Moving Contact Data from one PDA to another

Moving Email Contacts Between Different PDAs

Personal digital devices have been around for years but use has become more widespread as the devices get cheaper and more powerful. Early devices were mostly handheld "organizers" that had digital calendars and card files. Current PDAs have these functions plus phones, email, web browsers, and office software. A problem that plagues usage is the ability to transfer large amounts of data from outdated PDAs to newer models.

Recently, I was asked if I could transfer over 4 thousand contacts from a 10 year old Psion to a new Samsung i700 Pocket PC. There were significant barriers to success: they had incompatible operating systems, few conversion capabilities, and poor instruction manuals. There was no direct or obvious way to move the large contact database, but it was not impossible.

Companies that make PDAs and mobile phones have been accused of intentionally blocking conversion of data from one device to another. There is little incentive for them to provide ways for data to be moved to a competitor’s product. Regardless or this, almost any database may be reduced to delimited text files and restored somewhere else. The more complex the database is, the more difficult the conversion will be. However, contact lists are usually not that complex.

In order to complete this operation you will need the two devices and a computer that both PDAs can connect to. For this example I will be using the Psion, Samsung and a Windows-based PC with Outlook as the destination. This method may be used with minor modifications with almost any PDA, operating system or email program. If someone tells you it is impossible, they are lying. There are a few things that you must do first to prepare.

CSV Files

CSV stands for "comma separated values." CSV files are text files that hold exported database information. Each line is a record from the database. The items separated by commas are the database record values. The commas indicate where field values stop and begin. The end of a line indicates the end of a record. Other characters, like hyphens and semicolons, may be used as separators. In Windows the file format defaults to Excel, but can be opened as text or by other conversion programs. This is an important concept to understand for the conversion process.

Basic Overview of Major Steps

Export contacts from the current device to a desktop or laptop computer
Convert the exported contacts to the format used by the new PDA
Import the converted contacts to the new device

Each step has its own intricacies and challenges, but this process can be applied to various conversions and data transfers.

Get all your stuff together

Make sure you have:

Your source PDA(the Psion in this case)
A computer with Outlook and USB or Serial Connections
You destination PDA(the Samsung)
The cables and cradles for each device
The desktop software for both devices loaded on the PC

Step 1

Load the source device desktop software on your PC.

Backup the data on your PDA. Make a copy specifically for the transfer to avoid data loss.

After loading the Psion desktop software on my PC I established a connection with the device through the serial port. Desktop PDA interfaces often create or shortcut or folder icon which acts as a portal for connecting to the data on the device. I was able to browse to the files through windows. Double-clicking on the data files yields the message "Opening of Files not Supported." The files may only be opened on the Psion. Right-clicking on the data displays the option "Copy and Convert." There are few options, the one to pick is CSV. Unfortunately, the convert and copy failed. A scan of the help files showed that password-protected files could not be converted, so I removed all the password protection. The copy and convert still failed. There turned out to be some kind of error in the Psion desktop software which prevented the conversion.

Things we not working on the Windows side so I went back to the Psion itself. I selected the data file and went to the Options menu. One of the options was "Save as a text file." I was able to save the contacts list as a text file with whatever delimiter I wanted, I selected commas and double quotes. The double quotes add an extra protection incase the text itself contains a comma or a line break. Here is a sample line of the output:

"Sullivan, Fred","202-987-7601","Queens, NY","fsullivan@sully.com"
Bingo, I now had a CSV copy of the Psion contacts on my PC. The files saved with no file extension, but I could either: rename the file and add ".csv" or right click the file icon, select "open with..." and select Excel. Open the file in Excel and save it as a .csv file.

Step 2

Make sure you have the same email software on your desktop computer as you will be using on the destination PDA. While it is not impossible with different software it is much easier if they are the same.

With the CSV export on my desktop I opened Outlook. I went to the Contacts folder and then Import/Export through File. There is a menu of options. The one I used was "Import from another program or file", then "Comma Seperated Values(Windows)."

I browsed to my file and selected Contacts as the destination.

The next part requires a bit of work. It is necessary to map the fields in the text file to the fields in a standard Outlook Contacts list. If there are only a few fields in your text file and the information is in the same place each time you can map the whole file at once. Depending on how large the file is, it may take a while or a few seconds.

The data is now found in Outlook Contacts. It is important to verify the information and ensure that it is mapped correctly. It is easier to delete the contacts and re-do the process at this point than reorganize the fields manually later. Just be sure you have a copy of any current contacts before you delete.

Step 3

Disconnect the source device and connect the destination device and run the synchronization utility. In this case the Samsung came with Microsoft ActiveSync 3.5, which failed. I upgraded to ActiveSync 3.7.1 and the contacts synch worked easily. However, this took a little research since there were no specific instructions in the Samsung manual on how to ActiveSync so I had no idea where it was failing. Another issue is a deception on their part. While the Samsung email program is called Outlook it is not actually Outlook, the contacts files on the Samsung are not real PST files, so you cant just move a PST over.