[bananasplit]

Hi, I used to have an 8700g and used it very briefly 3 years back, but eventually settled for a windows mobile device.

Fast forward to present, I just said goodbye to Windows Mobile and finally jumped back to Blackberry with a Bold device. I have read the accompanying manuals, have been able to configure emails, configured the profiles, even added an application already.

Now my problem is this: my contact list. I have a mail2web.com free exchange email. Everytime I changed my windows device before, all I needed to do was set up the exchange email and then it syncs back all my contacts and calendar entries. Apparently mail2web.com will only support a blackberry with a paid subscription, of which I'm trying to avoid.

My laptop does not have Outlook installed so I cannot sync the contacts from the application to the Bold. The only other source of contacts I have (besides the mail2web online interface), is my windows mobile device.

I tried running the Desktop Manager v4.6 and found a Device Switch Wizard, which I tried to use, but it reported errors and it cannot retrieve the information from the WinMo device (of which there is nothing wrong).

Can anyone suggest options on how to get my contacts in the Bold? Apologies if this was a long post. I consider myself tech savvy but I guess there is that learning curve with the Blackberry that I have to deal with now.

No regrets though, the Bold an amazing device! Oh and thanks in advance for the assistance.

[mark.baker]

Have you tried using Outlook Express?

[whsbuss]

I believe mail2web has an export function for the address book. You can

1. import to a gmail account and use google sync for the blackberry
2. import to a yahoo account and use DM to sync to yahoo

[mark.baker]

One other possibility would be to pair your WinMo phone with your Bold via bluetooth. Then, depending on the WinMo phone, you might be able to transfer contacts to the Bold (again, via bluetooth). Sometimes the operation is a little clunky, but it was the only way a friend of mine could convert his contacts from his WinMo to his BlackBerry.

[bananasplit]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

1. Fired up Outlook Express, but no facility to set up exchange email, only POP or IMAP.
2. Logged into mail2web, have clicked on every available option/command, I cannot see an export function for the contacts, or anything for that matter.
3. Turned on bluetooth on both devices, paired successfully, but on my WinMo device (HTC TyTN), there is no "send via bluetooth" option for contacts, only beam and text message.

I have around 800 contacts so the text message option isn't economically feasible. Any other ideas? I'm starting to get desperate...

[mark.baker]

Well, the obviously simple solution is to obtain Outlook. But I realize you said you don't have it--does that mean you cannot get a copy of it at all? Have you searched around for any third party WinMo apps that will dump all your contacts into an ASCII file? Maybe there's a free trial you can use just to get them all dumped out into a CSV (or equivalent) file.

[whsbuss]

Originally Posted by bananasplit

Thanks for all the replies so far.

1. Fired up Outlook Express, but no facility to set up exchange email, only POP or IMAP.
2. Logged into mail2web, have clicked on every available option/command, I cannot see an export function for the contacts, or anything for that matter.
3. Turned on bluetooth on both devices, paired successfully, but on my WinMo device (HTC TyTN), there is no "send via bluetooth" option for contacts, only beam and text message.

I have around 800 contacts so the text message option isn't economically feasible. Any other ideas? I'm starting to get desperate...

I forget the actual place on mail2web for import/export but its something on the personal homepage. Do a google search for "mail2web import" and it should give you some details.

[bananasplit]

Guys, it took me awhile but was eventually able to figure it out. It was a tedious process but essentially uninstalled the app on my TyTN that DM 4.6 installed, restarted all (laptop, Bold, TyTN), plugged both devices again, removed existing partnership (of TyTN) with the laptop and re-created the partnership, synced with exchange first, then ran the tool on DM 4.6, and then finally the contacts transferred!

Not bad for 6 hours of trawling the net for answer, including the nice folks here in the forums. Your ideas got my head in analysis mode!

Next project: put a photo on my Bold to replace the dark blue blank space...and also choose a program to display multiple time zones (roughly about 4 zones)...