Transfer Contact Data

[sdse78]

Hi,

I just received my new iPhone 4S. My previous phone was a Palm Pre Plus. I currently have 218 contacts on my Palm. I am trying to figure out how to get those contacts on my iPhone. I spent a good two hours trying different methods none of them worked. The only thing I accomplished was recovering a .vcf file from my Palm. I was able to import that into my address book on my MAC, but I'm not sure where to go from there? Some have rumored using iTunes to sync, but it does not import them correctly. It only imports the phone numbers and no names. I also read where you can use gmail in iTunes, that was also a no go. Is it possible to open a .vcf file on iOS5? What is the best way to get all contacts added to my iPhone? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I do not want to have manually type in each contact into my new iPhone.

 

[Small White Car]

Use G-Mail. But not in iTunes. In your Mac Address Book.

Sync your Palm contacts with G-Mail. Now you have 2 choices:


1) Keep using G-Mail to sync contacts forever. Set up G-Mail on your phone using Exchange and then sync your Mac Address Book with G-Mail (in the Mac's system settings) and then you're done. This is the easiest way.

or

2) Kill off G-Mail and use something like iCloud. In that case, first sync G-Mail to Address Book on the Mac (in the Mac's system settings). Then make sure the contacts get dragged over to the 'On My Mac' section of Address Book. Then disconnect G-Mail from Address Book. Then set up iCloud on your Mac and on your phone.


(And whatever you do for contacts, just turn on 'Calendars' on all devices in that service while you're in there.)

 

[sdse78]

Use G-Mail. But not in iTunes. In your Mac Address Book.

Sync your Palm contacts with G-Mail. Now you have 2 choices:


1) Keep using G-Mail to sync contacts forever. Set up G-Mail on your phone using Exchange and then sync your Mac Address Book with G-Mail (in the Mac's system settings) and then you're done. This is the easiest way.

or

2) Kill off G-Mail and use something like iCloud. In that case, first sync G-Mail to Address Book on the Mac (in the Mac's system settings). Then make sure the contacts get dragged over to the 'On My Mac' section of Address Book. Then disconnect G-Mail from Address Book. Then set up iCloud on your Mac and on your phone.


(And whatever you do for contacts, just turn on 'Calendars' on all devices in that service while you're in there.)

How do I do this step?

Sync your Palm contacts with G-Mail.

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I'm eager to get this working.

 

[Small White Car]

How do I do this step?

Sync your Palm contacts with G-Mail.

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I'm eager to get this working.

No clue. I've never owned a Palm. But it's a smart-phone, right? I'm sure it can be done. G-Mail's pretty much the most ubiquitous one out there. I can't imagine Palm ignoring it.

 

[sdse78]

No clue. I've never owned a Palm. But it's a smart-phone, right? I'm sure it can be done. G-Mail's pretty much the most ubiquitous one out there. I can't imagine Palm ignoring it.

Ok, I figured that part out.

Now, how exactly do I do this part?

1) Keep using G-Mail to sync contacts forever. Set up G-Mail on your phone using Exchange and then sync your Mac Address Book with G-Mail (in the Mac's system settings) and then you're done. This is the easiest way.

 

[DefBref]

For setting up on iphone: http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/sync/

Not too sure about for the MAC, but you can always just access gmail via safari.

 

[sdse78]

For setting up on iphone: http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/sync/

Not too sure about for the MAC, but you can always just access gmail via safari.

Ah, I will try that. Thanks for the link! I'll update you on my progress.

**Update**

Ok, it synced. However, it did not sync all information. Some contacts are missing phone numbers? Any ideas as to why that is happening?