Sunday, August 20, 2006

Sync your Samsung phone with your Mac Address Book using Bluetooth

I bought a new Samsung phone this weekend. Overall I am quite happy with the phone; however, it is missing one key feature: it does not work with iSync. Some quick research revealed that Samsung failed to implement SyncML; therefore, sync'ing with my Mac wasn't going to happen.

Despite the fact that using iSync isn't an option, I did find some information on how I could transfer my numbers from Address Book to my new phone. The steps I took varied slightly, thus the reason for this blog entry.
  1. Open Address Book
  2. Address Book -> Preferences -> vCard: Set vCard Format to 2.1.
  3. File -> Export Group vCard: Save Group vCard to a new folder anywhere.
  4. Download vCard Splitter and install.
  5. Open your saved Group vCard using vCard Splitter.
  6. System Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Devices -> Set Up New Device: Pair your phone with your Mac.
  7. System Preferences -> Bluetooth -> Settings: Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar.
  8. Menu Bar -> Bluetooth Status -> Turn Bluetooth On
  9. Menu Bar -> Bluetooth Status -> Send File -> Select all the vCards generated by vCard Splitter -> Select your paired phone.
At this point your phone should receive each vCard one at a time and add them to your phone's contact list. It's not the best long term solution; however, it will get you started and is much better than having to enter people one at a time.

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# posted by Jay Fields : 10:23 AM
[ general focus: Ruby - Ruby on Rails - Ruby Rake ]
Comments:
Jay,

Thank you for this solution, works very well. I was going to take the Samsung back to the store.
# posted by Anonymous Jon : 2:02 PM
 
I hope this posting is right, since I am now going to buy a Samsung phone I wouldn't have otherwise bought
# posted by Anonymous Ned : 5:50 PM
 
After numerous tries with various sync programs resulted in failure, I was about to give up until I found your post. Simple, and it works.
# posted by Blogger kevinpm : 9:44 PM
 
Thanks for this post. Simple, yet I didn't think of this myself (and I couldn't find it explained elsewhere).

This worked very well for my Samsung X680, but it had some problems with names that contain accents. I fixed those manually.
# posted by Anonymous bdf : 4:58 AM
 
This worked for me, thanks. Too bad we have to resort to this just to send phone numbers.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:34 PM
 
I just tried this with my new A870, and got the message "Device does not have the necessary services." This phone might go back so I can get the basic Motorola & a sync cable. :-(

Anne
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8:38 AM
 
i love you. where do i send my first born!
# posted by Blogger Marla : 9:38 AM
 
After following all the instructions, for some reason my phone will not accept the files. It tells me that the file tranfer failed. Any reccomendations?
# posted by Blogger Michael : 7:43 PM
 
michael,
sorry, I've not seen that error. In the end I gave up on my Samsung and went to a Motorola. I found I couldn't live without sync'ing my calendar (and address book)
# posted by Blogger Jay Fields : 10:05 AM
 
also got an internal error message. not sure where to go from here. but thanks for tip.
# posted by Blogger automated : 3:28 PM
 
Hi,

thanks for the tips, worked fine for me, even better than expected:

http://blog.gramels.info/blog/archives/109-Samsung-SHG-X820-no-iSync-workaround.html

(I wish blogger.com would support trackback)

-gramels
# posted by Anonymous gramels : 4:09 PM
 
Before sending your vCards to your phone, pair your phone and authorize your blurtooth connection. This will avoid the phone asking for approval for each vCard and your thumb will not wear out.
# posted by Blogger Nigel : 9:40 AM
 
s very useful guys but most people actually want to go the otherway.. ie back up phone details to address book.... how do you do that with a samsung....
# posted by Blogger xian : 4:08 PM
 
even better, select all and then do the transfer. Worked for me. Thanks so much!!!!
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 4:14 PM
 
thanks for the ideas, but i am really saddened that we can't have a standard iSync. I'm actually more interested in syncing in the other direction - phone to mac.
# posted by Anonymous Justin : 4:19 PM
 
An easier method would be to just pair the phone, open Address Book, and select the cards you want, then menu Card -> Send these Cards... and select your phone. This will do all the hard work for you.
# posted by Blogger James Wardle : 7:59 AM
 
coooooool, thanx that you found out this solution...
# posted by Anonymous lombo : 11:18 AM
 
Great solution, but how does this work backwards??? I mean how can I send all my Vcards from my samsung to the computer? thanks
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 10:36 AM
 
Worked perfectly on my m610. Thank you a ton.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:18 PM
 
Thanks for the extremely useful post. For the hell of it, I tried uploading the whole vCard file rather than splitting it to my Samsung a501 phone (Telstra's bottom of the line standard issue) and it worked like a charm...
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 11:57 PM
 
Thanks for your very helpful info. One thing to add: the v-card splitter program can create a few v-card file names with odd characters, "/" and the like. At least with my set up the result is that a batch of v-cards will upload via bluetooth and then stop when they hit a v-card file with an unusual character in its file name. To get them to all upload in one go, simply remove the strange characters from the file names.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 3:16 PM
 
AWESOME
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 10:39 PM
 
great.it works perfecty.
do you know the way to import event from ical too?
# posted by Blogger andrea : 6:42 AM
 
Can i get this to go backwards. Samsung to mac?

Thanks!
# posted by Blogger Josh : 7:19 PM
 
Jay,

Thank you so much! I was about to go crazy!

Take care,

Michael
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 10:49 PM
 
i figured out that on a blackjack atleast if you accept one and then wait a lil bit and then hit accept they all build up and it says there is a total of ___ items waiting to be saved and they all build up so you dont have to hit yes on everyone
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 5:54 PM
 
Thanks!!!!!!!!
# posted by Anonymous Lola Brooks : 6:23 PM
 
Wow... life saver. Love the phone but was totally bummed I couldn't move my contacts! Thanks goodness an Angel helped me out by locating your page! Many thanks! :-)
# posted by Anonymous thetimster : 1:32 PM
 
amazing solution.
thankyou so much
# posted by Blogger Lukey : 9:53 AM
 
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