Transfer Contacts to Nokia Lumia 800

[DinoF]

Over the weekend, my mum had some issues on her Lumia 800 whereby her Windows Marketplace app would not allow any (evn free apps) to be downloaded to her phone (some kind of mix up with Live IDs). Anyhow, the issue was resolved with a reset of her phone.

Before doing the reset, I used the Zune software to back up her photos and videos however, STUPIDLY, the Zune software does NOT offer ANY options to back up the contacts (you can ONLY back up Videos, Photos, Podcasts and Music)   This was all backed up on my dad's Windows 8 laptop (Windows 8 has to be THE most confusing and NON user friendly software I have EVER used - simply shocking)

We also managed to get a Bluetooth connection (which took forever!) to get the contacts across from the phone to the deskptop (before we did the reset of the phone) on the laptop and this file is now in the form of a .pbo file.  The problem (for whatever reason) is that we now cannot get the sync to work the other way around, to get the contacts back onto the phone. The Photos and Videos synced back up via Zune.

So - I am now at the stage where she has NO contacts on her phone, I have 1 .pbo file saved to the desktop  (which has ALL the contacts), and I cannot get the Bluetooth sync to work back to the phone  - so this now needs to be ruled out.

I have tried uploading the file to Dropbox, and then opening the same file in Dropbox on the Lumia, but it just opens up a page with the contacts and does not actually save them back to the phone.  I thought about maybe importing the file to Outlook and then trying to sync the Lumia to Outlook to get the contacts back onto the phone, but I am unsure how to do this + I think that Outlook only accepts .csv files so the .pbo file may have to be converted first?!

Its all such a mess.......

Has anyone got any advice on what to do?

[DinoF]

...thanks for the advice @Anonymous  - wasn't having a go - just saying that I hadn't Googled it yet. To be honest - now that I have, it isn't actually throwing up anything useful.......but appreciate the help anyway

Gonna try connectig up to a Windows Vista laptop tonight (my dad's other machine!) to see if it wil connect via Bluetooth - the machine with Windows 8 just wants to keep opening up Zune, everytime we try to connect it - which is no help with Contacts?! 

Why the hell don't MicroSoft include a 'Contacts' option in the Zune software - its the MOST important function when backing up your phone - not the sodding 'Pictures', 'Videos', 'Podcasts' and 'Music' - blimming CRAZY.......

[Anonymous]

No worries. 😄

It may also be worth asking some questions on the Nokia Discussions forum.

[DinoF]

Here's an update!

Have been Googling this issue all morning but have not come across a definitive answer for this.

However, I have come across this website : www.phonecopy.com whereby, if I enter all the contacts (there are only 48 of them thank god  - don't think I would have used this if there were over 100+ contacts...!!!) into the website ( I have the .pbo file which I have opened in Windows Notepad so I can physically see the names and numbers), all I then need to do is set up a new 'Phonecopy' account on the phone itself (there are instructions on the website), and the contacts will then sync across as soon as I sign into the account!

Well - thats the theory anyway.......!!!

Can't test it til  get back tonight so will update my success/failure tomorrow....!!

Here's hoping.....

[Cleoriff]

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@DinoF wrote:

Here's an update!

Have been Googling this issue all morning but have not come across a definitive answer for this.

However, I have come across this website : www.phonecopy.com whereby, if I enter all the contacts (there are only 48 of them thank god  - don't think I would have used this if there were over 100+ contacts...!!!) into the website ( I have the .pbo file which I have opened in Windows Notepad so I can physically see the names and numbers), all I then need to do is set up a new 'Phonecopy' account on the phone itself (there are instructions on the website), and the contacts will then sync across as soon as I sign into the account!

Well - thats the theory anyway.......!!!

Can't test it til  get back tonight so will update my success/failure tomorrow....!!

Here's hoping.....

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Sounds positive @DinoF  best of luck and let us know how you get on...:smileywink:

[MI5]

As long as you are happy to put all your contacts into an unknown website......
What can possibly go wrong ?

[DinoF · Accepted solution]

UPDATE!!!

Well - all is now sorted!

Typed in the contacts into www.phonecopy.com and then when I got home last night, set up an account, on the phone itself (by tapping 'People' and then choosing to set up an Outlook account), typed in the details as shown on the website, and the contacts synced straight across, in literally about 1 second!

Good thing about the website is that they support tons of different handsets and they even have an iPhone app so that when my mum decides to upgrade (she is looking to maybe upgrade to an iPhone 5C), all I need to do is download the phonecopy app, sign in with the account details, and the contacts are there, ready and waiting

Another good feature is that any changes or additional contacts entered on the phone, auto sync back to the website so both website and phone are always kept in sync.

All in all - a perfect result - for me anyway!

[Cleoriff]

Oh very well done @DinoF 

Thanks also for the info on the app you used to do this. It will certainly prove useful for others

[Anonymous]

Awesome news and thank you @DinoF for updating with a workaround.

[Toby]

Fantastic follow-up post/solution @DinoF . This will really help others reading this thread with the same issue!

Has your mum had a chance to test out other bits on the phone? My grandpa just got a cheap 630 and is loving it