's where the nightmare started (it's Microsoft, so there's not to be surprised that it turned into a microsoft-mare!).

The theory says to uninstall Palm Desktop, download the latest version from the website (in my case handspring.com, in a Palm user's case palm.com), reinstall it and choose "sync with third party PIM".
I heard that actual Palm users (as opposed to Handspring users) are offered the actual "sync with Outlook" option during installation, but on the Handspring version of Palm Desktop it just says "sync with third party PIM".
When you are done you are supposed to install the bundled Outlook Conduit software (on PC's just click on Start>Programs>Handspring and it's there)...
I had version 3.1.2 of that software (which is made by chapura.com) and which is also called Pocket Mirror and the latest version at the time of writing is 3.1.3.
At this point, aware of the fact that syncing with MS Outlook will create occasional duplicate entries or merged contacts fields and will not carry on the categories of the contacts, I tried everything to have my Palm OS device speak to Outlook but it just wouldn't happen. When I didn't know what to do I decided to try with version 3.1.3 and dowloadedn the free upgrade from chapura.com. This 5Mb download wouldn't even install and it kept telling me "you have to have Outlook Express installed on your computer" which of course I had...
I am not gonna tell you all the other errors I kept getting during my tests (such as mapi32.dll libraries etc etc) but I will tell you that if you wanna try yourself make sure to use the chapura.com's troubleshooting FAQs and knowledge base because they are really well done and complete and they cover every possible problem I did encounter (except for that "you have to have Outlook Express installed" error which I did report to them so maybe when you will be using their site they'll have that covered too).
Anyway, long story short, I gave up on Outlook. I had never used that software anyway, 'cause it sucks compared to Qualcomm Eudora, which is fantastic!
By the way I did try this both on Win XP Pro with Outlook Express 6 and on Windows 2000 with Outlook 5. No luck.

So I found this solution:

- Sync your Palm OS device with Palm Desktop (meaning that if you first tried all of the above you will have to reinstall Palm Desktop again).
- Go to the Address Book and click on the first contact then press and hold the Shift key and while you hold it click all the contacts that you want to migrate. If there are many of them you can scroll them down (while holding shift) by pressing the arrow down key or the Pag Down key).
- When all the contacts you want to export are selected and highlighted from the FILE menu choose "Export vCard...". Give it a name and a location.
- At this point I simply beamed (via Infrared) this file to my P800. You can also send it via Blootooth or email.
- When the P800 receives it you can simply click on VIEW and it will tell you that the file contains Contacts and will ask you if you want to add them to your CONTACTS, you say yes and the trick is done.

WARNING: I had lots of contacts (over 500) and when I first tried to beam them all the P800 couldn't take it, don't know why... I guess not enough memory or processor speed. The solution to this is to export the contacts in batches of 50-100 each. That worked fine for me.

The advantages of this method are:
- you skip the damn Microsucks Outlook Shitpress
- it is WAY faster than Outlook (I have read somewhere that it can take many many minutes, even up to half an hour, to sync 500 contacts with Outlook and a P800 whereas beaming and recognizing these vCard .vcf files takes seconds)
- no hassles such as re-installing Palm Desktop software or other softwares and things like that, ie no new downloads either
- it does NOT create duplicate entries
- it does correctly handle entries with two Work phone numbers or two home phone numbers (whereas Outlook would merge those fields into one field and you would then have to re-separated them)
- you don't have problems with brackets that I read somewhere Outlook does add to numbers

The disadvantages of this method are:
- the categories are still not carried on (but that wouldn't improve on Outlook)
- it obviously only works for contacts and won't do for agendas/date books

This is my contribution to this forum.
I don't know if I am the only guy who had no luck with Outlook but I am a pretty experienced computer user and I must say I tried everything!!!
This method worked for me and I am glad I skipped Outlook all together!
I have all my contacts now!

Muzikfreakah 26 May 2003, 22:46

I have over 500 contacts and used the outlook way to migrate. I couldnt leave my schedules behind. I tried using the shift-select everything then vcard, but it would only copy 1 contact, which was the confusing part for me. The doubles that happend to me were on the calendar events. I also had a few contact duplicates but this was already because of outlook and resycing with outlook.

Guest 27 May 2003, 02:13

What happens when you make changes to an entry or more likely entries? Also, what if you add entries to your phone or computer? How do you keep the Palm Desktop and the phone in sync? Do you just export/import the revised contacts via vcaed format? That can be a bit hassly!

sunilc 27 May 2003, 02:24

I tried exporting the vcards but only the first contact got exported. I pressed and held down the shift key while selecting the contacts I wanted to export. When all were selected I exported them as vcards. When I opened the file only the first contact had been exported. I had tried this solution before but had the same results. Marcnyc, is there something else that you did?

marcnyc 27 May 2003, 06:35

Hi sunilc, I am re-doing it as I type this message to make sure I told you guys everything:

1. open palm desktop
2. click on addresses
3. click on the first address I want to export
4. PRESS AND HOLD the shit key (I am using the left one)

5a. click on the last contact I want to export
...or...
5b. press the down arrow until I reach the last contact I wanna export
...or...
5c. press the page down key if I want to export 'em all

6. choose FILE > EXPORT AS vCard
7. give a name and location and click ok (it will say "Export Complete"😉

To double check if it worked you can do this:
Click on FILES > IMPORT and select vCard as File Type and browse to the file you just saved before BUT BE CAREFUL because this will create a duplicate entry for EVERY contacts you had exported and since Palm Desktop saves on exit you'll have to delete all the duplicates individually or delete all contacts and import the vCard to have them all again, just one time.

EVEN BETTER, to try if it worked do this (which is what I did):
close Palm Desktop after you did the export successfully, browse to the exported VCF file you saved, double click it. Palm Desktop will launch and a window will pop up and ask you: DO YOU WANT TO IMPORT THE FOLLOWING CONTACT(S) INTO YOUR ADDRESS BOOK?
And it will tell you the first of the contacts you exported and then (IMPORTANT) it will tell you "AND OTHERS" meaning that there are more contacts after that first one it mentioned. I tested it exporting just one contact and double clicking the vcf file and it didn't say "and others". With this method you can even decide in which category to import them in (which you can't do if you do FILE>IMPORT (strange but true!).

That's all I did. If you still can't make it work I'd say it's either:
A. you 😉
B. your glasses 😃
C. the Palm Desktop for Handspring is different (ie better) than the one for Palm :-?

Only thing I can think of :roll:

And to answer the guest's question, I wasn't suggesting this as a constant sync method, but just as a one time export for who is migrating from palm to p800 like I did.

sunilc 27 May 2003, 07:28

marknyc,

I did exactly what you have stated - your previous instructions were quite clear. Since Muzicfreakah and I have experienced the same problems it is obviously not me or my glasses! I am using Palm desktop for the Clie and maybe that is where the difference is.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Guest 27 May 2003, 09:34

OK, I tried it a few times and now for some reason it does work! :-?
Thanks, marknyc - now I have to figure out how to undo all the syncing I have been doing with Outlook for the last few months - I now have more records in Outlook than in the Palm!.

By the way does the calender export function work from the Palm to the P800 if we use vcal? Has anyone tried?

sunilc 27 May 2003, 09:57

Sorry - that last guest post was me.

Muzikfreakah 27 May 2003, 10:28

I dont know if this is too much to ask, but can you try deleting all your contacts on outlook and then you contacts on the P800 and redo the process? I have repeated this a lot of times and I only have once contact improted? If not can you test it on another PC? 😊

What version of PalmDesktop do you have and the Palm Hotsync?, whats your OS, what version of outlook do you have?

marcnyc 27 May 2003, 17:34

Ok let me try to answer to you all:

1. sunilc

I am using Palm desktop for the Clie and maybe that is where the difference is.

Yes I agree (by the way I hope you didn't get offended by my "you or your glasses" joke).

2. sunilc

OK, I tried it a few times and now for some reason it does work! Thanks, marknyc - now I have to figure out how to undo all the syncing I have been doing with Outlook for the last few months - I now have more records in Outlook than in the Palm! By the way does the calender export function work from the Palm to the P800 if we use vcal? Has anyone tried?

I am glad it works now. Finally! That's good news!
I think you can simply delete everything in Outlook and do one sync with your P800 and that should take care of your problem. But as you well know I gave up on Outlook so you decide how to deal with that piece of crap!
I haven't tried but I hardly think that the export vCard function will work for calendar because as far as I know VCF files are ONLY for contacts, not date books... I am actullay pretty damn sure it won't work...

3. Muzikfreakah

I dont know if this is too much to ask, but can you try deleting all your contacts on outlook and then you contacts on the P800 and redo the process? I have repeated this a lot of times and I only have once contact improted? If not can you test it on another PC?
What version of PalmDesktop do you have and the Palm Hotsync?, whats your OS, what version of outlook do you have?

I am not sure if you were talking to me because you know I never used Outlook. But I can answer you to the version question:

Palm Desktop 4.0.1 (just downloaded it from handspring.com)
HotSync 4.0.1 (came with Palm Desktop)

sunilc 28 May 2003, 01:52

Palm has a vcal export function which is specifically for calender items. I haven't looked carefully but when I tried some time ago I seem to recall that I did not know how to select multiple appointments that I wanted to export.

marcnyc 28 May 2003, 07:30

I am not aware of that. i opened Palm Desktop and I see no vCal... I see a dba export but I don't know if that exports dates and I hardly think it's a format that the p800 would understand... maybe somebody else knows more about vcal

JdT 23 Nov 2004, 10:49

Does all this mean you managed synchronizing yr P800 with Eudora ?