Syncing Contacts - Outlook - other options HELP?
 

Ok here is the deal. I am looking for another contact manger. The one the comes with the 6800 is completely fine, BUT... Yes there is a big but there. The problem I found is I cant save the contact list to a flash drive or a disk and upload it on another computer or just back it up that way.

The only way to back up your files is to sync it with every computer you come in contact with. Well the problem I ran into is, My hard drive on my desktop cashed, fried, died. And guess what. My contacts went with it. I wasnt worried too much about it, until one day, (maybe 2-3 weeks later) I was hanging out @ a B day Celebration and my phone just froze. Yes it froze and never came back to life. drained the battery and never worked again. So guess what. Lost all my contacts. Even my land lords info.

So my question is; is there another program I can use to sync my phone to the computer?
I need this program to be user friendly and it should allow me to be able to save this list to my pc and or flash drive then up load them on any computer. Then if I need to edit it or make changes I can immediately hook my phone up to any pc or most pc's and access this info.

Thanks.

You have several options.

To sync to a comptuer, activesync works as you have found. That is synced to Outlook, and the outlook.pst file can be backed up somewhere, although you need outlook to open it.

You can use exchange email (if your email provider supports it, or you want to spend for it). I love it - it has all my email, contacts, calendar and tasks. When I hard reset the phone (fairly frequently as I rebuild often ;) everything comes down as soon as it's configured. More expensive, but has it's benefits.

You could use a contact manager backup program. Do a search on ppcpimbackup or htc data backup (there are others as well). These can backup your info to a file which can be restored the same way.

Lastly, you can copy over the pim.vol file.

Good luck :)

layitdown,
jhonny hit the main ones. I also much prefer Exchange to any other option.
You might also take a look at dashwire.com - a web-based sync solution that "requires" an unlimited data plan.

So whats the best choose then? I dont wont to pay for anything because I may not like it and I dont want to fool around with a billion programs. I didnt see that .pst file you were talking about either. Thanks guys.

For user-friendliness and the ability to access the data on any computer, you are driven to a server-based solution.
Recommendations:
1. Go to mail2web.com and get yourself a free pseudo-Exchange account. Pay a few dollars and it will be a real Exchange account. You can sync with this over the cell network or over wifi or via usb connection to a computer that's connected to the internet.
2. Go to dotfred.net and download PIM Backup 2.7. Use this to regularly backup your contacts and other data to you storage card.
3. Look at other free web-based mobile solutions that will sync your contacts and email (may require a little tweaking; I don't use them): Google, Windows Live, etc.

dotfred.com (ppcpimbackup)
activestink
yahoo.com/go

all 3 are free (assuming you already have outlook) and pretty painless. if you use all 3 you will never loose a contact again.

I set up an account on the mail2web.com.... I didnt see how to set up my phone to there though. I mean the options where there but it wasnt easy to follow. Also I finally got the activsync installed on this laptop. It runs bad. Think its cuz I got Vista running. It actually runs this windows mobile or whatever. Anyhow Do I need to do that dotfred.net right away? I mean im computer savvy but I havent done much with the 6700 and my now 6800 when it comes to installing programs and stuff. I really want to use it more. So Please be patient with me and help me get this running then I will be able to help others with theirs. Thanks....

I cant find that damn pst file. I guess I need to know where that is until i get all this other stuff working right. Thanks.

Re: Syncing Contacts - Outlook - other options HELP?
 

This was the easiest and so far most effective backup software I have used yet. Now I just have to hope that I can transfer everything to my ppc-6800 when I get it in the mail since I have been using the 6700.
Thanks again

Re: Syncing Contacts - Outlook - other options HELP?
 

Thanks for this thread. Exactly what I'm looking for!

Re: Syncing Contacts - Outlook - other options HELP?
 

You've got a lot of solid options here. Dashwire keeps the contacts on your phone in sync with what we store in the cloud. You can't export contacts to PC, but you can access your private account from any web browser.

Data plan strongly recommended, though you can still sync via Wi-Fi, USB, or Bluetooth.