Help: Treo to iPhone contact transfer

[jorphanage]

Hello all,

Looking for some help. Currently have a treo 680 and am going to get an iPhone probably next month. I have a mac book pro and have been trying to figure out how to import contacts and other data into mac address book rather than using the windows oriented hotsync treo software so that when I get the iPhone the transfer will be way easier than having to go through ATT hoops (they were saying I need to buy a flash drive from them or something) or having to re enter the contacts by hand.

I saw a program called missing sync but it seemed like it would be more of a program for treo owners who use a mac rather than a one time transfer program to sync to iPhone.

Any ideas on a painless/easy ways to transfer data from treo to iPhone via mac book pro? Thanks!

 

[Marianne]

i came from a treo 680 to an iPhone, but i used the missing sync to sync my treo contacts and calendar to ical and address book on my mac. it doesn't sound like you're syncing your treo to your mac at all, if i read your post correctly. the missing sync is indeed intended to be a full-featured program to keep your mac and treo in sync. however, since Apple's isync won't work with a treo 680 (see the compatibility list here), you need to find some way to get your contacts and calendar to your mac.

i know you could at least send your contacts (one by one, though) via bluetooth to your mac. then you can import them to Address Book. i don't think you can bluetooth a calendar from your treo to your mac, though.

how many contacts do you have on your treo? what about your calendar? just want to get an idea of what we're up against...

 

[jorphanage]

i came from a treo 680 to an iPhone, but i used the missing sync to sync my treo contacts and calendar to ical and address book on my mac. it doesn't sound like you're syncing your treo to your mac at all, if i read your post correctly. the missing sync is indeed intended to be a full-featured program to keep your mac and treo in sync. however, since Apple's isync won't work with a treo 680 (see the compatibility list here), you need to find some way to get your contacts and calendar to your mac.

i know you could at least send your contacts (one by one, though) via bluetooth to your mac. then you can import them to Address Book. i don't think you can bluetooth a calendar from your treo to your mac, though.

how many contacts do you have on your treo? what about your calendar? just want to get an idea of what we're up against...

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I've just been backing up the treo data on a separate, non computer based, data sim card type thing rather than on the mac. I saw that isync doesn't include the treo 680, but missing sync does. Basically what I wanted to know is if it's worth it to get missing sync so I can start backing up my contacts/calendars on my mac now rather than on the separate sim card and then once I get an iPhone, in theory it will be an easy transfer over from the correct format. I also wanted to get an idea of how easy/fast missing sync is to use? I read all these things about activating conduits and I'm like "WTF is a conduit?" haha, so I'm kind of worried about the ease of the transfer.

I believe I have about 300 or so contacts and probably around give or take 20 cal events a month (for I guess about 3 years build up), but that number fluctuates as they get added.

 

[stevetim]

from my treo 680 to iPhone, i used yahoo address for my contact transfer. worked perfectly. you can also hard copy yahoo address into a .csv and save that for future problems.

 

[jorphanage]

from my treo 680 to iPhone, i used yahoo address for my contact transfer. worked perfectly. you can also hard copy yahoo address into a .csv and save that for future problems.

How did you get the Treo data to Yahoo? Did you use a program or is there an option on yahoo to upload all your contacts or something?

 

[Marianne]

Thanks for the response! Yeah, I've just been backing up the treo data on a separate, non computer based, data sim card type thing rather than on the mac. I saw that isync doesn't include the treo 680, but missing sync does. Basically what I wanted to know is if it's worth it to get missing sync so I can start backing up my contacts/calendars on my mac now rather than on the separate sim card and then once I get an iPhone, in theory it will be an easy transfer over from the correct format. I also wanted to get an idea of how easy/fast missing sync is to use? I read all these things about activating conduits and I'm like "WTF is a conduit?" haha, so I'm kind of worried about the ease of the transfer.

I believe I have about 300 or so contacts and probably around give or take 20 cal events a month (for I guess about 3 years build up), but that number fluctuates as they get added.

i used resco backup on my treo - great program to backup my entire treo to the sd card. that was so handy once when i had to do a hard reset. good plan.

well, with 300 contacts, i think it might be worth it, even though the missing sync software is $40. you'll have to completely make sure that your first sync takes the data from your treo and puts it on your mac and not the other way around, though (and this is the default set-up, so you'll just need to double-check everything). but once you've got that set, it will import everything into Address Book. you may need to do some clean-up since all the fields don't transfer well between the Palm software and Address Book, but that's it - definitely less work than typing each contact in individually. the calendar import should work pretty smoothly.

there's a guided walk-through to set up what to sync that's straightforward, so you don't need to know detailed technical stuff about conduits and such, so no need to worry there. i will say i had some problems with the missing sync myself (syncs would take longer and longer over time and eventually stop working) but i think my experience was not normal and it works well for most people.

i'm not familiar with the yahoo address book and calendar myself, so hopefully stevetim can provide info on that. i took a quick look at yahoo and didn't see a way to get addresses there directly from a treo, only through desktop software like outlook, palm desktop, etc. so you'd still need to find a way to get your contacts from your treo to your mac anyway.

 

[stevetim]

How did you get the Treo data to Yahoo? Did you use a program or is there an option on yahoo to upload all your contacts or something?

If I remember correctly, it was through Treo desktop app. You go to Yahoo, and IMPORT from whatever source you have. Been a while since I imported to Yahoo! and I don't have the software on my PC anymore, so I can't give you exact steps.