Transferring contacts from a Blackberry to Android
#1
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Transferring contacts from a Blackberry to Android
I have a BB Torch (AT&T) right now and decided to get another phone so I can separate business from pleasure. At first I was going to use the new phone number as the work phone, but too many people have my original number so I decided to use the new phone number as my personal phone so I can leave the BB home when I don't want to get bothered with work related stuff when home or out. I picked up a Motorola Atrix (AT&T). I'm a newb to the Drois OS, so I'm still trying to get comfortable with the phone.
I'm trying to transfer all my contacts that I have on my BB and transfer them to the Atrix but I have no idea how to do it. I have a Gmail account, and was told I can use the Google sync to do it, which I tried, but it didn't work. I tried copying the contact file using BB's desktop manager, but it won't save the file to the kind of file needed to sync with outlook.
I'm lost. Help?
I'm trying to transfer all my contacts that I have on my BB and transfer them to the Atrix but I have no idea how to do it. I have a Gmail account, and was told I can use the Google sync to do it, which I tried, but it didn't work. I tried copying the contact file using BB's desktop manager, but it won't save the file to the kind of file needed to sync with outlook.
I'm lost. Help?
#2
Safety Car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt_-q...layer_embedded
Get the app: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/
Do you have your BB contacts synced to Outlook already? I'm not sure if BB Desktop Manager is able to create .vcf or .csv files but you need Outlook to export your contacts to a .vcf or .csv file. You can then place this .vcf or .csv file to your SD Card or import it into your Google Contacts in GMail.
If you're doing it by the SD Card method, go to your Contacts and hit Menu --> Import/Export contacts --> Import from SD Card. If you're doing it under GMail, go to your Contacts tab right below Mail. Hit import contacts and point it to your .vcf or .csv file. Once you have them in GMail, sync up your phone and it'll grab it from your GMail account. You can manage the contacts from GMail or on your phone and will sync as long as you have AutoSync on.
Get the app: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/
Do you have your BB contacts synced to Outlook already? I'm not sure if BB Desktop Manager is able to create .vcf or .csv files but you need Outlook to export your contacts to a .vcf or .csv file. You can then place this .vcf or .csv file to your SD Card or import it into your Google Contacts in GMail.
If you're doing it by the SD Card method, go to your Contacts and hit Menu --> Import/Export contacts --> Import from SD Card. If you're doing it under GMail, go to your Contacts tab right below Mail. Hit import contacts and point it to your .vcf or .csv file. Once you have them in GMail, sync up your phone and it'll grab it from your GMail account. You can manage the contacts from GMail or on your phone and will sync as long as you have AutoSync on.
#3
Safety Car
Forget this post. Thought there was a BB app that could export contacts to vcf. Your best bet is to use Outlook to export your contacts as a csv.
Last edited by CGFebTSX04; 05-10-2011 at 06:13 PM.
#4
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I have Google sync installed in my BB. When I try to install it into the Droid (m.google.com/sync) it just shows me a screen telling me what the Sync app does, not giving me an option to install it into the Droid. When I go to that site on the BB it tells me to download the file, which I did.
I synced my BB to Outlook earlier today. BB desktop manager doesn't let you save the file as a vcf or csv file.
My contacts are all stored on my device, not on my SD card or SIM card. When I tell my BB to sync using Google sync, it does it, but it only shows 1 contact listed, not the 579 others on my phone.
I'm going to try to save the file in outlook as a vcf or csv, then from there I can connect to gmail through my computer and it allows me to import. I'll try that...
I synced my BB to Outlook earlier today. BB desktop manager doesn't let you save the file as a vcf or csv file.
My contacts are all stored on my device, not on my SD card or SIM card. When I tell my BB to sync using Google sync, it does it, but it only shows 1 contact listed, not the 579 others on my phone.
I'm going to try to save the file in outlook as a vcf or csv, then from there I can connect to gmail through my computer and it allows me to import. I'll try that...
#6
Safety Car
Just hit the AutoSync button (the two arrow symbol thing) and let the phone pull the info from GMail. Add the power control widget to your desktop to make sure its on.
Add widget --> Power Control
Also make sure you have it to sync your contacts in the settings menu.
Homescreen --> Menu --> Settings --> Accounts and settings --> GMail account --> Contacts
Make sure it has a check on it.
Add widget --> Power Control
Also make sure you have it to sync your contacts in the settings menu.
Homescreen --> Menu --> Settings --> Accounts and settings --> GMail account --> Contacts
Make sure it has a check on it.
#7
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For some reason I think my sync to Outlook through desktop messenger only transferred 250 contacts. I was able to transfer the csv file and export to gmail, which in turn transferred to my phone, but i'm still missing about 330 other contacts.
![Confused](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/confused.gif)
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#8
Safety Car
Are all the contacts in your Outlook? It sounds like Outlook didn't pull all your contacts from your BB. Had this happen to me a couple of times when I was using Windows Mobile 6 back in the day. Had to resync it a few times til all the contacts got backed up into Outlook.
#9
Safety Car
If Outlook method still fails, you can also sync BB Manager to a Yahoo account. Then from Yahoo, under the contact options, create a .csv or .vcf file. Then import that .vcf or .csv file to GMail.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/how...s-vista-10566/
http://forums.crackberry.com/f52/how...s-vista-10566/
#10
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I went home for the night. I'll try again when I'm at work tomorrow. But for some reason I logged into Gmail on my computer at home and it is syncing and duplicating my contacts...Weird. Some contacts are doubled, some tripled, some quadrupled. But when I did the initial sync from BB Desktop messenger to Outlook it only synced a part of the contacts. I'll have to do it again tomorrow and see if it pulls the rest of the contacts.. ![Scratch](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/scratch.gif)
One other thing...When I go into contacts on the Droid, it's mixing up all my facebook friends with my contacts. How can I separate them?
![Scratch](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/scratch.gif)
One other thing...When I go into contacts on the Droid, it's mixing up all my facebook friends with my contacts. How can I separate them?
Last edited by Shoofin; 05-10-2011 at 09:32 PM.
#12
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I went home for the night. I'll try again when I'm at work tomorrow. But for some reason I logged into Gmail on my computer at home and it is syncing and duplicating my contacts...Weird. Some contacts are doubled, some tripled, some quadrupled. But when I did the initial sync from BB Desktop messenger to Outlook it only synced a part of the contacts. I'll have to do it again tomorrow and see if it pulls the rest of the contacts.. ![Scratch](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/scratch.gif)
One other thing...When I go into contacts on the Droid, it's mixing up all my facebook friends with my contacts. How can I separate them?
![Scratch](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/scratch.gif)
One other thing...When I go into contacts on the Droid, it's mixing up all my facebook friends with my contacts. How can I separate them?
As far as the Facebook contacts being mixed into your contacts, did you by chance sync your Facebook account into you Atrix via the app or even Motorola Blur's Facebook sync? If you did, its probably pulling data from Facebook on whoever decided to put their email and/or mobile number on there.
You can get rid of it by going into Contacts --> Menu --> More --> Display options --> Facebook --> Uncheck All contacts. You can also select Only contacts with phone above if you don't want everything being synced onto the phone. Once you've imported all your contacts into the phone, it'll eventually aggregate their info into one contact.
When you have all your contacts onto GMail you can sort them into groups. Separate them into groups and with the method above in Display options, you can choose which ones to show on your phone and which ones to hide. Its very easy to manage your contacts with GMail as it acts just like your regular mail. And it can find duplicates for you and help you merge them.
#13
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Even more annoying, now my blackberry has all the contacts that outlook grabbed as duplicates. One contact name is listed as "AT&T Address Book" and the other is listed as my GMail address book. I unchecked the "wireless sync" option in the contacts menu for the Gmail address book after I deleted all the duplicates out of my BB, I looked at my BB now and all the duplicate contacts that I deleted are all back.
BTW, I found something on Motorola's Android site about how to transfer the contacts and it pretty much says to do it the way that I did. Connect the BB to BB desktop mgr, sync with Outlook, export CSV file, import to Gmail. LINK
So now I have two problems - I need to make sure that my Blackberry isn't going to pull the contacts from both my AT&T Address Book and GMail Address Book. I do have the "AT&T Address Book" contacts settings checked off to wirelessly sync to AT&T, should I uncheck that? I didn't even know that it's syncing anywhere, or how I would even restore it if it thru AT&T if it ever came down to it... Other than that, I guess I'll delete all the contacts off Gmail, then after deleting all the duplicate contacts again, I'll sync throu BB Desktop mgr again with Outlook, then port the CSV file again to Gmail after making sure that it transferred all the contacts..
WTF do I do?
BTW, I found something on Motorola's Android site about how to transfer the contacts and it pretty much says to do it the way that I did. Connect the BB to BB desktop mgr, sync with Outlook, export CSV file, import to Gmail. LINK
So now I have two problems - I need to make sure that my Blackberry isn't going to pull the contacts from both my AT&T Address Book and GMail Address Book. I do have the "AT&T Address Book" contacts settings checked off to wirelessly sync to AT&T, should I uncheck that? I didn't even know that it's syncing anywhere, or how I would even restore it if it thru AT&T if it ever came down to it... Other than that, I guess I'll delete all the contacts off Gmail, then after deleting all the duplicate contacts again, I'll sync throu BB Desktop mgr again with Outlook, then port the CSV file again to Gmail after making sure that it transferred all the contacts..
WTF do I do?
![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
#14
Safety Car
Even more annoying, now my blackberry has all the contacts that outlook grabbed as duplicates. One contact name is listed as "AT&T Address Book" and the other is listed as my GMail address book. I unchecked the "wireless sync" option in the contacts menu for the Gmail address book after I deleted all the duplicates out of my BB, I looked at my BB now and all the duplicate contacts that I deleted are all back.
BTW, I found something on Motorola's Android site about how to transfer the contacts and it pretty much says to do it the way that I did. Connect the BB to BB desktop mgr, sync with Outlook, export CSV file, import to Gmail. LINK
So now I have two problems - I need to make sure that my Blackberry isn't going to pull the contacts from both my AT&T Address Book and GMail Address Book. I do have the "AT&T Address Book" contacts settings checked off to wirelessly sync to AT&T, should I uncheck that? I didn't even know that it's syncing anywhere, or how I would even restore it if it thru AT&T if it ever came down to it... Other than that, I guess I'll delete all the contacts off Gmail, then after deleting all the duplicate contacts again, I'll sync throu BB Desktop mgr again with Outlook, then port the CSV file again to Gmail after making sure that it transferred all the contacts..
WTF do I do?![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
BTW, I found something on Motorola's Android site about how to transfer the contacts and it pretty much says to do it the way that I did. Connect the BB to BB desktop mgr, sync with Outlook, export CSV file, import to Gmail. LINK
So now I have two problems - I need to make sure that my Blackberry isn't going to pull the contacts from both my AT&T Address Book and GMail Address Book. I do have the "AT&T Address Book" contacts settings checked off to wirelessly sync to AT&T, should I uncheck that? I didn't even know that it's syncing anywhere, or how I would even restore it if it thru AT&T if it ever came down to it... Other than that, I guess I'll delete all the contacts off Gmail, then after deleting all the duplicate contacts again, I'll sync throu BB Desktop mgr again with Outlook, then port the CSV file again to Gmail after making sure that it transferred all the contacts..
WTF do I do?
![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
Yeah, delete the GMail address book and start over. Very simple to do with their web interface. It can also trim down duplicates for you in there.
#15
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I deleted the Gmail address book and it removed all the duplicates. I'm still having an issue with Outlook though, when I sync the BB through BB desktop manager, it's only syncing 249 contacts out of over 560 that I have to transfer. I must have deleted and re-synced at least 5 times and it still keeps syncing the same 249.
![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
#16
Safety Car
I deleted the Gmail address book and it removed all the duplicates. I'm still having an issue with Outlook though, when I sync the BB through BB desktop manager, it's only syncing 249 contacts out of over 560 that I have to transfer. I must have deleted and re-synced at least 5 times and it still keeps syncing the same 249. ![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
![Annoyed](https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/annoyed.gif)
#17
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I don't think the BB desktop software allows you to sync to anything other than Outlook. The issue is the software is limiting the amount of contacts to sync with Outlook. Regardless of it all, the software isn't allowing me to sync more than that many contacts. I think last time before deleting and starting over, it synced 250. This time it's 249. I called AT&T and I've got them scratching their heads too. They told me to call Blackberry support, but it's something that i'll have to "pay per incident" if I try to go through their tech support. I can't see why I should have to pay for support of software that sucks and isn't doing what it's supposed to do!
#19
Safety Car
Not sure then. The only other option is to try a different computer. Unless there's an update or option in BB Manager that limits how many contacts can be synced or something.
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