vB Easy Archive - MPT - OUTLOOK to CONTACTS 3vm freezes

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MPT - OUTLOOK to CONTACTS 3vm freezes
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Posted by: gmcjetpilot

I installed MPT and got it working with the RAZR but just tried to Syc all outlook contacts to the phone. It did transfer but caused the contacts to freeze and act goofy. Deleting the contacts on the phone did NOT help. I could no longer edit the contact.

Just got done with a hard reset. You have to call sprint and put in a code. You dial code ##xxx#. Than you go thru menu and enter another "MSL code" a string of six numbers. I am not giving them because they apparently change from time to time. The phone and contacts works fine now. BTW the hard reset did not delete songs on mini SD card.

For now I am going to lay off trying to down load / sync OUTLOOK direct to book. What I'll do in manually enter them on the phone and than just back them up.

QUESTION? (plan of attack)

1) enter phone numbers manually on phone and don't use MPT except may be to back-up only.

2) Enter contacts in MPT (easier for bulk entries) BUT don't sync with Outlook contacts.

3) Ideally I would like to just transfer existing Outlook contacts but may be not all +300 like I did last time, may be one at a time? I suspect some of my 300 contacts may have had odd data in some fields that caused the problem. MAY BE just trying to Sync one Outlook contact will have the same effect. I remember some contacts would not transfer during the first sync.

There has to be a kinder gentler way to get CONTACT PHONE NUMBERS into the phone than one at a time with a phone key pad.

What do you experts think?

Is there an easier way to enter new contacts than on the phone it self?

Ideas to avoid freeze and hang ups?

Posted by: gmcjetpilot

Well I kind of solved the problem by experimentation and advice on these forums. I tried to sync all of my outlook to the phone. It kind of worked. After the transfer the my phone would lockup when trying to access contacts. The phone still worked but the contacts where basically unusable or slow slow slow.

The big issue is Outlooks data, per record (contact name) has lots of info in one file. Not all of it is compatible with the phone. In other words it just does not convert from out look to the phone.

There are really three steps in the conversion of contact data with MPT in the middle.

You convert Outlook contacts to MPT outlook directory;
Transfer the MPT Outlook to the phone directory (on the computer);
Than you down load to data to the phone.

There seems to be little gotchas and incompatibility at each step. Bottom line it handles the most basic info (name, phone number, category) OK. Extra stuff (email, web address, notes) not so much. Than there is the reverse process, upload data from phone into MPT, than transfer to MPT Outlook directory and convert to Outlook. Again there are gotchas and incompatibility that may or may not be the same going the other way.

(suggestions) As was suggested to me make a separate new contact directory just for your phone. You can copy contacts from your main outlook contact's to the new contact directory; I called mine RAZR. Than edited each file to bare min. Name, phone number or numbers. You may leave email address; that might work. Web address and notes not sure. I did not have luck downloading notes to or from phone. I know notes going from phone to computer are lost. You can add them to Outlook manually.

More than three numbers may also be an issue. I could only down load two numbers from Outlook to the phone. With some playing around it might work. The key is using the right fields in Outlook. There is some monkey business with business, mobile and home labels for phone numbers. Just be aware. The phone just has mobile, home and business. That may be a little disconnect with Outlook that has a bunch of lables. The Outlook in MPT (that you can edit) has just two or three places to enter phone numbers.

For practice first manually load data into contacts on phone and try to up load to computer and than convert to Outlook. You'll see what goes and what does not. Than look at how it appears in Outlook. Those are the fields you can use in Outlook going the other way, Outlook to phone. Now try to add data to Outlook and than convert and down load to phone. The third thing to try is edit the phone from MPT. Go into MPT and add new records to the phone from the computer. Than I save it to the phone. Than transfer/convert to Outlook.

The MPT phone records on the computer is the middle of the three steps, outlook>mpt>phone process. The record is as I said simple:

NAME
NUMBER
Category (automatically displayed with drop down menu)
Speed dial number (automatically assigned*)

(*Speed dial assignments can be changed on phone)

That is it, just name and number. If you want to add another number for the same contact just select new record again and use the same name. It will combine on the phone. You may have to adjust what the number lable is (ie mobile, home, business).

EVERY record on the phone is a simple single data record. What does that mean? On the Razr every Contact is treated as a single record or multiple SINGLE records if you have several phone numbers and/or email and/or web address and/or note. So if contact "Mary" has two numbers and one email it is three separate files, not one file.

You will see that on MPT when you connect the phone; In the "Mary" example above, you'll see Mary three times under three different speed dial numbers, say 3, 4 and 1001. Of course 1001 is not a speed dial number and is a text record for the email.

Each record is assigned a SPEED DIAL number. Phone numbers get a number 1 through 1000. If its a non-number (email, web address, note) it gets a number 1001 and above. Each record is very simple NAME, Phone # (or text), Category & speed dial number 1-1000 (1001-above for non-phone numbers). The speed dial numbers are automatic and can be edited on the phone.

To say MS Outlook contacts is not seamless between the Razr and Outlook is an understatement. YES you can upload or download from and to phone but it can handle limited info.

Bottom line if you have data on your phone you can usually upload the name and phone numbers (may be only two?) to the computer and transfer or convert it to Outlook. Notes may not go but you can always manually edit the data into Outlook or phone as desired.

Non-phone number data may not transfer to Outlook. In fact MPT will tell you it's not going to transfer notes from phone to Outlook. Going the other way from Outlook, again basic name and number is all you get, but other data like email/web address may go over. I forgot exactly the particulars but play with it.

The reason my initial attempt to sync failed was probably was my +300 contacts where too complicated and had some alpha characters in the phone number fields. which may have been the cause of it freezing up. It may work for you, but I had to go slow and be careful what and how I loaded data to the phone.

(calendar) Same with calendar. It can handle name. Do not click "all day" in Outlook. The phone does not have an all day option, just a start and stop time. Also if you are transferring outlook holidays it will append "@unitedstates" to the file name. You need to leave the location blank on the Outlook event. I found events would not transfer to phone. After removing the "location" and de-selection "all day" in Outlook I could transfer data.

As far as backup I would use the export and save the data under the 2 or 3 file options in a directory you know with a format you want to deal with. The extensions are for V-file, Comma-separated data value (CSV), Personal Folders file (outlook) (PST), vCard file (VCF) or MPT Motorola database (mdb) file. Some like CSV because you can look at it and manipulate on excel. The VCF is cool in that windows has a V-card reader/editor.