A friend called me up tonight because he had run into an insurmountable obstacle. He wanted to transfer the contacts from his Treo 680 to his new Blackberry Curve. Simple, right? It comes with software to do that. Well, even after spending hours and hours with AT&T and RIM support, he was left without a successful migration. Even the software tool that’s supposed to transfer the data directly from a Palm Treo to the Blackberry Curve failed to work–it didn’t allow him to select the Treo device as the data source even though it was plugged into the PC. If you’re in this situation as well, here’s how we got the job done.
Note: Since I don’t own these devices, this is written from memory (very recent memory; half an hour ago). Thus, the actual names of some things such as menu items may be slightly different but that won’t prevent you from carrying out the steps.
Before you begin (things you’ll need):
- Palm Desktop (the software that came with the Palm Treo)
- Blackberry Desktop (the software that came with the RIM Blackberry)
- Microsoft Outlook 2000 or newer (even if you don’t normally use it, you’ll need it to act as a translator and synchronization source for the address book data)
- Blackberry device and sync cable
Exporting/importing the data:
- Start Palm Desktop. (The latest version as of this writing is 4.2 although Palm’s own web site only has the older version 4.1.4 available. [Update: apparently 4.2 has compatibility problems so Palm reverted to an earlier version on their site.])
- Create a new entry and in every field, put the name of the field as the value for the field (e.g. in the Last Name field, enter Last Name; in the First Name field, enter First Name). This will make it easier to do the data mapping later.
- Go to the address book and select all the entries you want to export (choose Select All from the Edit menu to choose everything). Failure to select entries will result in only the first one being exported.
- Choose Export from the File menu.
- Choose the file type as CSV (comma-separated value).
- Enter the name for the file (e.g. Contacts.csv) and remember where you’re saving it.
- Start Microsoft Outlook.
- Open your Contacts.
- Select Import from the File menu.
- For the file type, select Windows CSV or DOS CSV (the name may be different in your version of Outlook).
- Select the file you exported in step 6.
- If Outlook doesn’t automatically map the fields in the CSV file, you’ll have to map them manually. The easiest way to do this is to go to the address of the person named Last Name (remember that you entered this in step 2?) so that you can easily see which field is which in the CSV file. Then assign them to the appropriate field name in Outlook (the method to do this may vary with different versions of Outlook).
- Click the Finish button to import all the addresses.
- Go to the Blackberry Desktop and open the synchronization utility.
- On the configuration tab, make sure that the Address Book is associated with Microsoft Outlook (there will be a double-headed arrow between the two).
- Plug the Blackberry into your PC with the synchronization cable.
- Watch all the messages go by as the data is synchronized.
- When the sync is done, disconnect the Blackberry and check that everything appears in the Blackberry’s address book. If it doesn’t, reboot the Blackberry (not sure why this is necessary but my friend’s Blackberry wouldn’t show the new data until he took the battery out and put it back in).
That should do it. If you don’t have Outlook, then Outlook Express may also work. I believe I saw it as an option in the Blackberry synchronization software’s configuration options.
Tags: Blackberry, how-to, Treo
There are some compatability issues with the 4.2 Version of the palm desktop, and, I seem to recall, the 700P. This is why Palm rolled back the Rev. available on their web site. There is also a version available for VISTA
Thanks for the info. Maybe that’s why the direct transfer method fails.
Perfect! This works so smoothly. I purchased my BB Curve yesterday and just finished the load – Palm and Outlook. Great hint on the mapping.
Thanks for making it easy.
Thanks for the feedback, WaukazooWoods. Glad to hear that you got yours working too.
just tried it and it worked very well. I only had to reformat some of the cells in the cvs file. One tip: put the first name, last name row at the top, that way outlook will find it during the importing process.
Glad it worked well and thanks for the tip.
Thanks, this method works great in transferring data from Palm Desktop “Address” and “Memo.” This is because these modules allow export as .csv files. “Select All” is crucial. However, this method doesn’t work with “Date” or “To Do” as these modules don’t allow export as anything but native formats. Any hints on how to transfer data from “Date” or “To Do”?
Hmmm, transferring date and todo items? That’s a very good question. I don’t have a solution at this time but will certainly write one up when I find a way.
Thanks for the help, now I feel safe to convert to blackberry. Can I assume that this would work for the Blackberry Pearl as well… given that it also uses Blackberry Desktop?
Naveen, I would also assume that the Pearl would work similarly since it uses the Blackberry Desktop. However, there may be differences to accommodate features of different models of phone.
If you get one, do post a follow up comment with your experience. Thanks!
Thank you for saving my life. You’re amazing :)
Thanks I purchased a Blackberry pearl and was considering taking it back because of this simple / stupid data transfer issue.
Thanks so much! I just got a curve today and when I ran into the grey screen went on the hunt – found you and now all of my contacts have been imported without a hitch. Thanks again and happy holidays!
just spent 2 hrs with T-mobile/BBerry support. They gave up and told me to transfer contact manually. Just transfered all the files according to your instruction succesfully. Magnificant!!!!!!!!!!!
Taylor, James, Pam and Mr/Ms Anonymous. Thanks for all the feedback. Great to hear this post has been helpful for so many new Blackberry owners.
Dear Peter, I have successfully transferred my memos from Palm Desktop to Microsoft Outlook. I tried a contact entry with all of the data titles in it, but I cannot seem to find this particular entry in the Outlook when I export… any hints?
I am about to then load to the Pearl… sounds promising!
Thanks,
Naveen
Naveen, if your Outlook is sorted by Last Name, then look for the entry with whatever you put into the Last Name field. I put “Last” in mine so it was with the other names that start with “L”. If your Outlook is sorted by First Name, then it depends what you put in that field. I put “First” so it would be down in “F”.
What if I have lost my cable to my Treo 650 and I don’t have all of my contacts already saved on the Palm Desktop?
Is there a way to copy them all to a memory/SD card, and download them to the Palm Desktop that way (rather than via hot sync)? I have not bought the Blackberry Curve yet but plan to … I’m trying to make the transition as seamless as possible. Please help if you can.
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Dave,
If you don’t have a hot sync cable for your Treo, it’s probably easiest to either borrow one from another Treo owner or hot sync via Bluetooth (using a Bluetooth-enabled laptop or a USB Bluetooth adapter).
If you can’t do either of the above, here’s how you might be able to manipulate the data directly.
1. Install a file management program such as RescoExplorer or FileZ onto your Treo and copy the file ContactsDB-PAdd to an SD card.
2. Find and use a program to convert that file from the Palm PDB format to CSV or other data format that Palm Desktop can understand. Not sure which tool would work best for this. A Google search returns several. You might have to convert from PDB to something like DBF and then use another tool (Excel might work for this) to convert from DBF to CSV.
3. Import the data into Palm Desktop.
I’ve never tried the above process. It’s just theory. Post a follow up comment with your experience if you try this.
Your technique worked! Thanks!
It appears that the 4.3 version of Blackberry Desktop Manager can import all the calendar, contacts, memo and task information from Palm Desktop. Its an option on the menu screen… but as it approaches the last few calendar entries, it freezes both palm desktop and blackberry desktop… and fails to make the transfer! Aaargh! So close, yet so far… I hope they fix the bug so it can be done at a later date. Until then, your technique has been a savior!
Naveen, that’s great news that the new version can import everything. Bummer about the lockup, though. Try this:
1. Make a backup of the Palm Desktop files
2. Delete the last few calendar entries in Palm Desktop
3. Try the import again
Maybe there’s some corrupt data in the last few calendar entries. If that fixes it, you can manually enter the missing appointments into the Blackberry.
Thanks, deleting (almost all of) the calendar entries finally allowed me to eliminate the corrupted item… which allowed the v4.3 Blackberry Desktop software to import: contacts, calendar, memos and tasks from my palm desktop!
Great advice.
Off an running with my Blackberry Pearl and loving it!
Naveen
That’s great news, Naveen! Happy Blackberrying–don’t get addicted :)
Hello, thanks for your tips and suggestions. I got all of the way until the end, almost, but then after I clicked on Accept Changes I got an error message saying I could not make the changes.
Would you have any idea what I am doing wrong?
Could not make the changes? Hmmm, I hadn’t heard that before. Maybe your Windows account has Restricted User status.
Go to Control Panel | User Accounts. Select your user name and click the Properties button. If Restricted user is selected, then you’ll have to find someone with Standard user or Administrator access to try it.
Thanks, I’ll try that, if it helps you diagnose: only the first entry gets synched. Does that help?
If the first entry successfully transfers (i.e., it is saved in the Blackberry), then perhaps you have some bad data in there. Sounds similar to Naveen’s situation in his comment on 12/6. Check that out and my reply as well.
Transfered phone book and calendar form my Treo 650 to my new Blackberry 8820. After trying Out look without success (could tranfer only 1 by 1 even with 4.1.4 sofat version) found that the new Blackberry soft allows easy and direct transfer.
Anonymous, what version of the Blackberry software do you have?
Has anyone tranferred data from a Palm Tungsten PDA to a Blackberry without outlook? We use lotus notes as email/calendar/contacts.
Hello all, I have a bit of a different situation.
Going from blackberry 7100, to a Treo 700. All I need to do is transfer my Contacts or Address book to Treo (or Outlook 2007). I never even activated the email on the BB.
Thanks,
Dave
Hi Dave. To get your contacts from BB to Treo, first sync your BB with Outlook. Once it’s in Outlook, you can export the data to a CSV file (e.g. Contacts.csv). The Palm Desktop software can then import that file into its Contacts database. If everything looks good there, then HotSync the Treo and you’re good to go.
For those who want to also go from Blackberry to Treo but don’t have Outlook, you can use the BB Desktop Manager though it’s a bit tedious.
1. Sync your BB
2. Open the Desktop Manager
3. Go to Intellisync
4. Click on Configure PIM
5. Select the Address book
6. Click on Choose and select ASCII Import/Export as the type of address book
7. Select Export in Operation
8. In the filename field enter Contacts.csv
9. Click the OK button, then Synchronize Now
10. When it’s done, you can import the file into Palm Desktop’s Contacts and then sync the Treo.
I am having some issues with step #12 – mapping. I map the new contact that I created in step 2, but it doesnt seem to work for the other contacts. That contact is matched up great but by others the email is in the mobile field and some other mix ups?
Hi Steve,
I recently noticed some mixups when syncing between Palm Desktop on Windows and Palm Desktop on Mac via my Palm Centro. So, there might be some issues with some versions of Palm Desktop. I’m not completely sure. Funny thing is that it all looks fine on my phone even though it’s mismatched on the Mac. Bizarre.
This is totally the most awesome thing ever! This post just saved my life! thank you! thank you! thank you!
Middle finger to Sprint!
thank you SOOOO MUCH for the info! i live in brazil and i have been trying for a WEEK to transfer data w no sucess! the BB suport here was no help!
i’ve been trying to transfer my palm treo calendar to my BB. i exported the data, but the only available extension is .DBA and i cant import it to my outlook. HELP!!
from brazil
Anonymous in Brazil,
To transfer your calendar from Palm to BB, you can do one of the following:
1. Sync your Palm Desktop calendar with Yahoo! calendar, export from Y! calendar to Outlook, then from Outlook to BB.
or
2. The least expensive shareware/commercial tool I’ve found to convert from Palm DBA format to CSV is datebookCSV. I haven’t tried it but it looks like it’ll do the job.
If you decide to use datebookCSV, I’d be interested to hear about your experience with it.
Thanks for the advices! It works #1 to transfer memos and cnontacts. form treo to curve. But what about my calendar? Is there a way to transfer all of my apointments from my treo to my curve without re-creating them one at a time? Thx for all
Danger Boy, try the two items I mentioned in my comment right before yours.
I’m having trouble importing the csv file that I saved with the palm contacts into the outlook contacts folder. In the last window of the import wizard, the “next” button is not activated. Any ideas? My palm desktop is version 4.0.1.
Peter,
Thanks so much for your very thorough explanation of the process. I tried loading the Palm and Blackberry software on three different computers trying to get the transfer to work. I was about to start the tedious process of cutting and pasting hundreds of my contacts and memos that I had developed over the years. Your method worked perfectly the first time. You saved a lot of frustration!!
Thanks,
Glenn
Thank you sooooooooo much!!!!!!!! I asked Palm, Blackberry, and Verizon for help. And everyone suggested to go back to a Palm system. But I knew I wanted a change. This was my last resort and it worked. I was able to transfer my contacts, my calendar and my MEMOS (which everyone said would never happen). THANK YOU THANK YOU Thank YOU
And by the way, I LOVE my CURVE
Thank you! You explained a seemingly impossible task very clearly. My 8130 finally has all of my Palm contacts!
Look carefully at your data in the address book… I have this issue that I am still working to fix… On the Palm desktop, the field names are not static…that is you can make the first phone number “WORK” or you can make it “HOME” etc. by changing the dropdown box… When you import into Outlook (or Blackberry) it does not know that the first phone field (for example) has changed.
Therefore…your FAX number may show up as a HOME NUMBER, or an EMAIL.
Has anyone else had (and solved) this issue?
Syncing Yahoo Calendar to Blackberry Curve…
So I am trying to transfer my calendar from Treo to Blackberry. I don’t have Outlook , so I need to use Google or Yahoo to edit my calendar on the computer.
I am using Desktop Manger version 4.3.0.17
I have done the following:
1. Transfered my Treo to Blackberry using Switch Device Wizard.
2. Transfered my Treo to Yahoo using Yahoo Autosync.
3. But when I try and Sync Blackberry to Yahoo using Desktop Manager, it deletes my Blackberry calendar, and doesn’t transfer any info from Yahoo to Blackberry.
Any advice??? Should I bite the bullet and buy outlook?
The problem lies in the BB’s desktop manager software. Version 4.1 was out at the time of rollout, not 4.5. By rolling back the version the problem is resolved accordingly.
Wow, so many “Anonymous” commenters. Makes it hard to tell who said what and if a problem was already resolved.
Regarding the dynamic field names for phone numbers, there isn’t an easy way to deal with that since Outlook doesn’t support such flexibility. You’ll need to either fix it in Palm Desktop by making the order of the fields always the same (e.g. first one always Home, second always Word, etc.) or rearrange them in Outlook. I’m not sure of an easier way. On Linux, perhaps something could be done using sed but that sounds like quite an endeavor unless you’re really good with regular expressions.
As for the BB Desktop 4.1 vs 4.5, did that solve the issue with 4.3 syncing with Yahoo calendar?
I’m thinking of getting a BlackBery, and thought I’d look into data transfer issues first, since I would be a wreck without my data. I was glad to find this page, but I use a Mac, so don’t use Outlook… do you think I should get a BB?
I haven’t tried the whole process on a Mac but you could try the following:
1. Export your contacts from Palm Desktop as a Datebook (.dba) file.
2. Import the .dba file into Yahoo! Calendar.
3. Export from Y! Calendar to a .csv file.
4. Import the .csv file into Blackberry Desktop
I’d recommend that you get confirmation from wherever you purchase your Blackberry that you can return it without any penalties if you’re unable to transfer your data from the Palm. Then, give this a try.
Post back with your results.
Please help.
On my computer I have the Palm Desktop from my old Treo. I no longer have the actual phone. I have a Blackberry Curve now (which I love). How do I get my Memos and my Contacts from the Palm Desktop (no device) to the Blackberry (I do have both desktop and device)? Thank You! -ND
Anonymous, you don’t have to have a Palm device plugged in to run the Palm Desktop and transfer your data to the Blackberry via Outlook. As long as your Palm Desktop software has the data in it, you can transfer it.
Thanks it worked for me. I tried everything i knew!
Can you help , please ? I followed your instructions to go via MS Outlook – all’s well, except that when I try to import the created “Contacts.csv” file into Outlook ONLY THE LASTNAME tramsfers.
What am I doing wrong ??
Yhanks in advance
David
Hi David. Open the Contacts.csv file in Notepad and verify that all the data is in there. If it is, then perhaps your map in Outlook needs fixing. If the all the data is not in the csv file, then something probably went wrong with the export.
It’s a good idea to create a dummy record with all the fields filled in with the field name to make it easier to verify that everything is getting exported to the file and mapped correctly.
I works wonderfully…..I have been trying to sync my BlackBerry Storm with the Treo 755p the BB desktop manager did not recognize the Treo as conected….I finally was able to do it with your instructions…..Thank you very much…now to pass info between the two I just have to sync them both to Outlook……Thank you!!!!!
Hi there – What about LifeDrive to Blackberry? I need to condense what I carry and am looking at a Sprint Blackberry 8350i (or the new version of the Palm Centro) and am concerned about moving data to either of them, what with how old the LifeDrive software is. Do you have any ideas on where I might find some guidance on this? Web searches have come up fruitless. Thanks.
Hi Sabre,
The LifeDrive uses Palm Desktop so the process is similar for moving data from it to a Blackberry. If you go with the Centro, then you probably just have to update the Palm Desktop software.
Let me know how it goes.
I’ve just gone through this process. (My Treo died just prior to getting the Blackberry Curve, but I had everything in Palm Desktop.)
To get the contacts over, I selected all the Palm contacts, and saved them as a VCard file, then imported that into Microsoft Address book. I then pulled that into Outlook, after saving it as CSV. (I also pulled the CSV into Yahoo contacts.)
It “worked”, but not very well — there were lots and lots of things like cell numbers, notes, and home addresses missing. I’d love to hear a more complete solution — I have about 900 addresses, so something automated is crucial. -Boyce
Here is an easy way to transfer ALL your information (address book, memos, to-do list, etc…) from (in my case) Palm Tungsten E to a BB Curve).
1-Hot-sync your Palm with your PC. 2-Load the Desktop Manager CD. I used ver.4.3.0.17 on the CD that came with the BB device.
3-Select the “Switch device Wizard” on the BB Desktop Manager.
4-Accept changes as they are applied.
5-Enjoy life!
You may have to re-start your PC and BB device as changes are made, but other that that it’s virtually painless!
Help!!! Peter I’m not sure if you’re still around, but I was SO happy to find your blog online. Being a tech idiot, i tried following all the directions, and I think I did pretty well – it looked like things were working. But after i took out the battery and re-booted my BB 8300 smartphone, I didn’t see the addresses I transfered from the Treo. Do you have any suggestions?
Hopefully, Iffy
PeterRidge, I’m in need of your advice. I just purchased a Blackberry Curve 8310 and I own a Treo 680. This blog threat is very helpful except I have a Mac Powerbook which i sync my treo with and I wasn’t exactly sure what the steps were for porting over contacts, memo and calendar from treo stored on a mac (with no Outlook or Entourage) to my Blackberry Curve. Can you sum up the steps for that? Many thanks!
I was also unable to sync my palm to my bb curve. I was about to try the stated procedures but did not want to buy or download a free outlook trial. That being said I followed the advice of the first person who posted a comment and downloaded an older vs of the palm desktop software. Once I did this I was able to transfer everything over using the BB desktop software. Also if your PC does not recognize your BB try re-downloading the BB desktop software, check to see if your USB drivers are up to date, or try it on a different PC.
Thanks for the original post. Without it I would be sitting here tediously typing in all my contacts on my BB. It helped me tremendously.
Patrick
Iffy (Ifeoma),
That sounds really odd. Powering off your BB shouldn’t wipe out the data. Did you try doing the sync again to reload it? That should get you up and running again.
awgolden,
I haven’t used a Blackberry with a Mac. You might have a look at http://www.pocketmac.net/products/pmblackberry/
Of course, you’d still need to convert your Palm Desktop data to one of the PocketMac supported programs.
Unfortunately, that’s all I have at this time. Hope it helps some.
Thanks Patrick! That’s very helpful info.
I have just purchased the 8330 Curve. Have spent HOURS trying to get my calendar and contacts trax’d over, and Sprint hasn’t been any help. My Palm software (CD) version is 4.2 (Treo 755) which is not one of the supported options for the synch to the Blackberry. How can I roll this back to a previous version make this transfer happen, or is this a viable option? Thanks.
Hi BigD,
You can download older versions of the Palm Desktop from the following Palm knowledge base page:
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/nua/launchKB.asp?c=33529
After many many years with Palms, I am seriously thinking about converting to BB. Reading these posts, the main concern seems to be converting address listings. That would be important to me too. But equally important would be converting memos and task lists, as well as the calendar. Does BB even have all of these applications? Checking the BB specs, I don’t see memos and tasks. Can you take notes on a BB?
Hi Lyn. Yes, Blackberries can be used for taking notes and tracking todo items. However, be sure to verify that the particular model that you’re interested in has all your desired features.
Thanks, Peter. Do you have a recommendation?
Actually, I still use Palm phones. I’m currently using a Palm Centro. Even though the Palm OS is kinda dated, it responds quickly, especially when I’m typing on it, has a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard in a small form factor.
Before I decided to get the Centro, I tried a whole bunch of phones but, at the time, the sluggishness of their operating systems or lack of a real keyboard didn’t appeal to me. The Palm Pre looks pretty cool but won’t be out until summer.
The best recommendation I can give you is to decide what functionality is most important to you. Then, go to some local mobile phone providers and try out the devices. If your primary non-talking activities include taking lots of notes and tracking todo lists, try them out and see which ones work well for you.
I know people who love using a Blackberry to do what they do and others who hate it. Ultimately, you want to choose the phone that does what you need the way you want to do it.
Thanks, Peter,
That sounds like good advice. Fortunately, I’m not under great pressure to make a decision, so I have the time to do what you suggest.
What about if you want to move your text message history and call history etc. I’ve been using the Treo 680 but the Sim card holder has loosened to the point where it’s no longer practical to keep rebooting every 5 minutes so I’m temping with a BB Curve until the Palm Pre comes out. Everything syncd easily with Outlook but the call and text history are not in outlook. How can I get them to the BB as I’m having the same problem as one earlier message where the automatic facility on the BB Desktop Manager doesn’t even see the Palm/Treo Desktop. Btw I’m running on Vista
GQ, transferring that data between Treo and BB will be difficult. The BB can backup and restore its own, but I don’t know of a program that can move it from the Treo to the BB. However, here are some programs that get you half way there. At least you’ll be able to get your text messages and call log off the Treo.
SMSConvert (download your text messages from the Treo)
http://www.everythingtreo.com/forum/treo-650/sms-software-9287.html
TopCallLogTool (download your call history from the Treo)
http://mytreo.net/downloads/treocalllogtool,968.html
CZ Call Log (download your call history from the Treo)
http://www.sharewareconnection.com/cz-call-log.htm
I’m running the same problem in trying to import data from my Palm Treo 680 to my BB Storm. The BB desktop manager didn’t recognize my Treo, although both the Treo and the BB are conected to the computer: it shows the Palm selection in grey and doesn’t allow me to sync both devices. The problem is that I don’t have the Outlook instaled in my computer. Is there any way to overcome this? Thanks for the help.
Hi Abelardo. See my follow up post Syncing Palm and Blackberry Contacts: Solution Update. The last section, “Syncing from Palm to Blackberry without Outlook“, may be a way to get your data transferred. Let me know how it goes.
Peter, I have to say you are the medicine to my almost insurmountable head ache. I spent 30 min on the phone with my IT dept and they hadn’t a clue as how to solve my problem. I was able to follow the instructions on this site and it worked like a charm. You ought to run for president and solve our countries probs too. THX a MILLION!! I LOVE MY BLACKBERRY EVEN MORE NOW!!!
You’re welcome, Dwayne. Happy Blackberrying!
Thank you so much for this advice! I have been trying to figure this out for a week! I thought I was stuck with a Palm forever!
Thank you!
Peter –thank you ! I am at the crossroads right now; have been using Palm for years and your post #73 just gave me hope not to have to make the switch (just yet). Appreciate your input very much.
You’re welcome, Moe. It’s good to have choices, though sometimes it just makes it harder to choose. :)
Hey
I’ve going cray trying to import my old data from palm desktop into Outlook so I could sync with my new BB Curve.
Your advice was a total lifesaver- I was pulling my hair out. Of course non of the support centers had a clue how to help…
I managed to import the contacts and the memos (the memos went so easily I couldn’t quite believe my eyes!)
Now i’m struggeling with the date book/ calendar…
and I really can’t seem to figure it out.
I tried going thru yahoo- but it wont recognize the file and wont upload it so that doesn’t work.
Do you have any other ideas that I can try?
(I’m using Palm desktop version 6.2.2 but don’t have a palm device anymore)
Your thoughts?
Thanks so much in advance!
THANK YOU – I spent hours trying to figure out that crappy migration software!
Hi Naomi,
Since your Palm Desktop is pretty new, maybe Yahoo Calendar can’t read it. Do you also have Outlook 2007? If so, there’s a new conduit to sync it with Palm Desktop. You can download it from the Palm support article ID 43867.
If you have an earlier version of Outlook, try the conduit that comes on the Palm CD. If you don’t have your CD, check out Palm support article ID 24276 to download the appropriate one.
Hope that helps.
Hi thanks for this great thread. I am moving Palm Data from an old laptop to a new Macbook. I used the Yahoo ‘csv’ method you described above. It worked for contacts but not for memos and notes. I am dreading having to transfer all that text into my new device. Any suggestions? Thanks!
My bad, after I posted I realized I could just cut and paste anything from YAHOO notes to ’stickies.’ Thanks again!
Nice job, Megan!
I’m about to purchase a Blackberry after using various Treos with Palm software containing thousands of business and personal contacts from the past 10 years! What if I have only Mac computers? and no Windows? Would the directions still apply to me?
Hi Karen,
If you don’t have any access to Windows PCs, do you have Entourage? If you transfer your Palm data to Entourage, you can use PocketMac to sync to your BlackBerry. PocketMac supports other data sources as well, such as Address Book Contacts and iCal Calendar and Tasks:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/mac.jsp
http://www.pocketmac.net/products/pmblackberry/
If I remember correctly, the Mac version of Palm Desktop can export to several of the formats that PocketMac supports.
Peter,
Do you know of a way to go from an SD card to Palms desktop without being able to Hotsynch? I think I have some corrupted data and my palm won’t hotsynch. I can however, back up to an SD card. I would love to get the data from the SD card to my desktop so I can do a hard reset to fix my Palm. Any input would be appreciated…
Hi anz,
On Windows XP (at least on mine), the backed up application (*.PRC) and database (*.PDB) files from HotSync are located in C:\Program Files\Palm\PalmUs\Backup . However, putting the files from your SD card backup into that folder won’t make the data appear in Palm Desktop. Palm Desktop would still need to HotSync in order to get the data into its database files. One way to do that is to use a Palm Emulator (http://download.cnet.com/Palm-OS-Emulator/3000-2212_4-10111408.html) and do a simulated HotSync.
Before you go to that extreme, since you’ve already backed up your Palm to an SD card, try doing the hard reset and then restore from the SD card. That might clear up the problem so that you can HotSync normally. It’s worth a try.
Worked great! Until I found this solution, I struggled to transfer my address book from Palm Treo 700p to my new blackberry. Nothing else worked.
I’m so thankful I found this solution. Worked like a dream..
Thanks. I cannot wait to do this. I too have a Palm Treo 700P and was getting ready to pull my hair out. Thanks again.
Awesome. Couldn’t find any way to do this and all my so-called hi tech buddies including the guy that maintains our company server didn’t know either. And so easy even I could do it. Thanks
Again like all the others, thanks for the information, it worked perfectly.
I synchronized all the data from palm pilot to blackberry curve.
Then I synchronized the data to the google calender. It said all data was trasfered. But I do not see anything on the calender. However it schronized new items I put it. Why the current data on the balckberry was not tranfered to the google calender
Sounds like the Blackberry might be setting a flag to indicate that the new records need to be synced but it didn’t do that with the migrated data from the Palm. Not sure. It’s odd. Can you force the Blackberry to sync everything?
Amazing that the info posted 2 years ago is still a godsend. I had to transfer all of my 700p stuff to the new iphone 3GS. Life saver.
Hi, Urge. Yeah, it is amazing how many people are actively migrating data between these devices. Glad the info is still helpful.
I have seen so many great stories here. One item seems to be missing. How do I transfer over all my pictures. I have many folders of pictures on my Treo 650. I have not made the decision to move to BB or Iphone. Can the pictures be transfered out of palm into thise phones? I would like that the phone carry the pictures and that the data follow my contacts, calander, notes, etc.
I dont want to have several locations for the data. Im actually on my 4th 650, due to freazing or pool water, or over heating or dropping issues. I would have moved over to another phone long ago had I found this blog earlier.
Todd
Hi Todd. To transfer your photos, first sync your Treo with the Palm Desktop. The photos will then be on your hard disk as JPEG files. The exact location will depend on your operating system. On my Windows XP, the pictures are in My Documents\My Pictures\Palm Photos\PalmUs\Internal\Palm
To transfer the photos to the Blackberry, be sure your Blackberry Desktop Manager has the Media Manager installed. If necessary, install it. Then, load the files into the Media Manager and sync your Blackberry. That will sync the pictures into the phone’s main memory.
If you want to sync your photos to the Blackberry’s microSD card, set the phone to Mass Storage Mode Support under Options, Media Card. The memory card will then appear as a drive on your computer and you can just drag and drop the files.
I am also a L-O-N-G-term Palm user thinking of leaping into BB for phone (& thus addressbook) activities.
Does BlackBerry have categories for addressbook listings?
Can you prepare separate Palm exports as a category (eg: Work, Personal, Commercial, Hospital) and export them to csv (yes)…
and then import these pkgs into a pre-named category in BlackBerry ?
Thanks for your thoughtful contributions here.
Hi Gary. I’m not sure what kind of category support the BB has. As for creating separate Palm exports, you can just export all your data and then edit the CSV with a text editor into as many files as fits your needs. CSV files are just plain text.
HELP!! I am no techie, but I know my way around computers. I recently got a BB curve and have been using my treo for over a yr. I rely heavily on my calendar and contacts – HEAVILY. So, in reading your instructions I did the contacts and am now trying to import into BB. took a few times but i finally figured out how to configure it so it would import from outlook (i have 5.0 soits a bit diff) Its importing now – so hopefully this is a good fix. I tried the yahoo calendar and it would not import my .dba file?? this has def been a mission so thanks for spelling it out for us!
You’re welcome, Annette. All the best with your new BlackBerry.
OK,
Im missing something, my outlook express doesnt have “memos” so how can I use it to transfer? and my blackberry desktop has no “memos”. Only my palm desktop has it, as well as my actaul blackberry and palm devices. Where can I put the exported file? Any help would be appreciated. I have tryed most posted methods
You have to use the real Outlook, not Outlook Express. Outlook Express has a similar name to Outlook but lacks the information management functionality (calendar, memos, tasks).
BlackBerry Desktop supports calendar, contacts, memos and tasks: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/desktop/
I have a BlackBerry and a Palm Treo. Sorry don’t have the exact versions. I also don’t have a cable and options such as hotsync etc don’t work. I want to transfer my contacts from Treo to BB. one-by-one it works (transfer to SIM card), but is there a ‘Select All’ option?
You could copy the entire database file (prd) to an SD card and then extra that data using the info in my comment #93 above. However, it might be easier to buy a Palm sync cable on eBay or Craigslist.
I have a windows Vista computer and the palm version I have is 6.2.2. The older versions that are compatible with Blackberry do not work on my computer. I have tried on other computers with XP with the correct version of Palm (4.1.4) and the transfer still didn’t work. I do not have Microsoft Outlook on my computer with Vista because they didn’t include it. In addition I not only want to import my calendar I would like to import my Memo pad. My memo pad and my address book are the most important to me. Is there any way to import them? I have exported them into a CSV file, but don’t know how to import based on the options with blackberry.
I’m sorry but in regards to the previous post I wanted to mention that I have a Treo 650 and am trying to transfer the data to a Blackberry Tour 9630 on sprint.
Jennifer, I’ve only been able to get data transferred to the BlackBerry via Outlook. That’s what the BlackBerry Desktop communicates with. Do you know anyone nearby or at work who has Microsoft Outlook installed? Then you can do the transfer on their PC.
OMG thank you so much, I cannot even begin to explain or show you my gratitude. Bless you heart for sharing this information! Your directions work like majic,I was on the verge of giving up and then you answered and solved my problems. Keep up the great work!
Best Regards,
T.G.
You’re welcome, Tasheena. Great to hear that the info was so helpful. :)
I have been a palm user for about 10 years and have been on a Treo P700 with Verizon. I have recently switched to a BB tour and was promised that the calendar and memos etc would transfer easily -NOT!
You seem to have had amazing success with so many peoples similar problem.
I have the memos and the contacts but I cannot get the palm calendar events to go to the BB or to outlook. I also want to be able to organize the memos into groups but the lack of my very full upcoming calendar is hurting. Help!
… and many thanks
This was more helpful than the documentation that came with my BB tour.
I transferred files from My Palm Treo 700 to my BB. I have Palm desk top 6.2.2. I do not have Outlook, so I transferred my contacts using the export vcard option. I saved them in my Windows contacts. This process is a bit more tedious, but it got the job done.
I hope this can help someone else.
@Mr Marcus: Thanks for sharing your method for accomplishing the transfer without using Outlook. I’m sure it’ll be very helpful since more people are needing to take that route.
Thank you for the step-by-step instructions. I had to get the info from my palm Treo 600(!) into the shiny new BlackBerry and your instructions performed as advertised.
Good work!
Peter,
I’m thinking of moving from my Treo 700p to Blackberry Curve. Have you checked the standard transfer software lately? If so, is it working smoothly now, or do you still need a complicated work-around?
Paul
Has anyone used these step-by-steps with palm desktop version 6.2.2? Trying to get info into the Tour. Any suggestions before I begin?
Thanks
Peter, you are a benevolent genius. Thank you. I just used your info to transfer contact, memo and other data from my Centro (which has been discontinued, BTW) to a Blackberry Bold 9000. I have over 1800 contacts so this was a major accomplishment after 5 days of trying to deal with the relevant “tech support” departments. The guy in the AT&T store made it sound like it was going to be a synch. Impossible to do with their instructions, got the gray screen, but then used Microsoft Outlook. Thank you again. I posted your blog on FB.
@SSP: You’re welcome. Glad it went smoothly and thanks for the link.
I have a Palm Treo and am migrating to a Blackberry Storm. I also am a Mac user and exported all my addresses from Palm Desktop to a file on my desktop and then imported them all into Address Book. Then using Blackberry Desktop Manager I sync’ed them to my phone.
@Jon: Thanks for the info on transferring from Palm to Blackberry Storm on the Mac. Did you export your addresses to a CSV file?
I am considering changing from my Treo 755p to a BB. I have read the above about transferring contacts via Outlook. Here is my question: My contacts are assigned to categories. With over 1000 contacts, re-categorizing them would be torture (I know – I did it once). Does the transfer you describe also transfer contact categories? -Carol
It’s been a while since I did the transfer, but I believe it does transfer over the categories. Just make sure that you map the CSV fields correctly in Outlook. Once you see the categories in Outlook, then the Blackberry should pick them up just fine.
Peter, my palm lifedrive was stolen after my car was broken into. I have decided to use outlook and my itouch. Thanks to you, I was able to move my contacts over to outlook 2007 but I can’t seem to figure out how to move my calendar over. I have the palm software but obviously not my lifedrive. Do you think you could help me? I’ve opened a google email and yahoo email hoping to get it to transfer to that if necessary.
Thank you in advance. I have almost 9 years of dates I would like to keep if at all possible.
Congratulations… it worked fine for me. Followed the instructions and all data is now in the BB. Thanks and greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina
@Robin: Comments #20, 28 and 44 indicate that the latest BlackBerry software is able to import calendar data from Palm Desktop. If you still have all your calendar data in Palm Desktop, try the direct import with BlackBerry Desktop. Be sure to remove any password protection from your Palm Desktop account.
Hi Peter, I found all your postings above are really helpful. You are more brilliant than any help-desk online, you’re s ‘genius Palm expert’ I could say!
Just bought BBB 9700/Onyx last Saturday, have the phone seller transferred my 2800 contacts, 1500 memos & calendar from my Tero 680 to it. All contacts & memos are fine, but the calendar missed quite numbers of schedules, especially the ‘no time’ events, except birthday reminder.
Things became worse when I sync my mobile to BB Desktop Manager, all my calendar events in my handset become double stated. Then trying to fix it, I tried your guidance to upload contacts & calendar from BB to Outlook, it works amazingly for the contacts! But unluckily it didn’t work for the calendar in outlook.
So would like to ask your big helps as below:
1. Can you teach me how to delete this calendar error in my handset? And sync the new correct one from my treo 680 or Palm Desktop. Have tried you review in #39, but cannot find the ‘import/export’ option in yahoo calendar. I’m using PC, Palm Desktop v4.2, Microsoft Outlook 2003 7 BB Desktop Manager v5.0.1.
2. Since my Outlook calendar is still blank, can you suggest me what to do, so I can transfer them to BB Desktop Manager & overwrite ONLY my handset CALENDAR. (The contacts and memo are fine).
3. And by the way, I can’t find my contacts list or calendar displayed on BB desktop Manager, like I used to in Palm Desktop. It makes me more difficult to check, edit or delete data/field which are double. It is normal the BB desktop looks like that, or did I just don’t know how? Dare not to connect or sync my handset to BB desktop anymore before asking you, scared that my contacts will multiply to 5000 more, then that would be really2 bad for me to erase them one by one.
I’m also a long time user of palm like any others, love it, didn’t find any pda/phone better than palm, and never think to switch phone, until BB exist :). Too spoiled by palm OS, with all my datas comfort on hand & especailly the global find convenient.
Thanks a zillion in advance for your help Peter. God Bless You.
Best Regards,
Catherine
Some additional,
I found out that even all my 2871 contacts are there in my handset, but the category are gone. Actually I can view the category fields in my BB Contacts filter, but the contact itself are not classified to any of them. It did in my Treo & Palm Desktop. Should I delete them all and overwrite one more time? (By the way, not sure I’m able to do, cause last time the phone seller did that for me). Many Thanks Peter.
heyhope someone culd help. i need to transfer my contacts from my palm to my bb 9700. problem is the palm isnt syncin with my pc…is there a way to tranfer contacts via sd card? the bluetooth wont work for some reason
I’ve tried your method with vcard and have to save one at a time. Is their a way to transfer all at once? I tried select all then transfer vcard and it only sent the one highlighted last. Also i’ve tried bluetooth but it seems to go from bb to palm but not vise versa. Please help!