Prep work before getting my new iphone: How to get all of my contacts into my iphone

[Barbs]

Details:

- This will be a regular consumer plan, non business. And will not have exchange syncing.

- I will be syncing via itunes on my home pc.

- All of my contacts are located on my work pc in M$ outlook.

How do I go about getting all of these contacts onto my iPhone?

I have about 30 days till I get my phone. But wanted to start the prep work early in case I need to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to make this work.

Thanks!!!

 

[bradl]

Easiest way I was told was to install ActiveSync and sync your contacts that way. One time thing unless you constantly update your contacts in Outlook.

BL.

 

[Barbs]

Easiest way I was told was to install ActiveSync and sync your contacts that way. One time thing unless you constantly update your contacts in Outlook.

BL.

Thanks BL. Got a link? Is there a one time charge for this or monthly charge?

 

[Raid]

While I haven't attempted such a transfer of contacts I would try something like this:
First 3 steps from Outlook help file
1)Open the contact you want to save as a vCard.
2)On the File menu, click Export to vCard file. (I couldn't do this in my office outlook, but clicking save as... and choosing .vcf seems to work. <tries hard not to comment about microsoft>
3)Type a name in the File name box, and then click Save.

Repeat steps 1 to 3 as needed, or try multiple contacts in one .vcf file... who knows it could work!

On the mac side
4) Save the .vcf file(s) to your Mac.
5) Open Address book, and select import from the file menu.
...

I'd give those steps a test and see if the import works.

 

[jlwillia]

I know it sucks, but...

Why don't you do it the old fashioned way? Get a piece of paper and pencil and go about writing them all down and when you get the phone, enter them all onto it.

Before you say it's a ridiculous idea, think about the hassle (and potentially, the cost) of doing it the other ways that will be suggested.

Also, this is the best way to get rid of old contacts that you never use or need anymore. Trust me, nothing makes you question whether or not you really need some of those numbers and email addresses than having to write them all down and manually put them into a new phone.

This may be old school, but it's cheap, effective, and will make you clean out some old contacts! Also, you said you have like 30 days! This will take a few hours, but it sounds like you were preparing to spend much more time doing this.

 

[bradl]

Thanks BL. Got a link? Is there a one time charge for this or monthly charge?

ActiveSync? I believe it is a free download from Micro$oft.

Link

BL.

 

[abijnk]

I think I am understanding you correctly, help me if I am wrong. Your contacts are on your work computer, but you will be syncing your iPhone with your home computer?

If this is the case it is pretty easy as long as you can get your work contacts onto your home computer. You can export all your work contacts to a CSV file and take the CSV home. Then in your home version of outlook import the CSV file into your personal version of outlook.

Then you can sync to your hearts desire with outlook.

 

[Be.Jammmin]

You can export your contact list at work as a .CSV file then either email to your Home PC or put on a USB drive. You can then import them into Windows Address Book, which can be sync'd with itunes.

B

edit...Looks like abiYng beat me to it.

 

[Barbs]

You can then import them into Windows Address Book, which can be sync'd with itunes.

Great. Thanks guys. I just cleaned up my contacts on my work PC and then created a csv file and sent it to my home pc. I'll import them into my outlook at home where my itunes is on.

Whats the step I need to do to link up outlook on my home pc to itunes?

Thanks!

 

[abijnk]

Whats the step I need to do to link up outlook on my home pc to itunes?

I don't think you have to do anything. In iTunes, with the phone connected, there will be a tab for syncing contacts and calendars, etc. (I think it may be called Information, I can't remember off the top of my head). Just check the box to sync contacts and it might ask you to tell it which program with another check box.