Tag Nokia

I can honestly state that BlackBerry Z10 sucks big time when it comes to importing your contacts from another non-BlackBerry device. I've been struggling to transfer my contacts from Nokia 6303 to the Z10 for one day.

I tried a simple sync of the contacts from Nokia to Z10 over Bluetooth but that failed miserably, telling me the Z10 doesn't support this functionality. This is what to do:

• On Nokia - Settings - Sync and backup - Create backup;
• Then navigate to Apps - Extras - Memory card - Backup files;
• Select the most recent backup file, e.g. Backup000.NBF and transfer it via Bluetooth (or USB cable) to my laptop;

For the record: this is a ZIP file with different extension. I've tried also to transfer it to the Z10 and open from File manager but to no avail.

• Just unzip the file on the computer;
• When extracted it will create multiple directories with meaningless names. Just find whatever you need - in my case this was the contacts/ directory containing hundreds of .vcf files;
• Combine all the .vcf files into one. On Linux this is done with

  cat *.vcf > ../all.vcf
  

For the record: I've tried also sending all of these files to Z10. Via the File manager individual vCards open just fine but you need to Save them one by one. The combined vCard file didn't display correctly at all. Showed only one contact.

• Then go to Gmail (or any other CardDAV service) and import all your vCards. Go to Contacts - More - Import - and select the combined vCard file since Gmail doesn't support multi-file uploads;

• On your BlackBerry go to Settings - Accounts and add your Gmail account. By default this will create profiles for mail, calendar and contacts which will be synchronized with the device.

WARNING I had my Gmail previously configured on the Z10. Despite the account was configured to re-sync every 15 minutes it took around 2 hours for phone numbers to sync. And to make it worse there is no button for manual re-sync.

All of this done I have thousands of contacts on my Z10 spread across phone numbers, emails, vCards and contacts from social networks. I've noticed some of them (my guess those that had the same email or name) combined auto-magically. The rest can easily be linked together using the Contacts app Link functionality.

For the record: It is also possible to send vCards one by one directly from Nokia to Z10 via Bluetooth. The trouble is that for every entry you need to go through several layers of menu options and confirmations. This makes it impractical.

Summary

• Importing hundreds of contacts from Nokia to BlackBerry Z10 is MIA;
• BB Contacts app (and BB Hub) is cool but has some bugs;
• Needs manual contact re-sync button;
• Gmail re-sync took longer than expected;

• Contacts Link feature can be improved and made more easy to use, e.g.

  • grid style display
  • multiple select and link
  • swipe and link, etc;

• The current Link interface is sub-optimal

  • select a contact
  • tap Links
  • tap Add Link
  • tap Search
  • type and find the entries you'd like to link;

• The current Link interface is buggy - when searching contacts to add as links it shows the currently opened contact too. Luckily it doesn't crash when the same entry is selected :). I've tried.

This is with OS Version 10.0.10.261.

Posted by Alexander Todorov on Sun 14 July 2013

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During the past month one of my cell phones, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic , was not showing the caller name when a friend was calling. The number in the contacts list was correct but the name wasn't showing, nor the custom assigned ringing tone. It turned out to be a bug!

The story behind this is that accidentally the same number was saved again in the contacts list, but without a name assigned to it. The software was matching the later one, so no custom ringing tone, no name shown. Removing the duplicate entry fixed the issue. Software version of this phone is

v 21.0.025
RM-356
02-04-09

I wondered what will happen with multiple duplicates and if this was fixed in a later software version so I tested with another phone, Nokia 6303. Software version is

V 07.10
25-03-10
RM-638

• Step 0 - add the number to the contacts list, with name Buddy 1
• Step 1 - add the same number to the contacts, with empty name. Result: You get a warning this number is already present for Buddy 1! When receiving a call, Buddy 1 is displayed.
• Step 2 - edit the empty name contact and change the name to Buddy 2. Result: when receiving a call Buddy 2 is displayed.
• Step 3 - add the same number again, with name Buddy 0. This is the latest entry but it is sorted before the previous two (this is important). Result: You get a warning that this number is already present for Buddy 1 and Buddy 2. When receiving a call Buddy 0 is displayed.

Summary: so it looks like Nokia fixed the issue with empty names, by simply ignoring them but when multiple duplicate contacts are available it displays the name of the last entered in the contact list, independent of name sort order.

Later today or tomorrow I will test on Nokia 700 which runs Symbian OS and update this post with more results.

Updated on 2013-03-19 23:50

Finally managed to test on Nokia 700. Software version is:

Release
Nokia Belle Feature pack 1
Software version
112.010.1404
Software version date
2012-03-30
Type
RM-670

Result: If a duplicate contact entry is present it doesn't matter if the name is empty or not. Both times no name was displayed when receiving a call. Looks like Nokia is not paying attention to regressions at all.

Android and iPhone

I don't own any Android or iPhone devices so I'm not able to test on them. If you have one, please let me know if this bug is still present and how does the software behave when multiple contacts share the same number or have empty names! Thanks!

Posted by Alexander Todorov on Tue 19 March 2013

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