How to import contacts and address book into an Android phone

People sometimes try to put their old sim card into their new phone and attempt to copy them that way, others sync up via Outlook on their PC whilst others try to bluetooth their old address book across – but none of these methods would work from a HTC Diamond to the HTC Desire. Baffling me for many days – I stumbled across a solution and am posting it here to assist other new Android users in tranferring their whole address book/contacts over.

As you’re going to an Android phone, I’d personally recommend a Free GoogleMail/Gmail account. They are fairly friendly to the Android operating system and are great for backing up contacts, calendars, & email for FREE. And it all happens over the internet(I know how temperamental Activsync can be on USB)

HOW TO IMPORT CONTACTS/EMAIL/CALENDAR TO A NEW ANDROID PHONE

1) On your Computer, set up a GoogleMail account (IF YOU ONLY WANT TO USE IT FOR CONTACTS TRANSFER, THAT’S FINE! You can always get rid of it later). Once you’ve done that and are shown the inbox, click on ‘Calendar’ in the top corner of the web browser, just to kick that into life too. Should only take 2 or 3 seconds.
 

2) On your HTC Diamond Tap Start > Programs > ActiveSync.
 

3) Tap Menu > Add Server Source.
 

4) Enter your Gmail address, and ensure that the ‘Attempt to detect Exchange Server’ Settings automatically check box is de-selected. Enter the Google Exchange Server setting manually, which is m.google.com
 
4a) Enter your User name (which is your Gmail address IN FULL), password, but leave domain blank. Exchange server settings and the password are case-sensitive, so be sure to enter uppercase and lowercase letters correctly. Tap next.
 
5) Check the boxes for the types of information you want to synchronize with exchange server. Make sure ‘contacts’ is one of them!
 
6) (Optional) Select E-mail, and tap Settings to do any of the following: Change the number of days for which messages wil be synchronized, Change the message format, Select the download size limit, Include attachments when downloading messages. Tap OK if you have finished.
 
7) Tap Finish.
 
All your contacts, emails & calendar will now sync from your original phone to the Google servers. It might take some time and not accurately display what your old phone is doing and may even crash it! But if you run into trouble either reboot ActivSync or even the phone as a last resort. Emails will be pushed to your handset rather than it having to check every so often.

When you get your HTC Desire, one of the first things it’ll ask you on setup is if you have a Gmail account. Fill in the details, check that data sync is enabled in the settings menu and your new phone will pull down all your contacts (and calendars, and email) for free!

Any questions please feel free to ask!

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