8 replies to this topic

[Peter1]

Hello

I have a phone directory(old book), a contacts directory in my home land line and also my mobile phone.

How could I save my #'s in case  one of my devices is broken or replaced?

I checked the ATT land phone and there is no documentation.

I backed my mobile phone to Google and obviously the old book would be a matter of manually recopying everything.

 Although I checked to synch all in the mobile phone there are entries in my pc Gmail account that don't have them all.

if I import contacts I will have tons of duplicates.

How can I update the numbers in my pc with those in the mobile. I know the book is not in the picture.

Also, what does one do when the old/broken landline is no good as far as the numbers stored in it goes?

Long and short is I would like to back up all numbers in case of device replacement.

I have tried a lot before posting to no avail.

Thank you

[8210GUY]

The age and features of the handset(s) involved will dictate what you can do here, but it's good that you're doing this, as phones should be treated like PC's in the way we say about backing them up, for the very reasons you have said, there are several ways this can be done, but the phones connectivity is the crucial point.

 

If you list the makes\models of what you want to extract the data from, I will be able to be more specific, but the ways to do this are:-

Phone Swap; a utility on new phones that walk you through importing your data from the old phone, but the old phone has to be compatible for this.

Software; many phones have software that they work with for syncing the phone and the like, but there may be phones that do not have this.

Online\Cloud; some phones can backup their contacts etc. online, but this is probably one of the options that very few makes offer, but I know Nokia phones do via Ovi.

Physical Connection\3rd party Software; basically being able to connect to a PC via a lead or similar, and using 3rd party software to get the data.

Exporting; simply export the phonebook in a csv file.

Saving; simply save the phone book to the sim card, then put that sim card into the new phone and import them from the sim card, but some of your phones don't use sim cards, and a lot of phones are now using micro sim cards, so the old sim card won't fit the new phone.

Memory Card, you can save your contacts to the memory card if it has one, which can then be placed into the new phone, but again is phone dependent.

 

Google; as per Online\Cloud above really, if you can access your google account on your phone, you can sync with them, probably the best option for many, as it does not depend on a specific phone, you just need to be able to connect to it on your phone, the good thing here is you won't have problems where phone makers tie you down and make it hard to transfer to a different make of phone.

The downside is privacy, google want to connect the whole world together, and by using them they then take your phone book, and start joining the dot's, introducing others you may know, and will allow you to search for others (old school friends etc.) if you allow it, personally I don't have a problem, but I do find it annoying sometimes the way it try's to push you for more details to connect even more dot's, but if privacy is a concern for you (many do, often out of principle more so), then this way is probably not for you.

 

I'm sure I have missed another option, but can't think of it for the life of me, anyway let me know what you have got, noting which phone is to be saved\exported and imported, and where you would like to save a backup, then I can hopefully be more specific for you.

[Peter1]

You have been very helpful and as I expected 'how' is dependent upon the phone.

I have an ATT landline CL82213 cordless which has no information in the manual for backing up.

My entry level Huawei Prism by T-Mobile- Android-  has a back up to Google which I checked for now . I know they have access but did not know of any options before.

I would like to save to a folder in my pc so when I back up the #'s will be saved.

I wonder if I could send myself an email with the contacts as an attachment then put in the pc 's folder to back up?

I will keep this information you have sent and play with these 2 devices to see what I can do.

Thanks a lot for the help to which to refer.

Peter

Edited by Peter1, 31 July 2014 - 09:59 AM.

[8210GUY]

Right as best I can see you will have to do your land-line old school, as you have surmised there appears to be no way to export the numbers, so you will have to do that phone manually, I take it that phone doesn't take a sim card ?

I only ask as mine does, and you could copy numbers over to a sim card, but I doubt your phone has that feature, but I mention it incase.

 

Here is a guide on backing up your phone book, and media\pictures, but it's not helpful as to what you backup to, there is no mention of any software, so you may need to wing it this one, all I can suggest is to look for an export option in the directory, and\or see if it will work with Outlook (the email part of office), that allows lots of options for adding\editing data without struggling to do it on the phone.

 

The dead cert way is to sync with Google (remember the warning previous), that will auto sync in real time, so if you make an edit on your phone, Google will update automatically, and syncing with Google won't\shouldn't duplicate entries, it will simply fill in the gaps, but do go through the options before starting, section 10.2 of it's manual gives you guidance there, it will also sync your calendar as well.And 

 

Once you set up the auto sync, it will update the opposite repository automatically, so edits on your phone will be uploaded, and saved as updated details, if you make an entry\edit in Google (online), it will update the phone at the same time, I find it quite useful personally, and your phone is clearly set up to work with Google, so that is the way to go IMHO, because when you get a new phone, as long as it can sync with Google, you can import all your stuff by simply syncing the new phone with Google, it saves a lot of messing around.

 

Should you still want a copy on your PC, try syncing to Outlook and with luck it will work, otherwise as I suggested earlier, open your Contacts\book on your phone, then select options, and see if you have an option to Export them, if you do then save them as a .csv file, you won't be able to access the file in that format, but if needed you can simply import that file back into the phone, or even a new phone, as most would have an import\export option as best I can guess, see if this helps, if it doesn't then I will look deeper for you.

[Peter1]

I will paste your info in my folder for trials.

Thank you very much for all your work.

I am hunt and peck unlike you.

So far I have checked synch on the mobile but it does not show in the pc. That is what I am working on.

Peter

[8210GUY]

I am not that different, when I get something new (hardware or software) I try to break it, then I start to understand more about it, BUT, once I find a solution that works, and works well, I no longer waste time trying to find any other way to do that process, time is too valuable to me to waste on finding another way to do the same thing, wanting to do certain things is great, but I try to avoid anything that is hard work, more so when there is already a solid solution in place.

 

The thing to ask yourself is what do you intend to do with the contacts if you get them on your PC ?

TBH apart from loading them into Outlook, maybe to edit and add extra data to each contact where to do it on the phone is much harder, there is nothing else to do, the file itself is unusable without the aid of further software.

 

Your phone is heavily set up to work with Google, they say you can sync with other programs, but you would need the App on your phone to do it with, so it may be worth looking in the App store to see what may be available that would let you use another program, as a thought, if the m$ Office APP is in the store, and free (I saw something about they were supposed to release a free version for mobiles ?), if there is you could probably sync with that in the cloud, and then the PC from the cloud, that would get them on your PC.

 

When you plug your phone into the PC, can you see it as a device or drive ?

If you can, you should easily be able to go in and copy them out of the phones directory easily, you would just need to navigate to the right section to do this, alternately you should be able to download them from Google directly from within your account.

 

In fact I just looked this up myself as I know it must be doable, but couldn't easily find it to start with, but I came across This page (follow the Export Link to do this), and with it's help, and your phone sync'd to Google with the latest data, you will be able to get the contact's into your PC, which is the goal you are aiming for, hope it helps.

[Peter1]

Thank you. Perhaps keeping the old leather book up to date is the best for now. Meanwhile i will continue, f or fun, to find a digital way.

Google is synched.

Stay well and thanks again.

[8210GUY]

Some swear by pen and ink, and I certainly don't knock it, a power issue would not do anything to this method of storage, so it should not be underestimated in it's usefulness, but if you follow the link in my last paragraph you will be able to get your contacts on your PC in a few clicks now you have sync'd with Google, I know it's not as direct a result as you were hoping for, but it does get you to your goal at least, and as I said open the file in Outlook and you will be able to edit them much easier than on the phone, which you can then reverse the process to get them back on your phone, so win win really.

[Peter1]

Your astute comments are always appreciated. I have your notes and will be working on them.

Peter