Software

Transfer Palm Treo Data to Blackberry Curve

173 Comments


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):

  1. Palm Desktop (the software that came with the Palm Treo)
  2. Blackberry Desktop (the software that came with the RIM Blackberry)
  3. 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)
  4. Blackberry device and sync cable

Exporting/importing the data:

  1. 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.])
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Choose Export from the File menu.
  5. Choose the file type as CSV (comma-separated value).
  6. Enter the name for the file (e.g. Contacts.csv) and remember where you’re saving it.
  7. Start Microsoft Outlook.
  8. Open your Contacts.
  9. Select Import from the File menu.
  10. For the file type, select Windows CSV or DOS CSV (the name may be different in your version of Outlook).
  11. Select the file you exported in step 6.
  12. 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).
  13. Click the Finish button to import all the addresses.
  14. Go to the Blackberry Desktop and open the synchronization utility.
  15. 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).
  16. Plug the Blackberry into your PC with the synchronization cable.
  17. Watch all the messages go by as the data is synchronized.
  18. 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.

173 thoughts on “Transfer Palm Treo Data to Blackberry Curve”

  1. 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

  3. 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.

  4. Thanks for the feedback, WaukazooWoods. Glad to hear that you got yours working too.

  5. 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.

  7. 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”?

  8. 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.

  9. 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?

  10. 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!

  12. Thanks I purchased a Blackberry pearl and was considering taking it back because of this simple / stupid data transfer issue.

  13. 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!

  14. 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!!!!!!!!!!!

  15. 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.

  16. 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

  17. 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”.

  18. 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

  19. 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.

  20. 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!

  21. 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.

  22. 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

  24. 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?

  25. 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.

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