Apologies if I've overlooked something, and this is already possible. I just activated the Samsung M370, and I'm looking for a way to (a) add my contacts via computer rather than phone keypad, and/or (b) have contacts added via phone backed up so that they can be recovered or transferred to a new device if the phone gets lost or broken.
Verizon (which I recently left for Ting) had an application/service called Backup Assistant that would do both of these things, i.e. backup phone contacts and let contacts be added/edited via their website, with two-way sync. Thus, my contacts transferred through three devices, including two dumb phones and most recently a smartphone.
Of course, with the advent of the smartphone, most people are managing their contacts via Gmail, obviating the need for such an application. But I recently decided to ditch the smartphone in favor of phone (the Samsung M370) and a full-fledged tablet (the Google Nexus 7). So now I'm in need of something like Backup Assistant for the Samsung M370. Is there some way to do this that I missed? If not, is there any chance we can get something like that?
Comments
I don't know what you can do with Samsung Kies but you should have a look. You will need to download it from Samsung. You may be able to transfer your contacts via Bluetooth between devices. Nexus 7 to the Samsung. You may also be able to export your contacts from services like Google in VCF format and connect your phone to the computer in data mode and transfer the contacts. Once on the phone you may be able to import them from within the contacts app or settings app. If you have multiple phones you can also visit a Sprint store and have them transfer the contacts. I wouldn't mention that you are a Ting customer. Worked for my brother in law.
Hi Lee,
I wasn't able to get this phone to work with Kies when I tried, and when looking around for a PC driver all I could find was junk, and so I'm afraid you're not going to get the kind of functionality you're hoping for.
You can definitely transfer contacts off the phone through Bluebooth, but that looks to be it for options.
In the event that you find another way to get this to interface directly with a PC through USB, please let us know as I'd love to learn more about how you got that to work.
There is an opensource program called bitpim that might be worth looking into. http://bitpim.org It was perhaps the only tool for backing up CDMA non smartphones a few years ago. It may not be current but there probably isn't much change in the file system on the M370
Thanks for your suggestions. Zarthan, Kies looks like a smartphone-only app? Anyway, I'm running Linux, so I didn't attempt to download it (appears to be only Windows/Mac). I gave bitpim a shot, but the Samsung M370 is not a supported phone, and I was unable to get it to work trying to treat it as a Samsung M300 (assuming the same "family" might work).
This did get me to start poking around though, and I found Wammu/Gammu (http://wammu.eu/). Unfortunately, couldn't get it to establish communication with the phone. It looks like an active project (unlike bitpim), so I put in a bug report at their developer site. We'll see what happens.
Rob, thanks for the Bluetooth tip. I was able to send contacts off of my old phone (LG Vortex) and the Samsung M370 received it successfully. I'll have to go one by one (I think, maybe there's a way to batch select), but it still beats reentering manually. I wonder if there's a way to get the computer to send a cell phone formatted contact? Anyway, this will be good enough for now, and if the Wammu developers are able to figure out why I can't connect, that would be even better.
Thanks,
--Lee
If you can export your old contacts as a VCF file you may be able to import the file into the new phone. A VCF file is a standard format for contacts. It can be a single entry or ALL contacts. See what options you have on the M370 contact app to open files or save contacts to an SD card, assuming it has one. If you have then you can usually open / import the contact file(s). There should be a setting or onscreen for the phone to enable connecting to the PC. I use Xubuntu and once you set the phone to connect to the PC it should automatically be mounted. If you create a VCF contacts file you should be able to drag the contacts file to the card. You can also copy anything from the SD card to your PC.
If you have all your contacts in Gmail you can easily export all your contacts a VCF file.
Weirdness. I paired the M370 with my computer via Bluetooth, planning to try to send a VCF file and see what happens. On my computer, device shows up as paired but not connected. Similarly, on the phone, I can see the computer listed as a Trusted Device, but do not have the option to transfer to the computer. Between the M370 and the LG Vortex, the phone *does* display the option to transfer files to the Vortex, and similarly on the computer, the Vortex appears as paired *and* connected. So the M370 can pair with the Vortex, but not with the computer. Don't know why.
Anyway, have already transferred all my contacts from the Vortex. Obviously, it would be easier to maintain the contact list from the computer, but at least I don't have to recreate the whole list from scratch.
Thanks for you help.
--Lee
Just ran into tis issue today and glad to have found this forum. Bluetooth is definitely the way to go. I just transferred 150 contacts from my old Verizon-enabled LG enV3 to the 'new' (to me) Samsung M370 directly in about two minutes.
So easy even a flip-phone-loving, non-data-streaming Luddite like me can figure it out.
Btw, so happy to be done with Verizon and to have found Ting.
The Bluetooth worked great to transfer all of my contacts from my Samsung M370 to my Samsung M370. Thank you for this post!! Would not have tried otherwise.
William's solution worked for me! I transferred from my old Verizon Samsung flip to my new Samsung M370. Thank you so much! :D
I was able to get my contacts from my HTC EVO to my Samsung M370 by the following process.
I saved all of my EVO contacts to the microSD card, removed the card, slipped it into the SD adapter and saved the .vfc file to my desktop (macintosh/ apple/ mac). I added the M370 as a bluetooth device and selected 'advanced' on the computer, then 'send files'. I selected the .vfc and send it to M370.
Hope this helps.
Hey Max,
Thanks for your help - it's much appreciated!
Please sign in to leave a comment.