Backing up Contacts with ACTIVESYNC only! HELP!

[Consigliere]

Ok my original thread was rudely deleted. I'm not asking about third party software to back up my phone! Nobody answered that knew how to back up my contacts etc with activesync..

Please don't delete my thread for I have searched ALL OVER the forum and could not find anything addressing my specific dilemma. I often view this website via my Touch Pro and also have been having problems posting in this little box here. It wont allow me to type in it but allows me to type in the title box.. Anyways, here is my original post..

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=61044

Thanks to all that have tried to help me, but I don't really want to use third party software for backing up contacts, I'm afraid I might lose data. So could someone please explain how to back up contacts etc with activesync?

And here is what I wrote if you're lazy and dont wanna follow the link, although it may be worth while to see what others have already provided to the discussion.

"Was wondering if someone could help me out here. To make a long story short I have to delete my contacts off of my phone for security reasons, but only temporarily. Meaning that when I go to work I have to have my contacts off of my phone. So I'd like to be able to take them off when I leave for work, and when I get back home put them back on the phone via my computer. Also I don't want to keep that data on a computer but instead on a USB memory device instead. I'm assuming I can use activesync for this, but will I also have to use outlook and how is the outlook used? I've never used outlook once before in my life.

So what I'm asking is if there is an easy and simple way for me to back up my contacts on the computer, and then transfer the contact info to a memory stick while also keeping it off the computer? Then when I want to load it back on the phone just simply do so from the USB drive with the computer?

I may have to do this every weekend. I'd also like to delete all text threads off my phone as well, and back up on the computer so I can put them back on later. I know quite a bit about computers etc but never used outlook before and have yet to even tinker with my Touch Pro so I feel kinda stupid asking this, lol. Thanks in advance! "

*Mods please let this thread stay up because I seriously tried searching all over this forum and other forums but I had to resort to posting since I couldn't find any help. So a link to the thread where this was discussed could have been helpful too!

[lostcausnjtown]

Ok guy here is what you want to do. When connected to activesync use the browse option to browse folders on your phone. In the root folder of the phone you will see a file called pim.vol. That is your contacts right there buddy. Just copy it to your sd card or pc-I would do both just to be safe--and you should be cool. When you want to restore them, just place that file back in the original folder and soft reset. Caution----this has messed up on me before. I have been more successful than not though. Also, I know that you do not want third party backup but you might want to use PPCPimBackup. It is a file that backups your contacts to your sd. Both of these solutions will eliminate the need for you to even use activesync if you want too. Again try at your own risk. Hope this helps.

[bedoig]

[Edit: upon actually reading the thread, it appears lostcausnjtown actually just suggested the same thing ]

If you're OK losing your text messages, just copy (or move) pim.vol from the root of your device to your storage card. It contains contacts, calendar events, etc. When you want it all back, just copy the file back off your storage card to the root of your device. No computers, no 3rd party software...just an on-device file explorer.

Another option (again, without backing up texts) is to sync OTA with an exchange service such as Mail2Web.

[lostcausnjtown]

Starting to notice a lot of TX peeps on the forum lol

[CozBoogie]

Moved to the general Touch Pro Forum.

late,
Coz

[ruskiyab]

Why do you absolutely have to use activesync? that would bee too painful of a process to get them to a computer save as a csv, save to mamory stick, delete from computer. Just use PIMBackup to save a backup directly to the memory card. With PIMBackup you can back up the text messages as well

[Scrotum]

not sure if this has been answered but there are two solutions that I see. One is answered by ruskiyab, PIMbackup. You can save your PIM info, and also use the same program to delete all contacts prior to going to work, however, I have had too many probems with this program to rely on it regularly. Also another option would be mail2web. If you use the free mail2web live service you can sync using their exchange server. When you get to work deselect contacts from the sync list and it will erase them all, when done with work select it again and they will all come back.

[Merq]

Originally Posted by lostcausnjtown

Starting to notice a lot of TX peeps on the forum lol

=P


I hope the pim.vol works. I like doing things manually.

[kennyidaho]

Do you use Outlook? If so then activesync and outlook should be sharing contact information. Basically if you ever have to hard rest your phone once you resync it the contacts in Outlook will be synced back to your phone.