How To: Back up contacts without outlook.
 

Ok so I once wanted to know myself, how to backup the contacts without using outlook. And well after reading it a couple of times and never trying it. I decided to give it a shot. And it works! So you can use this method if you like....

1. Your gonna wanna open up your file explorer and navigate to My Device/root directory. If using the stock explorer. You can tap the top left corner that says the folder your located in and select my device from there.

2. Once in My Device, you will see a file named pim if using the stock explorer. Or if using something like Total Commander (which ur gonna need to do this) it will be pim.vol copy and paste that to ur minisd card. If you dont have a minisd, then use activsync's explore feature to copy this file to your desktop computer. This is your contacts backed up.

3. Ok so now what to do with pim.vol? After a hard reset, install Total Commander to your ppc.

4. Open Total Commander up and navigate to the my device/root directory like we did earlier.

5. Now you wanna rename pim.vol to something like pim.old

6. After renaming to pim.old you wanna then copy the backed up pim.vol over into that directory. (by copying from the minisd and pasting or using activsync the same way we did in backing up of the file)

7. Soft reset and you can delete pim.old. You now have all your contacts back. :D

~mike

yeah, that is a great way to do so....i done it once, but never really knew how i did it, but now i remember :D

What about using your hosted Exchange? I mean, technically it's not your Desktop Outlook... :D

I had a long debate with a Sprint Tech at SU on this issue. He swore to me that the pim.vol method could not be done on the 6700, despite all the evidence I provided (it's been well documented). Well, he eventually lost out to reality.

haha yea I had always read but just done it today and it does indeed work. I do use my exchange server. Just thought I would add this for non-push using folks. ;)
~mike

I heard about this method few months back. If I remember correctly, I think it was Malatesta that posted on SU. I already had a copy of the pim in my minisd just in case I might need it one. I never test it to see if it really works or not. Thank you Wideawake for taking that step for us.

Oh it works believe me. I just did a hard reset on my phone at work and followed Wide's instructions (used GSfinder instead of Total Commander) and it worked like a charm.

i'm using a program called NS Contacts Backup v1.1. this program came in handy early this morning...i had to do a hard reset. :cry: everything is fine now. :D

http://ppcgeeks.com/viewtopic,p,11771.html#11771

or you could just get outlook, seems like alot of hassle just to avoid using outlook