I'm new to the iPhone and all things Apple. I just ordered a new iPhone 3GS and need to transfer all my contact and calendar data from my Palm PDA. How do I go about this? 
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Need help moving data from Palm PDA device to iPhone?
- Thread starter pgicruiser
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I moved from a Treo to an iPhone last year, and this is what I did:
Went into the Palm Desktop and did an export of the calendar and contacts. Then I went into iCal and Address Book and did an import. That transferred all of my info. Unfortunately, it didn't keep everything exactly the same (how could it really, when I had personalized my Palm fields?), but I could go into iCal and Address Book and clean some stuff up, which didn't take too long. I then re-colorized my calendar stuff, which took the longest, but that's entirely optional. I have all of my entries going back ten+ years on my iCal, and going back three years on my iPhone. You can choose in iTunes how far back to sync the calendar.
I was pleasantly surprised, since I had used neither iCal nor Address Book until the switch to the iPhone.
Went into the Palm Desktop and did an export of the calendar and contacts. Then I went into iCal and Address Book and did an import. That transferred all of my info. Unfortunately, it didn't keep everything exactly the same (how could it really, when I had personalized my Palm fields?), but I could go into iCal and Address Book and clean some stuff up, which didn't take too long. I then re-colorized my calendar stuff, which took the longest, but that's entirely optional. I have all of my entries going back ten+ years on my iCal, and going back three years on my iPhone. You can choose in iTunes how far back to sync the calendar.
I was pleasantly surprised, since I had used neither iCal nor Address Book until the switch to the iPhone.
Great! Thank you.
Ntombi, Thank you. I think I understood that (at least a quarter of it). I'm assuming from what you said that iCal is a native iPhone application. I don't understand the colorizing of the calendar, but I guess I will learn after I get my iPhone. It's going to be a steep learning curve, but I can't wait. I too have a lot of years of data to sync (about 6 years) that I don't want to loose. I also have about 1800 contacts. Of course, I don't need to save all those contacts, but I'd hate to lose the important ones and have to reinput their data (and maybe forget to enter someone 'cause I can't remember why the name is in my address book!). I should have my new iPhone in the next few days. I'm anxious to get off the phone and service I have now (Sprint/Samsung i500).
Do I need to have Outlook or Outlook Express installed? I don't. I've never used iTune before, either. Please check back to this thread next week. I may (probably will) need more help. Thank you so much. You've been extremely helpful. You've just made my day a little brighter!
Ntombi, Thank you. I think I understood that (at least a quarter of it). I'm assuming from what you said that iCal is a native iPhone application. I don't understand the colorizing of the calendar, but I guess I will learn after I get my iPhone. It's going to be a steep learning curve, but I can't wait. I too have a lot of years of data to sync (about 6 years) that I don't want to loose. I also have about 1800 contacts. Of course, I don't need to save all those contacts, but I'd hate to lose the important ones and have to reinput their data (and maybe forget to enter someone 'cause I can't remember why the name is in my address book!). I should have my new iPhone in the next few days. I'm anxious to get off the phone and service I have now (Sprint/Samsung i500).
Do I need to have Outlook or Outlook Express installed? I don't. I've never used iTune before, either. Please check back to this thread next week. I may (probably will) need more help. Thank you so much. You've been extremely helpful. You've just made my day a little brighter!
The advice was how to do that on a Mac, from which your iPhone would then take the information. I expect you can do the same with Outlook on a PC. In fact, I recall that there is an option in the Palm Desktop to sync to Outlook instead of to the Palm Desktop. If I have that right, I'd set that switch, sync your Palm, and then tell iTune you want to use the Outlook calendar and contacts files when syncing your iPhone.
I honestly can't remember what I did about moving contacts from my Palm TX to my iPhone anymore. I didn't worry about the calendar, though. My calendar is on Lotus Notes at work, and I have been in the habit of exporting that periodically as a *.ics file and then importing it into iCal on the Mac.
I honestly can't remember what I did about moving contacts from my Palm TX to my iPhone anymore. I didn't worry about the calendar, though. My calendar is on Lotus Notes at work, and I have been in the habit of exporting that periodically as a *.ics file and then importing it into iCal on the Mac.
OOPS. iFerd is right: I assumed that you were talking about using a Mac. (iCal is a native Mac calendar application.) I'm positive there is an easy way to do it on a PC, but I don't know it by heart, I'm sorry. But the exporting from Palm Desktop should still be the same, it's just which programs work best for syncing that I'm not sure of. It probably is Outlook, and if so, iFerd is right that it's a pretty simple proposition.
What exact system are you using, and what versions? I and others will be glad to help you. There's a large group of us who moved from the Palm OS to the iPhone, so we've probably encountered all the possible issues.
Thank You for Your Assistance
I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner with the results of getting data onto my iPhone. Even though I don't have a clean way to port over all my data, your suggestions were very helpful, and I want to thank all of you for your assistance. I wasn't able to get the data automatically transferred to the iPhone, but I was able to create a .csv file for the contacts. Eventually, I should be able to edit that file and import those records I wish to keep. In the meantime, at least I can enter the important contacts without having to do individual name lookups.
I have a new problem pairing a BT device to the iPhone. If you think you can help with that, I've started a new thread describing the issue (https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8118903#post8118903). Hope you can help.
I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner with the results of getting data onto my iPhone. Even though I don't have a clean way to port over all my data, your suggestions were very helpful, and I want to thank all of you for your assistance. I wasn't able to get the data automatically transferred to the iPhone, but I was able to create a .csv file for the contacts. Eventually, I should be able to edit that file and import those records I wish to keep. In the meantime, at least I can enter the important contacts without having to do individual name lookups.
I have a new problem pairing a BT device to the iPhone. If you think you can help with that, I've started a new thread describing the issue (https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8118903#post8118903). Hope you can help.