Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Transferring contacts between cell phones from different manufacturers

This is topic Transferring contacts between cell phones from different manufacturers in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-08-2006, 04:22 PM:

IIRC, there was a thread recently about backing up your contacts from your cell phone. How about if you have to transfer contacts from one manufacturer's phone to a different one?
In this case, I have to transfer my contacts from a Nokia 6230 to a Motorola i760 because my company switched to Nextel.
Is there a universal file/data format for cell phones? Both phones know categories like home, work, cell, fax, etc., but do they store them in the same format and can those data be transferred from one phone to the next?
I tried simply loading the SIM card into the new phone and reading the data off the card. The older account is not active anymore, but that has nothing to do with the SIM memory. But the Motorola asked for a "special number". It is not the old SIM's PIN, I already tried that.
So if that doesn't work, I want to look into PC programs which can be used to backup and/or upload the data to the new phone.

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 03-08-2006, 11:25 PM:

You will need a data cable for both phones to do this

Try this:
First use Nokia PC Suite to back up your phone book then use Motorola Phonebook Manager to upload it too the new phone.

You may have to format the list that is pulled from your nokia to upload it to the moto phone.. Good luck

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-09-2006, 01:53 AM:

I have the Nokia PC Suite, but none of the cables yet. Have you tired it yourself? Do theese programs export the information to either a text file or a common format from which it can then be imported to the other phone?

Posted by Robert Burtcher (Member # 3227) on 03-09-2006, 03:04 AM:

I have no clue if either data suite supports it, but your best bet is to export your contacts from the Nokia suite in a Comma Separated Values (*.csv) file, and have the Motorola suite import that.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-09-2006, 11:03 AM:

It doesn't look like the Nokia program does have that option. Apparently, it saves all data in a .nfb file which looks like it is a proprietary Nokia file format.
A program like data pilot might be what is needed, but I don't want to spend $50+ just for that job.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-09-2006, 11:24 AM:

I don't about the Nokia 6230 and Motorola i760, but some phones can sync with applications like Microsoft Outlook.

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 03-09-2006, 11:25 AM:

I have never done it, but you may want to try these solutions:

firt try right clicking on the file and going to "Open With.." and then select notepad or wordpad and see if it is just a txt file with a weird file extention

or you can try this
NFB Converter

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-09-2006, 01:33 PM:

Thanks for that link. Apparently, the Motorola application only knows .mdb as a file format. Now I would need a program which converts the text file created by that program to .mdb. I think that's the Access file format. There might be a program out there which does that. I will see once I get the cables to hook up the phones to the PC.

Posted by Jason M Miller (Member # 2597) on 03-10-2006, 02:09 PM:

Try this Access Help